Niningka Lewis

2018, acrylic and burnt etching on plywood
15 x 15 x 6 (hexaptych)
Cat No WBS608-18

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Punu – Living Wood
Maruku Arts

Niningka Lewis is an artist whose creative innovation is loved by many. Niningka resides at Mutitjulu in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and is a leading wood etcher and carver with Maruku Arts. She also works with Tjanpi Desert Weavers, sculpting and weaving native grass artefacts.

Niningka vividly remembers the initial contact of the Pitjantjatjara of this area with white Presbyterian ministers. The first community was established around a sheep station at Ernabella in the late 1930s. Coinciding with a severe drought, it drew people like Niningka and her family to settle there from hundreds of miles to the west where the conditions were extreme. Support was given to Anangu with provisions and employment, and also to retain their language and local culture. For most of Niningka's upbringing she lived a life alternating between traditional bush living and adapting to the new conditions and all the changes they brought.

– MARUKU ARTS