The Language of the Land
Drawing on deep cultural knowledge, Betty Mula shares the language of her Country through vibrant large-scale canvases.
WORDS Zali Morgan | PHOTOGRAPHY courtesy of the Artist and Mimili Maku Arts | PUBLISHED 5 November 2024 in Art Collector
↑ Artist Betty Mula with her work.
While raising her children and grandchildren, Betty Mula was focused on passing down her knowledge. Today, Mula transforms that cultural knowledge onto canvas. Born in Imaṉpa, a small community east of Uluṟu, Mula grew up around Imaṉpa and Mt Ebenezer Station. But it was in the vibrant embrace of Mimili Community where she met her husband, Teddy Wangin, a traditional owner of Mimili. This new Country is also where Mula’s artistic journey began. Reflecting on the ever-evolving Country through large-scale canvas, Mula unveils the beauty of the landscapes within the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands of northwest South Australia. “My painting is about the many different trees I have grown up with. Each tree has its own story…” she says. With her colour palette moving through yellows, blues, and iridescent mauve, Mula’s knowledge of Country – particularly the trees of Mimili – is perhaps unmatched. “It's like my Country's own language that I'm sharing in my painting,” reflects the Pitjantjatjara artist.
“It's like my Country's own language that I'm sharing in my painting” Betty Mula
↑ Betty Mula at Paralp
Indeed, Mula knows intimately each of the different trees and plants and their value – culturally, nutritionally, as well as the healing properties each holds. “The trees tell us many things: they tell us about the weather that’s coming, the weather that’s been, they show us where soakages and riverbeds are, they point us towards food.”
↑ PunuTjuta 200 x 150cm
↑ PunuTjuta 152 x 122cm
↑ PunuTjuta 152 x 122cm
↑ PunuTjuta 152 x 122cm
Mula's practice has quickly evolved over the past couple of years. With a swathe of group shows throughout 2023 and 2024, the artist was a finalist in the 2023 Fisher’s Ghost Award at Campbelltown Art Centre, and was featured in Rising Stars 2024 at Outstation Gallery in Darwin. Recently, Mula had her first international exhibition The Inma – Women’s Dance and Song at the Aboriginal Signature Estrangin Gallery in Belgium, alongside an esteemed line up of women working out of Mimili Maku Arts. Each year, Darwin’s SALON Art Projects presents the SALON des Refuses, which highlights some of the unsuccessful submissions of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA). This year, Mula’s large 2.5 x 2.5m canvas is featured amongst some of the most prolific artists in Australia. Her usual stylistic features are swept across the canvas, with the warm blues and mauves drawing you into the striking tree figures that are so prominent in Mula’s work. Mula is also working towards her first solo exhibition with Outstation Gallery in Darwin in 2025.
This article originally appeared in the Art Collector 2024 Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Special Edition, click here to read more.
Cover Art by Betty Mula, 33-24 PunuTjuta, Synthetic polymer on linen, 152 x 122 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and Mimili Maku Arts.
Contributor Zali Morgan is a Wilman, Ballardong, Whadjuk Noongar woman, currently based in Boorloo (Perth), whose practice spans across creative writing, sculpture, textile works and printmaking.
