Anita Ratara is a senior artist at Hermannsburg Potters and is regarded for her confident & colourful painting of Country.

Anita was 'born bush' in the alukura (women's camp) near Hermannsburg in 1943. She is the mother of prominent potter Hayley Coulthard. Anitas youngest daughter Alizha is an emerging artist.

She attended the Hermannsburg Mission school, and later went on to work in the clinic, teaching the young mother's who had children. She also recalls making moccasins, or 'fancy work', for the missionaries.

As a young woman, Anita showed natural ability in the arts and crafts, teaching herself to paint from an early age. She recalls being taught pottery by Naomi Sharp in the early 1990s, when the pottery program was located at the outstations. Anita continues today residing mostly at her outstation, Ipalala, today, but travels into the Pottery most days to continue her love of working with clay.

Anita mostly depicts Palm Valley in her work, of which she is a Traditional Owner. Palm Valley is Anita's grandfather's Country, and she continues to assert her links with her Country through her art.