Collection: Caroline Numina

DOB:   November 1971

Birthplace:   Ti Tree, NT

Skin name:   Napanangka

Language:   Anmatyere

Country:   Atnangkere

Community:   Darwin, NT

Caroline Numina was born in Ti Tree, 190km north of Alice Springs in Central Australia and grew up on Stirling Station, south of Tennant Creek. She belongs to a lineage of desert painters from the Utopia region involved in the contemporary Aboriginal art and dot central desert movement.

With her five sisters—Jacinta, Lanita, Louise, Selina, and Sharon Numina—who are also artists from Utopia, Caroline learned painting from her mother, grandmothers, aunties on her mother’s side, and cousins in the Central Desert region, as well as aunties on her father's side, who are recognized Aboriginal artists Gloria and Kathleen Petyarre.

Women from the Petyerre, Mambitji, and Numina families are custodians and knowledge keepers of stories such as Bush Medicine Leaves, Seeded Bush Medicine Leaves, Bush Tucker, Leaves, Soakage, Thorny Lizard Dreaming, and Women's Ceremony.

Caroline developed her skill and became a respected artist, selling her work through galleries in Alice Springs and across the Northern Territory, including Darwin where she moved in 1995 and currently resides. She frequently visits family in Utopia and the Central Desert, which significantly influences her work.

Caroline is now based in Darwin with her sisters who are also emerging painters. She continues to connect with her country by collecting bush tucker and teaching her children about traditional plant uses and edible fruits.