Magic touch
IN THE BLINK of an eye the pandemic has changed our world. We can feel it in our bones. We are anxious about the future. We have turned inwards, searching for the strength from within to get through; searching for hope. As Indigenous Australians we have dealt with many atrocities – from colonisation to now – and while we are resilient peoples, it takes incredible strength to overcome.
Betty Muffler, an Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara woman from remote South Australia, knows the power of finding hope through adversity. Her childhood memories are layered with sadness and grief. When the world went into lockdown, Muffler began painting, and healing. Healing herself, her people and her Country.
Muffler, now in her 70s, is a survivor. She lost many members of her family in the aftermath of the 1950s British atomic tests carried out on Aboriginal Country at Maralinga and Emu Field in South Australia. She is a Ngangkaṟi , a spiritual healer who has special abilities and a reputation throughout her community as one of the best Ngangkaṟi in the Lands.
Muffler’s story begins on her Country in remote South Australia, 800 kilometres north-west of Adelaide, part of the Woomera site where a(thunderous) monsoonal rains. The name Maralinga is also an eerie coincidence – the Iwaidja people were lucky that their Rainbow Serpents, spiritual beings, appear each year to bring on the monsoonal rains, which meant the settlement was unable to continue.
