Sharon Numina
Sharon Numina, born in 1981, received her education at Kormilda College in Darwin. She is one of six sisters and two brothers. Sharon's mother, Barbara Price Mbtitjana, an Elder painter and cultural figure from Stirling Station near Tennant Creek, imparted painting skills to all her daughters. Sharon, a Numina Sister Desert artist member, resides in Darwin with her older sisters.
Sharon's late father hailed from Utopia. The narratives depicted in Sharon's artwork, such as Bush Tucker, Goanna, Dingo Tracks, and others, draw from her parents' Country and Dreaming totems and cultural knowledge stories.
Sharon, her sisters, and their mother are part of a lineage of desert painters within the contemporary Aboriginal art and dot-dot central desert movement. They are descendants of esteemed painter aunties Gloria and Kathleen Petyerre, well-established artists in Alice Springs.
The painting portrays Bush Medicine Leaves, sourced from an indigenous Australian plant that grows wild in Central Australia. Women gather leaves from these plants in various locations around Utopia, which are then boiled to extract resin. This resin is combined with kangaroo fat to create a long-lasting paste suitable for bush conditions. The resulting medicinal paste is utilized for treating cuts, wounds, bites, and rashes and as an insect repellent.
In her depiction of "Bush Medicine," Sharon pays tribute to the resilience of the medicinal plant, expressing hope for its regeneration to enable continued access to its therapeutic properties.
