Biography

Skin Naminyji
Language Gija
Born Texas Downs Station
Lives Warmun Community (Turkey Creek) WA

Betty was born on Texas Downs but grew up with her family at the old Turkey Creek Post Office (now the Warmun Art Centre) and Police Station. Betty’s father was a Police Tracker and her family lived there until the police Station closed, when they moved back to Texas Downs. Betty worked on Texas Downs as a housekeeper and remembers the long hours of hard work. She did everything from chopping wood, clearing rocks from roads, cooking, scrubbing floors, to going out bush for a “killer” (bullock to kill) and butchering the beasts.
Betty has traveled extensively throughout Australia representing Kimberley and Gija people in dance and cultural festivals in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
She started painting in 1998 when Warmun Art Centre commenced operation.

Exhibitions

1999 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
1999 Chamber of Commerce, Wuerzbur. Germany
1999 Karen Brown Gallery, Darwin, NT
1999 East Kimberley Art Awards, Kununurra, WA
1999 Japingka Gallery, Freemantle, Perth, WA
1999 Hogarth Galleries, Paddington, Sydney, NSW
1999 Short Street Gallery, Broome, WA
2000 Kunst Der Aborigines, Galerie Baehr, Dromagen, Germany
2000 Kunst Der Aborigines, Galerie Baehr, Leverkusen, Germany
2000 Anthropological Museum, Freiburg, Germany
2000 Ben Gardy Gallery, Canberra, ACT
2000 Bett Gallery Hobart, TAS
2000 Chrysalis Publishing, Melbourne, VIC

Awards

Heytesbury Award – 1999 East Kimberley Art Awards

Collections

Kerry Stokes Collection
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
Private Collections

Thank you for subscribing