Betty Muffler is an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

artist and

ngangkari Ngangkari are the traditional healers of the Aṉangu, Anangu, the Aboriginal Australian, Aboriginal peoples who live mostly in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY Lands) of South Australia and the Western Desert cultural bloc, Weste ...

(healer). She is a senior artist at

Iwantja Arts Indulkana (also known as Iwantja, from Iwantja Creek) is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands" (the others being Pukatja, Amata ...

, in

Indulkana Indulkana (also known as Iwantja, from Iwantja Creek) is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands" (the others being Pukatja, Amata ...

in Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY Lands),

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, known for a series of works on large

linen Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is very strong and absorbent, and it dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. Lin ...

canvases called ''Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country)''.

Early life

Muffler was born near

Watarru Watarru Community is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands in South Australia (one of a number of communities or homelands on "The Lands"; others include Amata, Ernabella/Pukatja, Fregon/Kaltjiti, ...

, South Australia, in 1944, of the

Pitjantjatjara The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are v ...

and

Yankunytjatjara The Yankunytjatjara people, also written Yankuntjatjarra, Jangkundjara, and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of South Australia. Language Yankunytjatjara is a Western Desert language belonging to the Wati lan ...

peoples. She refers to a place called Yalungu, south of Waturru, as her land, where emus visit a waterhole. She grew up at the Ernabella Mission in

Pukatja Pukatja (formerly Ernabella, ) is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands" (the others being Amata, Pipalyatjara, Fregon/ Kaltji ...

in the aftermath of the

British nuclear tests at Maralinga British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and cultur ...

and

Operation Totem Operation Totem was a pair of British atmospheric nuclear tests which took place at Emu Field in South Australia in October 1953. They followed the Operation Hurricane test of the first British atomic bomb, which had taken place at the Montebe ...

Emu Field Emu Field (also Emu Junction or simply Emu) is the site of Operation Totem, a pair of nuclear tests conducted by the British Government in South Australia during October 1953. The site was surveyed by Len Beadell in 1952. A village and ai ...

in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Seeing the deaths and dislocation caused by the tests has inspired much of her artwork, and she has expressed healing as a recurrent theme in her work.

Artistic career

Muffler only started to paint late in life, joining the artists at Iwantja Arts in Indulkana. She works in several mediums, notably

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...

and

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

. Her personal

tjukurpa The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal mythology. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his ...

(a complex concept, often translated as The Dreaming) is the

emu The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Dromaius'' and the ...

, but her artwork also embodies other elements of her culture's tjukurpa. Many of her paintings are identically titled, ''Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country)'', and use

acrylic paint Acrylic paint is a fast-drying paint made of pigment suspended in acrylic polymer emulsion and plasticizers, silicone oils, defoamers, stabilizers, or metal soaps. Most acrylic paints are water-based, but become water-resistant when dry. Dep ...

. They all depict her

Country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

, and a connection to her

songline A songline, also called dreaming track, is one of the paths across the land (or sometimes the sky) within the animist belief systems of the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal cultures of Australia. They mark the route followed by localised "crea ...

s. She attended law and culture events held by the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women’s Council, where she learnt to weave

tjanpi ''Triodia'' is a large genus of hummock grass endemic to Australia. The species of this genus are known by the common name spinifex, although they are not a part of the coastal genus '' Spinifex''. Many soft-leaved ''Triodia'' species were form ...

baskets, subsequently making large baskets for

Tjanpi Desert Weavers Tjanpi Desert Weavers is a social enterprise of the NPY Women's Council, representing over 400 women from 26 unique communities in the NPY (Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara) region. Tjanpi is the Pitjantjatjara word for a type o ...

. Muffler won "Best emerging artist" at the

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) is Australia's longest running Indigenous art award. Established in 1984 as the National Aboriginal Art Award by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin ...

(aka NATSIAA awards) in 2017, with ''Ngangkaṟi Ngura (Healing Country)''.

