Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country)

A respected senior woman and artist at Iwantja Arts, Betty Muffler’s practice spans painting, drawing, printmaking and tjanpi (native grass) weaving. She is a renowned ngangkari (traditional healer), a practice handed down through her father’s side and taught to her by her aunties. Alongside a rigorous art practice, she works extensively with Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council and medical practitioners to support Anangu to good health and through times of crisis. Drawing on personal experience, Muffler’s work questions how we care for one another and sentient land. A recurring theme is the healing of Country and Anangu in the aftermath of British atomic weapons testing at Maralinga and Emu Field.

Maringka Burton is also a respected senior artist working at Iwantja Arts who maintains a prolific practice across painting and tjanpi (native grass) weaving. She was born near the site of the Anamara (caterpillar) Tjukurpa, south of Irrunytju (Wingellina). Burton is a highly regarded ngangkari (traditional healer), having been guided in this practice by her father, Charlie Tjalkuriny (Charlie Burton). Her ngangkari work involves extensive travel and working alongside doctors and nurses to support Anangu patients in hospitals and clinics.

This work serves to document the unseen connections Anangu have with Country, transcending Western concepts of time, space and being. Built up from black backgrounds, the painting can be viewed as a nocturnal landscape that refer to the journeys of the ngangkari, who travel in their sleep to meet and treat patients in need of healing.