Josina Pumani

Josina Pumani is a Pitjantjatjara artist from the Mimili community on the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in the far northwest of South Australia. She is now based in Adelaide with her family and works at the Collective Art Centre.

In early 2024, Pumani began working with clay, expanding her practice into ceramics. Through these hand‑built forms—rich with figurative elements, underglaze colour, and textured surfaces—she tells powerful and painful stories of Maralinga and Emu Field, sites of British nuclear testing during the mid‑1950s across remote northern South Australia. These tests inflicted profound and lasting harm on Aṉangu communities, including Pumani’s own family, whose lands, livelihoods, and wellbeing were irrevocably affected.

Pumani’s ceramic works embody the devastating movement of radioactive fallout across Country, expressing how its impact continues to be felt by Aṉangu people today. Her practice is both an assertion of cultural resilience and a testament to the enduring strength of her community’s stories and leadership.