Sharon Numina Napanangka / Medicine Leaves (19C)

Born: 1981
Community: Utopia, Central Desert
Outstation: Stirling Station
Language: Anmatyerre

Sharon Numina is an Anmatyerre artist and one of six sisters and three brothers. Her mother is artist Barbara Pananka Mbitjana. 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 her four sisters, Jacinta, Lanita, Louise and Caroline Numina, who are also well respected artists from Utopia.

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.