Betty Mbitjana

DOB: c.1945
Born: UTOPIA, NORTHERN TERRITORY
SKIN NAME: MBITJANA/MPETYANE
LANGUAGE: ANMATYERRE

About Artist:
Betty Mbitjana is the daughter of renowned artist Minne Pwerle and the sister of artist Barbara
Weir. She is married to Paddy Club. She paints the awelye, bush berry and bush plum dreaming. Betty’s mother and other women used to collect these fruits, cut them up into pieces and skewer them on a piece of wood and dry them to be eaten in times when bush tucker was scarce.

Betty’s Awelye paintings depict the designs that the women would paint on their bodies, and the dancing tracks which are made in the sand during women’s awelye ceremony. Through their awelye ceremonies, women pay homage to their ancestors, show respect for their country and dance out their collective maternal role within their community.
A design based on these dancing tracks is painted on women’s bodies before a ceremony is performed, and this same design can be seen today in Betty’s works on canvas and in the works of her mother, sisters, and aunts. Ochre, charcoal and ash are all used to paint designs on the women’s upper bodies, and Pwerle women paint their chests, breasts and upper arms for awelye in ochre, red and white. The designs they use have been passed down for many generations, and only the Pwerle or Kemarre owners can paint them.