Jill Clingan was born in Sydney. From an early age Clingan displayed artistic talent. She won a scholarship to study art at East Sydney Technical College but switched to a career in nursing. For over thirty years she studied and worked in the nursing profession in Sydney, the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea and in Canberra. She trained in nursing at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, gaining certificates in General Nursing and Midwifery, nursed at the Royal Canberra Hospital, and gained a further certificate in Infant and Child Health. Miss Clingan then undertook studies at the New South West Baptist Bible College for a Deaconess and Missions Diploma which fired her interest in studying for a degree in linguistics and anthropology. She moved to Papua New Guinea to work as a nurse for the Australian Baptist Mission in the Tinsley Hospital (later Health Centre), on the Baiyer River, 35 miles from Mt Hagen in the Western Highlands, for a two year term, 1971-1973. There she had a little time for sketching and painting and, by selling some of her paintings, was able to travel home via Madang and Lae. Working in Canberra, Miss Clingan gained a fourth certificate in community nursing. She also travelled extensively in the Indian sub-continent, Southeast Asia, China, Hungary and western Europe as well as the Middle East, and developed her artistic skills, publishing her sketches and drawings of the Greek Islands, exhibiting her works and fulfilling commissioned works. Since then she has travelled in Anatolia, Iran and Central Asia, gleaning more ideas for art and broadening further her areas of interest. In 1999, Clingan completed her degree in linguistics and anthropology and commenced an enlargement of her degree work in anthropology, on the indigenisation of Christianity in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea following a short return visit there in 1999.
From the description of Papers, photographs, sketches and research documents relating to the Australian Baptist Mission in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea, 1952-1999 [microform]. [1952-1999] (Libraries Australia). WorldCat record id: 667576266
