'Janet Inyika was born in the Musgrave Ranges of South Australia. Her parents Tinimai and Jacob Puntaru were shepherds for Ernabella Mission. One of Janet’s earliest memories was from late 1953. Snuggled between her parents, they made an epic journey by moonlight, on the back of a donkey, escaping the fallout from the Totem 1 nuclear bomb at Emu Field, Maralinga. She attended Ernabella School, and was one of the first Anangu children learning how to read and write in Pitjantjatjara and English and to draw on paper. Later, Janet studied painting and batik in Ernabella. One of her batiks is on show at the National Gallery of Australia. She was also a consummate wood carver. She grew up, married and had her children in Amata. Despite being a busy young mother, she trained as a health worker at the Amata clinic which cared for the health of 300 Anangu. Assisting the National Trachoma and Eye Health Army field hospital in 1976, Janet said: “If we don’t work, we won’t learn”. The formation of the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council (NPYWC) in 1980 was a defining and empowering moment for Janet. For the next 36 years, she almost never missed a meeting. She became a staff member in the emotional and social wellbeing team, and later a director of the NPYWC. She campaigned over decades for renal dialysis services and against alcohol abuse and petrol sniffing, the scourge of the NPY lands. “Her family was being impacted by sniffing. She was seeing people die around her, become brain injured, disabled for life, and she put herself right in the middle of the fire,” NPYWC’s Andrea Mason said. Janet was influential in the development and rollout of non-sniffable, low-octane fuel. In 2005 she launched Opal fuel at the BP terminal in Adelaide - and in Amata. Petrol sniffing disappeared virtually overnight, sniffers gradually regained their health and estranged families reunited and reconciled. Her work ethic and tenacity earned her the nickname, ‘Mrs Never Give Up’ and, as a member of the Opal Alliance, the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence at the 2007 National Drug and Alcohol Awards. As she continued her artistic pursuits over the years, Janet’s abundant black hair turned white. She toured Australia for two years with the Ngapartji Ngapartji stage production at sold out shows. She sang soprano in a number of choirs and performed in Germany with the the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir. She kept their spirits up with her cheerful temperament. She produced baskets for NPYWC’s Tjanpi Desert Weavers social enterprise and joined the boards of Maruku Arts and Desart. Her last paintings were a series of autobiographical works about surviving Maralinga. She was a valued member of the management committee for the Katiti Petermann Indigenous Protected Area, participating in patch burning and cleaning rockholes. Janet never lost her passion and as a deeply respected senior law woman with a vast store of knowledge about the cultural and natural world she also advised the Ara Irititja digital archive project. Although terminally ill in 2016, she still braved the hot dust storms to attend what would be her last NPYWC meeting. In her last weeks, she was the guest of honor at the 10-year anniversary of the rollout of Opal fuel, her most cherished achievement. Janet passed away peacefully on the 30th of December (2016) in Amata, surrounded by close family.'
(Source : Land Rights News 2017)
