HIGH HOPES
VOGUE AUSTRALIA in collaboration with the National Gallery of Australia For artist Betty Muffler, her paintings are more than just works of art, they are compelling depictions of Country, a Country that needs healing. Muffler is a Ngangkaṟi , an Indigenous Australian traditional healer with a potent gift who can heal through the power of her spirit and touch. And now, after Australia’s worst fire season on record followed by the global Covid-19 pandemic and racial divisions at both a global and local level, Ngangkaṟi are more vital than ever to heal the hearts and spirits of their people and community.
Ngangkaṟi are traditional healers from the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Lands in the remote western desert of Central Australia who have practised their gift from time immemorial. Using their energy, they look after the physical and spiritual wellbeing of their people and community. As they work, they remove the negative energy from the body.
Muffler’s Ngangkaṟi healing spirit is a tjulpu (bird), sometimes seen as an eagle. As well as moving her hands over a person’s body to remove bad energy, while in transient sleep she will send her tjulpu spirit to people across the desert to those who are in need of healing.
As a senior cultural woman from the Indulkana community in remote north-west South Australia, Muffler is renowned as one of the best Ngangkaṟi healers and has been in high demand as Indigenous communities deal with the impact of recent events.
Indigenous Australians’ connection to Country runs deeper than just physical. Through painting, Muffler inserts her healing power onto the canvas. She paints the stories of her Country (the land on which she was born) and (journeys) her spirit has embarked upon. She has used red natural earth pigment paint as the base of her painting, this represents her Country and is(rock holes), cascading into pools when it rains on her Country. The same energy captured by the gestures of water movement in the painting is the energy that Muffler sees in people with good energy; it is also the energy that Muffler uses to heal others.
