Betty is a senior cultural leader in Mimili Community. She knows a lot of storylines and the corresponding inma (song and dance). A lot of the inma is too be...
Betty is a senior cultural leader in Mimili Community. She knows a lot of storylines and the corresponding inma (song and dance). A lot of the inma is too be known by initiated women only, others can be celebrated by all. Betty loves to dance and teach the kids these stories that hold important lessons about the land and our relationship to it.
In her artwork, Betty paints Women's Story. This is a story that cannot be spoken about. The lines and markings on the canvas are the markings used as body painting in traditional song and dance. When inma is performed, there is separate songs, dances and paintings for men and women. Whilst the women dance, the men sit, sing and watch, and the other way around.
Betty lives in Mimili Community, home to 300 Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjattjara people who have been living in the area for millennia in harmony with nature and acting as custodians of the land and the Tjukurpa (creation stories). Mimili was formally known as Everard Park, which was a cattle station that was returned to Aboriginal ownership through the 1981 AP Lands Act. Mimili Community was incorporated as an Aboriginal Community in 1975.