Lanita Numina
About Lanita
Lanita Numina is one of the middle sisters of the six well known desert artists. She has two brothers; her father is passed on and her mum still paints from time to time. Like her sisters Lanita went to primary school on Stirling Station near Tennant Creek. Like her sisters and mother, she comes from a long line of desert painters of the contemporary Aboriginal art and dot-dot central desert movement.
Lanita lived with her mother and aunties on Stirling Station near Ti Tree. She started painting later than her older sisters. Lanita was taught by her older sisters as well as her other sisters she was surrounded by her well renowned painter aunties: Gloria and Kathleen Petyarre, who are well established artists in Alice Springs. Lanita primarily lives with her sisters in Darwin and travels home to visit her mother Barbara Price Mtjimbana or to bring her mother to Darwin to visit them all.
About the artwork
In this painting, Lanita paints her original interpretation of the Women’s Ceremonies (Awelye). This story illustrates women (represented by the “U” shapes) gathering around traditional meeting places to perform the Awelye, where women would paint their bodies and dance, sing, and discuss matters such as family and bush foods. This was a time of sacred connection, coming together and an honoring of the feminine. This was strictly Women’s Business and would not be performed in the presence of men.