Nici Cumpston Nicole Jane "Nici" Cumpston is an Australian art photographer, painter, curator, writer, and educator. After being appointed inaugural curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) in 2008, ...

, curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art and artistic director of the

Tarnanthi Tarnanthi (pronounced tar-nan-dee) is a Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art held in Adelaide, South Australia, annually. Presented by the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) in association with the South Austra ...

exhibitions at the

Art Gallery of South Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...

(AGSA) in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, regards Muffler's "meteoric rise" as well-deserved, and included Muffler's work in the 2020 ''Open Hands'' exhibition, which was dedicated to the work of senior women artists in remote communities. Muffler's work was featured on the cover of the September 2020 issue of ''

Vogue Australia ''Vogue'' ''Australia'' is the Australian edition of '' Vogue'' magazine. Prior to becoming a stand-alone edition, the Australian edition operated as a supplement to British Vogue from 1952. The magazine is published by News Corp under a licence f ...

'', in the form of specially-commissioned work, another iteration of ''Ngangkaṟi Ngura (Healing Country)''. The work was commissioned in collaboration with the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

, during the early months of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia was a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first confirmed case in Aust ...

, as part of a global campaign called "Vogue Hope". The work featured on ''Vogue'' was hung in the '' Know My Name'' exhibition at the

, having been gifted to the gallery by ''Vogue Australia''.

Healing practice

Her traditional healing, or ngangkari, practice was taught to her by her aunties on her father's side of the family, and she uses her healing talents to work with the NPY Women’s Council and other medical practitioners on the APY Lands. She has also worked in hospitals in Adelaide,

Coober Pedy Coober Pedy () is a town in northern South Australia, north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. A blower truck ...

Whyalla Whyalla is a city in South Australia. It was founded as Hummock's Hill, and was known by that name until 1916. It is the fourth most populous city in the Australian state of South Australia after Adelaide, Mount Gambier, and Gawler, and along ...

and

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

, helping to heal the spirits of anangu. She says that she doesn't always need to travel physically to the person, because her eagle spirit can fly across the desert looking for sick people. Her renown as a healer caused high demand for her work during the COVID-19 pandemic, to help heal anxiety in the APY Lands.

Other roles

Muffler is a director for Iwantja Arts, and a cultural advisor to the APY Collective, which comprises ten

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

-owned artistic enterprises.

Recognition and awards

*2017: Winner, Telstra Emerging Artist Award at the

(NATSIAA) *2018: Finalist, John Fries Award *2020: Finalist,

Wynne Prize The Wynne Prize is an Australian landscape painting or figure sculpture art prize. As one of Australia's longest-running art prizes, it was established in 1897 from the bequest of Richard Wynne. Now held concurrently with the Sir John Sulman Prize ...

at the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...

*2022: Winner, Telstra General Painting Award at NATSIAA

Collections and exhibitions

Australian War Memorial The Australian War Memorial (AWM) is a national war memorial, war museum, museum and archive dedicated to all Australians who died as a result of war, including peacekeeping duties. The AWM is located in Campbell, Australian Capital Territory, C ...

, ''Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country)'' (2017) *

2020: ''Open Hands'' at the

, ''Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country)'' (2020), a series of paintings *''The National 2021: New Australian Art'' at the

, ''Ngangkaṟi Ngura (Healing Country)'' (2020), with Maringka Burton

Personal life

Muffler married a man from Iwantja, and has two sons and a daughter there as well as family in

, and many grandchildren.

References

External links

* 2:11 minutes. Vogue Covers, ''

'', 23 September 2020. Filmed by

Closer Productions Closer Productions is a film and television production company founded by filmmakers Sophie Hyde and Bryan Mason in Adelaide, South Australia, in January 2004. It is known for award-winning feature films such as ''52 Tuesdays'' (2013) and ''Ani ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Muffler, Betty Australian Aboriginal artists 1944 births Living people Artists from South Australia 21st-century Australian women artists 21st-century Australian painters Pitjantjatjara people