Biography

Jeanie Napangardi Lewis was born around 1950 on her ancestral homelands near Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay) in the Northern Territory. Jeanie’s traditional country is Mina Mina, west of Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 kms north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia and close to Mount Doreen Station. Jeanie’s family lived in and around Mina Mina before moving to Yuendumu, and then Nyirrpi where she has lived for many years. She has two sisters, Phyllis and Valerie and two children, a son Eric and a daughter Minnie Napangardi. She is now married to Mickey Jampijinpa Singleton, an artist who also paints with Warlukurlangu Artists. Jeanie has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation since 2005, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu. She paints her Dreaming stories but the one that features constantly is Mina Mina Jukurrpa (Mina Mina Dreaming). Her paintings are of her country. In her paintings she depicts birds, trees and bush potatoes around small waterholes in Mina Mina. She continues to paint through the art centre whenever she visits Yuedumu from Nyirrip or when canvas and paint is dropped off in Nyirripi for artists working with Warlukurlangu.

Artist statement: 

Mina Mina is my grandmother’s country. I paint her Jukurrpa. Kanakurlangu. Women’s Dreaming. The women who danced and pierced the ground. They danced and made the land. Mina Mina – soakages, lake, sandhills and too many trees.  They made that country. My grandmother gave me her Jukurrpa. They taught me, by painting designs me in ceremony. We danced and sang that country and now I hold the responsibility. Today I paint Mina Mina on canvas. I learnt to paint by watching and now mark out the Jukurrpa in my own way.  This is my country. I danced this Jukurrpa, at Mina Mina, next to my sisters. We were lined up, our feet firmly on the ground. The sand between our toes. As we moved across the sand, we sang the country. Following the tracks of the women that came before us. We danced in unison. I know and hold that Jukurrpa.  (When I dance, I dance for Money. You want to give me any money Nangala?)

Mina Mina is country rich and plentiful.  Bursting with bush tucker –  big yams, desert raisons, tomato and truffle. I miss being at Mina Mina, my home.  I think about digging in the sand for goanna’s, collecting those little berries and fruit. I remember when I was a young girl and we lived on the land, walking and travelling with my family. I feel a deep homesickness for that place and cry for my family and the time when we lived on the ground.  I think about them as I slowly paint the designs and dot my canvas. All the people we have lost. I am one of the last ones from that time. My sister and I. We are holding onto and remembering Mina Mina