Niningka Lewis

2019, acrylic and burnt etching on plywood
20 x 50 cm
Cat No WB770-19

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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.

This is Niningka’s outstation on her grandfathers country at Malara near the WA, SA and NT borders. Lying on the road from Amata to Pipalyatjara, a new homestead was built there to allow Niningka and her families to spend more time on their ancestral country.

It is a place of significant Wanampi Tjukurpa. Wanampi are powerful water serpents which inhabit and protect water holes. They are evidenced at Malara by the rock formation to the north of the homestead. In the Creation Time, a group of Wati Liru or poisonous snake men marched in battle across the lands as far afield as Uluru and Kata Tjuta. They arrived back in Malara in human form and rested for a while by the fire before taking becoming Wanampi and disappearing into the ground.

– MARUKU ARTS