Bethany Nelson Nabanangka b. 1982

Bethany Nelson Nabanangka grew up in the small community of Ti Tree, along the Stuart Highway, approximately 200km north of Mparntwe (Alice Springs) in the Northern Territory.

Bethany’s grandmother is from Utopia, a region of great cultural and artistic significance, and taught Bethany the traditions and stories of her country. Designs depicting aspects of Awelye, meaning women’s ceremony, became popularised by artists from Utopia – particularly body paint designs. These are intricate patterns rooted in the ancient creation stories, or Dreamings, and are traditionally made by mixing coloured ochre pigments and animal fats, applied to women’s chests and breasts in preparation for ceremony. It is the women’s body paint design from this region that Bethany has chosen to depict in her paintings, and she intersperses this motif with the bush flowers from her country that bloom after the desert rains. Bethany has four children, and is a self-taught and emerging artist.