Elsie Numina

Elsie Numina comes from the Utopia region in Central Australia, she speaks both Anmatyerre and Alyawarre which are the two most common Aboriginal languages from the region. Elsie’s main Dreamings involve Bush Tucker and stories of women ancestors.

Central Art began working with Elsie back in 2006 and acquired two bush tucker Dreaming paintings. These artworks demonstrated traditional Aboriginal iconography of women digging for assorted bush tucker, particularly plants and edible bush berries such as bush orange and tomato. Elsie uses a fine dotting technique as the background for her artworks, drawing the viewers eye to the primary focus of her artworks, the representation of women gathering bush foods.

Elsie has been involved in several community projects over the last few years. She was involved in developing a sign language DVD for Willowra Community, titled “Iltyeme-Iltyeme-Akake”. On this DVD Elsie was one of eight women from Willowra who sign and speak in their traditional languages. Elsie uses the Anmatyerre language on the DVD. The vocabulary on the DVD includes important Aboriginal concepts of kinship terms, animals and plants, pronouns, actions and time expressions.

In 2013 she was also involved in the “The Forkleaf Project” which was a joint venture between Batchelor Insistute and Muk Muk Fine Arts Gallery in Alice Springs. The exhibition pieces were chosen based on their connection with corkwood trees and fine forked leaves that can be found around Central Australia. It brings together prints on fabric and upholstery, ceramics and beadwork. Participants were selected based on their involvement as students with Batchelor Institute’s arts program. In this exhibition one of Elsie’s designs was used in a dress.