Hear from Ngiyampaa curator and writer Erin Vink in this talk exploring Betty Muffler's practice
Senior Anangu artist and ngangkari (traditional healer) Betty Muffler is based at Indulkana in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands of South Australia. Working with acrylic paint and oil stick on linen, her paintings are informed by Country, healing and lived experience.
Gain a deeper understanding of Betty Muffler’s practice with Erin Vink, Senior Curator, First Nations Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, as she dives into the significance of the artist’s powerful monochromatic works, and why these works are so widely recognised today.
Tickets
$18 Adult
$12 Concession
Includes Art Museum entry
Art Museum ticket holders also free to attend
Dates & Times
14 November 2026
11am
Location
Bundanon Art Museum
170 Riversdale Road, Illaroo NSW 2540
Betty Muffler is an artist and highly respected senior woman and renowned ngangkari (traditional healer) who lives and works at Iwantja Arts in Indulkana, on the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands of South Australia.
Betty was born at Yalungu SA, a site associated with Kalaya Tjukurpa (emu ancestral creation story) and emus and their tracks are a recurring motif in her art. Betty grew up at various locations across the APY Lands, including the Ernabella Mission after her family members were impacted by the British nuclear testing at Maralinga and Emu Field.
Betty started working at Iwantja Arts in Indulkana later in life and has developed a distinctive multidisciplinary practice spanning painting, drawing, printmaking and tjanpi (native grass) weaving. Her artistic practice is deeply grounded in cultural knowledge, connection to Country and a lifelong commitment to healing and caring for community.
Erin Vink is a Ngiyampaa curator and writer, living and working on Gadigal/Sydney where she is Senior Curator, First Nations art (local and global) at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Her practice is concerned with interrogating the intersectionality of contemporary Indigenous art between Australian First Nations peoples and global Indigenous kin working across the Great Ocean region. Previously, she was the inaugural Indigenous curator of art for the Australian War Memorial, Kamberri/Canberra. A selection of her recent curatorial projects include Billy Bain: By the River (2026); Proximate Cosmologies (2026); High Colour (2025); Robert Fielding: Nyaru (2024, Canberra Glassworks); Daniel Boyd: Treasure Island (2022–23); The National 2021: New Australian Art (2021); and Exposure: Native Art and Political Ecology (2021–23, the Museum of Contemporary Native American Arts, Sante Fe). Erin is an alumnus of the National Gallery of Australia’s prestigious Indigenous Arts Leadership program (2019). Her writing has been published extensively, nationally and internationally.
