Jacinta Numina Napananka / Medicine Leaves (JN135)

Jacinta Numina was born at Stirling Station, a cattle station near Tennant Creek, NT in 1967 and is niece to the acclaimed Petyarre sisters from Utopia. In the early eighties she started painting with a group of lady elders from the Utopia region. The central theme of her artwork relates to her knowledge of the Anmatyerre Womens Law and her country.

In 1996, Jacinta moved to Darwin to formally study art at Charles Darwin University and completed her Associate Degree in Art and Design in 2003. The next year saw Jacinta complete her traineeship in printmaking and she was then appointed as a fulltime printmaker at Northern Editions.

Jacinta paints mainly on canvas but she has also painted artefacts such as shields, coolamons and didgeridoos.

The Western desert has an extreme dry climate. The summer is hot with temperatures often exceeding forty degrees Celsius. In winter the nights are freezing cold from June to August. During the droughts, vegetation is sparse and only spinifex and mulga shrubs subsist though they appear withered and lifeless.

After the infrequent rain the desert landscape is transformed. The dried out spinifex flower resembles a field of wheat and the mulga shrub bears green dense foliage and masses of bright yellow flowers. Growing amongst these plants is an abundance of wildflowers that turns the deep red coloured desert floor into a utopian garden.

The Bush Medicine Plant is an Australian native that grows wild in Central Australia. Women collect leaves from these plants, which are boiled to extract resin. Kangaroo fat is mixed into the resin, creating a paste that can be stored for a long time in bush conditions. This medicine is used to heal cuts, wounds, bites and rashes. It is also used to treat the flu, headache, backache, upset stomach, chest pains or as an insect repellent. As the leaves and petals dry out they fall off and are blown around by the wind. This is represented in the painting and gives it the movement.