Lanita Numina Napanangka / My Country (LN110)

Born: c. 1965
Community: Utopia, Central Desert
Outstation: Stirling Station
Language: Anmatyerre

Lanita is from Sterling Station which is Anmatyarre country near Alice Springs and Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory of Australia. She was born in the desert homelands and doesn’t know her birth date. She is now living in Darwin along with her sisters Caroline, Jacinta, Louise and Sharon, also talented artists.

The sisters were all taught to paint by their mother, Barbara Mbitjana, and their famous aunties, Kathleen and Gloria Petyarre. One of Lanita’s paintings was presented as a wedding gift to Princess Mary and Prince Frederick (now Queen Mary and King Frederick of Denmark) by the Danish community of Darwin, NT

The style of artwork belongs to her desert people of Central Australia. Her art themes represent body markings for women’s ceremonies and stories of hunting and gathering in their traditional country.

In My Country, Lanita Numina paints a topographical view of her homelands, showing the paths, rivers, waterholes, hills, salt lakes, and stony country where women gather bush medicine leaves, seeds, and bush fruits. The ‘U’ shapes represent women—past initiates and those awaiting instruction—gathered for ceremonies involving song, dance, and body decoration.

Symbols throughout the work show ceremonial sites, travel routes, and the plants used for bush medicine, whose leaves are boiled to make healing remedies. The flowing designs capture the movement of leaves and petals in the wind, reflecting the life, culture, and traditions passed through women’s business and connection to country.