Sharon Numina Napanangka / Body Paint and Bush Melons (SHN101)

Sharon Numina is an Anmatyerre artist and one of six sisters and three brothers. Her mother is artist Barbara Pananka Mbitjana. Born in 1981, she went to primary school at Stirling Station, a cattle station near Tennant Creek where she began painting at a young age, taking guidance from her world renowned aunties Gloria and Kathleen Petyarre. She later moved to Darwin with her family and continued her studies at Charles Darwin University where she obtained a degree in fine arts.

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

Body Paint and Bush Melons comprises large and small patches or circles of colour strewn across the canvas. This dreaming tells the story of the sweet bush tucker that comes from a very small bush and is only found in Atnwengerrp. Once very abundant and fruiting in the summer it is now very hard to find. The women used to collect this fruit and scrape out the small black seeds. They would then eat the fruit immediately or cut it into pieces and skewer them onto a piece of wood and dry them to be eaten in the coming months when bush tucker was scarce.

During the ceremonies the women will paint their bodies and breasts in various designs which represent the particular ceremony being performed. Mostly these are curved or straight lines, including circles and squares.

This painting depicts the various ceremonial sites, the bush melons and the women’s breasts which are painted with body paint designs.