Betty Muffler (born 1944) is a highly respected senior Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands artist and renowned Ngangkari (traditional healer), a role she learnt from her aunties and inherited through her father’s line. Her practice is grounded in the knowledge systems of Anangu culture, where healing, Country, and story are deeply interconnected. Painting is an extension of her work as a Ngangkari, translating spiritual knowledge and lived experience into powerful visual forms.

Born near Watarru, Muffler grew up at Ernabella Mission following the displacement and deaths of family members in the aftermath of British nuclear testing at Maralinga and Emu Field. This history continues to shape her practice, which centres on healing and the restoration of Country. Her paintings, often titled Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country), are both maps and manifestations of sacred sites—depicting underground springs, rockholes, and ancestral pathways connected to her work as a healer. Characterised by flowing, interconnected lines and luminous, often monochromatic palettes, her compositions evoke movement across the land while suggesting the unseen energies that run beneath it. These works operate on both a physical and spiritual level, expressing processes of repair, protection, and renewal.

Muffler has been a finalist in major awards including the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2020, 2021, 2022, 2025) and the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, where she won the Emerging Artist Award in 2017 and the General Painting Award in 2022. Her work has been presented in significant international and national exhibitions including the 14th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea; The National: New Australian Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2021); Tarnanthi at the Art Gallery of South Australia (2017, 2020, 2022); Kulata Tjuta at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes (2020); and Before Time Began at Fondation Opale, Switzerland. Her work is held in major public and private collections in Australia and internationally, including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia, Artbank, the Australian War Memorial, and Fondation Opale, Switzerland.