Louise Numina Napananka / Milkyway Dreaming (1A)

Louise Numina was born in 1976 and is an Anmatyerre artist from Ti Tree, 190km North of Alice Springs in Central Australia. She grew up on Stirling Station, a cattle station south of Tennant Creek along with her six sisters and three brothers, where she attended primary school and later moved to Alice Springs to attend Yirara College.

After she completed her school studies Louise moved back to Stirling station and worked with the Community Development Program. Her aunties, very famous artists, Gloria and Kathleen Petyerre taught Louise to paint in 1981 and she sold her art through galleries in Alice Springs and across the Northern Territory up to Darwin, where she eventually moved in 1995.

Louise studied art at Nungalinya College and has a Diploma of Fine Arts from the Northern Territory University. Her art has been exhibited throughout Australia and is popular with art dealers and collectors worldwide.

Louise lives in Darwin with her sisters, Jacinta, Lanita, Caroline and Sharon Numina, who are also well respected artists.

In the Dreamtime a group of seven Napaltjarri women were being pursued by a Jakamarra man called Jilbi. He had been sitting in a cave at Yirlkirdi practicing love magic by cutting off his long hair and weaving it by hand onto a wooden spindle, then performing songs and dances which people from far off could hear. Often he would entice young women to come to his cave and live with him. Jakamarra men were very proud of their successes when they practiced this magic, and spent much time boasting among themselves about their prowess.

The seven women had no intention of sleeping with the Jakamarra man and ran away from him, journeying a long way across the desert until they were too tired and hungry to go any further. They sat down at Uluru to search for honey ants, then when they saw Jilbi approaching went to a place called Kurlunyalimpa, and changed themselves into seven fires. With the help of spirits at Uluru they went up into the sky to become stars. Ever since then they can be seen as a cluster of seven stars in the constellation Taurus, known as the Pleiades. Jilbi transformed himself into the Morning Star in Orion’s belt, and continues to chase the Pleiades across the sky.