Janie was born by Nyimi Rockhole near Kulkutja, 'no house, no hospital' and as a young woman she lived with her family in the bush living a traditional semi-nomadic life. She was a teenager when her family walked into the Warburton Mission to settle.
She has been painting since the early 1990s and uses the dotting style to paint her country. Her daughter Marlene Young Nungurrayi is also an artist who paints Minyma Tjukurrpa, Women’s Creation Stories.