"My Country Dreaming" by Sharon Numina Napanangka

About Sharon

Sharon Numina, born in 1981, attended Kormilda College in Darwin. She is one of six sisters and two brothers. Her mother, Barbara Price Mbtitjana, a seasoned painter and cultural elder from Stirling Station near Tennant Creek, encouraged all her daughters to paint. Sharon is recognised as one of the younger painters among the talented Numina Sisters desert artists and resides in Darwin with her elder sisters.

Sharon's late father hailed from Utopia. The stories she paints about Bush Tucker, Goanna, Dingo Tracks, and other subject matters reflect her parents' Country, Dreaming totems, and cultural narratives.

Sharon, along with her sisters and mother, belongs to a rich lineage of desert painters within the contemporary Aboriginal art scene and the dot-dot central desert movement, influenced by well-known painter aunties Gloria and Kathleen Petyerre, both established artists in Alice Springs.

About the artwork

My Country relates to harvesting seeds used for making flour and damper, a staple food of traditional life. Seeds were valued and spread around watering places to encourage bountiful growth of native plants. Bush Medicine Leaves refers to the plants harvested for traditional medicine practices, often to boil the leaves in water over a fire.

Water Dreaming relates to the critical knowledge of waterholes, including the Creation stories tied to those places and how the stories link the water sites. Dingo Dreaming and Emu Dreaming are the final two of the five stories related to Creation stories and the role of native fauna in the traditions of the Anmatyerre people.