Manini Gumana lives at her homeland, Gängan, and is a member of Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre at Yirrkala, Arnhem Land.

Her father is Dhakawal #1 Gumana who died in 1994. His younger brother Gawirriṉ Gumana AO took a strong fatherly role, particularly in regards to art instruction to her and her younger brothers Yinimala and Djimiyapin. She is married to
and assists her Marrakulu clan artist husband Garawan Wanambi, and lives at her own clan land of Gäṉgaṉ. In 2009 she started to paint her own works, Dhalwangu clan images of the deeper ocean - Mungurru. She began to innovate from 2012
on. She was the first artist to apply the template or skeleton of the composition using just a marwat or thin brush made from human hair. Normally this was done with an ordinary brush and then marwat used to fill in cross hatch design. She
was also the first artist to use no earth pigments in the ground of the painting. She initiated the practice of applying the paint of the design to bare bark or wood. More recently she began mixing earth pigments with Gapan or white clay to create bright pastel natural colour ranges.
In 2019 Gumana's innovative pastel coloured larrakitj were included in the groundbreaking exhibition 'Gurrutu' for Tarnanthi at the Art Gallery of South Australia whom acquired the works.