Niningka Lewis

Niningka Lewis was born in 1945, out bush near Areyonga, in the Northern Territory. She grew up in Pukatja (Ernabella), South Australia, where she attended school and later worked in the Ernabella craft room, learning to spin wool and weave floor rugs, and make batik. Niningka was a celebrated multi-disciplinary artist, creating fibre art for Tjanpi Desert Weavers, punu work for Maraku Arts and canvas painting for Ernabella Arts. Her work was exhibited in many major art institutions in Australia, and was most recently shown in the exhibitions Sappers and Shrapnel: Contemporary Art and the Art of the Trenches and Nganampa Kililpil: Our Stars—Art from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, in 2016, and Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, in 2018. Niningka sadly passed away in November 2020, and this article has been approved by her family as a fitting memorial.