Beth Woods is of the Wongi people of the Central Desert. She was born at the Cosmo Newberry Native Settlement (an Aboriginal settlement governed and controlled by the Native Affairs Department in the Central Desert Region of Australia). Her mother was a local Aboriginal woman and her father was an unnamed white man. Woods lived in the Cosmo Newberry settlement with her mother and elder brother until her brother was forcibly removed at the age of four years. He was placed in the Mt Margaret Mission north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. When Woods was three years old she too was placed in this mission and remained there until 1956 when she completed her primary school education. She completed her secondary schooling at Bunbury and Mt Lawley High Schools.
Woods began painting in 2007 when, after retiring from full-time work, she attended an Aboriginal Seniors Art Group in Hamilton Hill (near Fremantle, WA) coordinated Cockburn Council. It was at this course that she was encouraged and inspired by art teacher Dolores Fraser.
The animals and landscapes of her childhood memories inform her paintings. In 2009 Woods enrolled to study art and further her skills in the Certificate III in Visual Arts and Contemporary Craft course run by Joanna Robertson at the Kidogo Institute in Fremantle. This same year she participated in the student group show 'Moorditj Mob’ at Kidogo House.
- Writers:
- Allas, Tess
- Date written:
- 2009
- Last updated:
- 2011
