Biography

Betty Carrington was born in Texas Downs, but grew up with her family at the former Turkey Creek Post Office and Police Station (now the Warmun Art Centre). Betty Carrington's father was a tracker for the police and her family lived there until the station closed and they moved back to Texas Downs. Betty worked in Texas as a housekeeper and remembers the long hours of hard labor chopping wood, clearing roads and fetching oxen in the bush.

She began painting in 1998, when the Warmun Art Centre was created by leading members of the Warmun community. Her art has enabled her to travel extensively throughout the country, representing the Kimberley and Gija peoples at dance and cultural festivals in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.  

Betty uses a wide range of subtle ochre colors, her delicate palette and style often depicting strong and painful stories of historical events in the East Kimberley. Betty Carrington depicts rolling hills from her father's country, Darrajayin (Springvale Station) and also paints landscapes from her mother's country, Texas Downs Station, as well as places in Ngarrangkarni (Dream). Betty uses painting to recount historical events that occurred after colonization, such as the Mistake Creek massacre and the Warmun gymkhana, where Aborigines working at Texas Downs Station were introduced to the art of the

Collections: • Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin • Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide • Kaplan Collection, Seattle, USA • National Australia Bank, Sydney • Artbank, Sydney and Melbourne • Harland Collection, Sydney • Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth