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Through a compelling selection of artworks, Blak In-Justice: Incarceration and Resilience calls attention to the pressing issue of Indigenous incarceration in Australia. Curated by Kent Morris, Barkindji artist, curator and Creative Director of The Torch, the groundbreaking exhibition has been developed in partnership with Heide Museum of Modern Art. It presents works by leading First Nations artists including Vernon Ah Kee, Gordon Bennett, Destiny Deacon, Julie Dowling, Jimmy Pike and Judy Watson that address the overrepresentation of Indigenous Australians in the criminal legal system and the crisis of deaths in custody. Their powerful responses are shown alongside the remarkable creative achievements of former and current prison inmates, many of whom have connected with their culture and Country through The Torch program, such as Thelma Beeton, Stacey Edwards, Robby Wirramanda and Sean Miller. Works by Jimmy Pike, Albert Namatjira, Gordon Syron and Kevin Gilbert who experienced incarceration during their lives are also included.

First Nations Australians make upless than 4%of the Australian population yet represent36%of the national adult prison population. Indigenous men are 17 times more likely to go to prison than non-Indigenous men and First Nations women are27times more likely to go to prison than non-Indigenous women. Since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991, incarceration rates for Indigenous Australians have more than doubled and deaths in custody have continued to increase. Of all young people in detention, 65%are First Nations who only make up6.6%of the Australian population aged 10-17.

Blak In-Justice makes an engaging and important contribution to public discourse about First Nations injustice and the power of cultural practices. It also highlights the vital role of art in First Nations communities and Australian society in raising awareness, sharing stories and creating change.

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Through a compelling selection of artworks, Blak In-Justice: Incarceration and Resilience calls attention to the pressing issue of Indigenous incarceration in Australia. Curated by Kent Morris, Barkindji artist, curator and Creative Director of The Torch, the groundbreaking exhibition has been developed in partnership with Heide Museum of Modern Art.

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Creating new pathways through art and cultural learning - The Torch

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The Torch provides art, cultural and arts industry support to First Nations people currently in, or recently released, from Victorian prisons

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Djilpin Arts on Instagram: "Djilpin Master Weavers, Noreena Ashley, Julie Ashley and Janice Cameron finally made it out to harvest Pandanus after wrangling an olive python in Wugularr. 
Pandanus is a palm like shrub native to the tropics and subtropics,and it’s incredible to think this humble leaf is processed by hand using traditional techniques and locally sourced natural dyes such as roots, leaves and seeds. The creation of the incredible Pandanus and Stringy Bark fibre art is not only beautiful but it also carries on ancient traditional knowledge and culture. 
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Stay tuned to see their stunning fibre art creations…"

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5,691 likes, 44 comments - djilpinarts on February 20, 2025: "Djilpin Master Weavers, Noreena Ashley, Julie Ashley and Janice Cameron finally made it out to harvest Pandanus after wrangling an olive python in Wugularr. 
Pandanus is a palm like shrub native to the tropics and subtropics,and it’s incredible to think this humble leaf is processed by hand using traditional techniques and locally sourced natural dyes such as roots, leaves and seeds. The creation of the incredible Pandanus and Stringy Bark fibre art is not only beautiful but it also carries on ancient traditional knowledge and culture. 
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Stay tuned to see their stunning fibre art creations…". 

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View this post on Instagram

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In no sense has the Inquiry been 'raking over the past' for its own sake. The truth is that the past is very much with us today, in the continuing devastation of the lives of Indigenous Australians. That devastation cannot be addressed unless the whole community listens with an open heart and mind to the stories of what has happened in the past and, having listened and understood, commits itself to reconciliation.
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Bringing them Home: National Inquiry into the Forced Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families (1997) 3.

Despite showing significant strength and resilience in the face of colonial injustices, members of the Stolen Generations and their families continue to be affected by the trauma caused by forced removal. For many people, this trauma has had lasting, intergenerational, impacts. It is important to acknowledge that healing is often an ongoing journey on both a personal and interpersonal level. Organisations such as the Healing Foundation provide support to individuals and communities to help to address the ongoing trauma caused by actions like the forced removal of children from their families.

However, reconciliation is the responsibility of all Australians. Reconciliation requires the Australian community to recognise and respect the First Peoples of this land, to acknowledge the past injustices, and the ongoing inequalities, experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples since colonisation, and to commit to working towards a more equal and respectful future.

As Tom Calma, former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commissioner and current Co-Chair of Reconciliation said in 2005:

Reconciliation concerns both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians - we are bound to each other's fate. In order to achieve reconciliation we must heal together - reconciliation is everyone's responsibility.
Tom Calma, 'National Day of Healing: Everyone's responsibility', Australian Human Rights Commission, 25 May 2005. At: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/news/media-releases/national-day-healing-everyone-s-responsibility

Remember the Past

Fostering a future of healing and reconciliation requires all Australians to truthfully and respectfully, acknowledge the past. It is only through understanding and accepting the wrongs of the past, and the often intergenerational impacts of these wrongs, that Australia can make adequate amends for the injustices faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples since European colonisation and ensure that they are never repeated.

One of Bringing them Home's recommendations was that a national 'Sorry Day' be held each year to commemorate the history of forcible removals and its effects. In the lead up to the first National Sorry Day in 1998, an estimated 500,000 people across Australia recorded their personal apologies for the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in 'Sorry Books.' On 26 May, at a ceremony in Sydney, the 'Sorry Books' were presented to a delegation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Many of the Sorry Books are now held by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Studies. Excerpts from some of the Sorry Books can be viewed online.

In 2004, in recognition of their historical and continuing social significance, the 'Sorry Books' in AIATSIS's collection were inscribed on the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register.

National Sorry Day is commemorated each year on 26 May, the day the Bringing them Home report was tabled in Federal Parliament.

The Journey Towards Reconciliation

In 1991, in response to recommendations made in the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report, Australia made a formal commitment to reconciliation by establishing the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation . Reconciliation Australia was established in 2001 to continue the work of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, and to serve as the lead body for reconciliation across the nation. Reconciliation Australia is an independent not-for-profit organisation which promotes and facilitates reconciliation by building relationships, respect and trust between the wider Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Reconciliation Australia's ambition is to enable all Australians to contribute to the reconciliation of the nation. Their vision of reconciliation is based on five inter-related dimensions: race relations, equality and equity, unity, institutional integrity and historical acceptance. These five dimensions do not exist in isolation; they are inter-related and Australia can only achieve full reconciliation if we progress in all five dimensions, weaving them together to become a whole. Indeed, reconciliation in Australia can only ever be as strong as its weakest dimension.

Learn more about Reconciliation Australia.

The Reconciliation movement in Australia has, over many decades, made an important contribution towards reconciling the fundamental and unresolved wounds in our national identity. However, genuine reconciliation remains an ongoing journey. A timeline of key events in Australia's reconciliation journey thus far is available on Reconciliation Australia's website.

In 2016, Reconciliation Australia released The State of Reconciliation in Australia report. The report highlights the achievements made in our nation's reconciliation journey thus far and, based on the five core dimensions of reconciliation described above, makes recommendations for progressing reconciliation for future generations.

Contributing to Healing and Reconciliation

There are a number of actions that individuals, communities and organisations can take to contribute towards building stronger relationships with, and respect for, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
As an individual:

Join a local reconciliation group and support the activities of your state's Reconciliation Council

Pledge your support for Close the Gap, a campaign that seeks to close the health and life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians by 2030.

As a community: As a school or early learning service:
As a business or not-for-profit organisation:

Reconciliation Action Plans (RAPs) provide a framework for organisations to realise their vision for reconciliation. RAPs are practical plans of action built on relationships, respect and opportunities. RAPs create social change and economic opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Learn more about Reconciliation Action Plans.

Narragunnawali: Reconciliation in Schools and Early Learning supports schools and early learning services across Australia to develop environments that foster a higher level of knowledge and pride in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and contributions. As part of engaging with the Narragunnawali program, schools and early learning services can indeed develop tailored Reconciliation Action Plans, focused on driving holistic change in the classroom, around the school or early learning service, and with the community alike.

Racism. It Stops with Me is a campaign which invites all Australians to reflect on what they can do to counter racism wherever it happens.

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In no sense has the Inquiry been 'raking over the past' for its own sake. The truth is that the past is very much with us today, in the continuing devastation of the lives of Indigenous Australians.

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art

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Incorporate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art into your classroom

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GROUND LEVEL, WATERWALL AUSTRALIA, BORN 1954
LIVES AND WORKS IN THE SWAN HILL REGION

Glenda Nicholls Interview

PROJECT
In Miwi Milloo (Good spirit of the Murray River) 2020 Glenda Nicholls has woven her largest and most ambitious net to date. Comprising thousands of hand-woven finger knots, this impressive net is adorned with hundreds of hand-made feather flowers, crafted in collaboration with her daughter, Melinda Andrew.

Through this work, Nicholls continues her narrative connecting women and fishing, emphasising the importance of Aboriginal women in maintaining cultural practices and highlighting the plight of the Murray River system.

ABOUT
Glenda Nicholls is a Waddi Waddi, Ngarrindjeri and Yorta Yorta artist. Her cultural name is Jule Yarra Minj ('little river girl') and her maternal Ngarrindjeri totem is the Writcharuki (willy-willy wagtail). Nicholls is a master weaver, constructing elaborate sculptural works that connect the present with her ancestral past. She applies cultural weaving techniques acquired from her ancestors alongside intimate knowledge of the waterways, plants and grasses on her Country. Nicholls is determined to share her cultural knowledge with younger First Nations generations, seeing this exchange as crucial to ensuring cultural practices survive into the future.

The NGV warmly thanks Triennial Major Supporter Lisa Fox for her support.

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Glenda Nicholls Miwi Milloo (Good Spirit of the Murray River) | NGV

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When Indigenous artist Glenda Nicholls began making fishing nets using the traditional weaving techniques she had learned from her mother, she was told women do not make fish nets.

It was a moment in the master weaver's life that could have thrown her off course.

But then she was given some advice from her father.

Go out and do what you want to do, he told her.

"Don't stay in the box."

Nicholls has lived by those words and it shows in the boldness of the elaborately hand-woven, sculptural artworks for which she is renowned.

Her most ambitious piece - Miwi Milloo, or Good Spirit of the Murray River - is a seemingly endless fish net hoisted high above the water-wall feature at the National Gallery of Victoria for its Triennial exhibition.

The white net is both grand and intricate, comprising thousands of hand-woven finger-knots and hundreds of feather flowers that dangle daintily above all who gaze up at the majestic artwork.

It's a deeply personal piece for Nicholls who grew up in Swan Hill, along the river's edge, where she would play and fish with her family.

She learned feathercraft and traditional weaving in those days as a child, watching her mother and grandmother knit and sew traditional crafts from local plants and grass.

Through her art, Nicholls seeks to preserve those cultural practices.

"Feathercraft has been handed down for generations, so it is a generational storyline," she explains.

"I've got my granddaughter now that has watched her mum, my daughter, make the feather flowers."

Before Nicholls began weaving nets for art, she did so out of necessity.

She was raising a young family in Queensland, and would have to repair the torn cast nets they used to catch fish, which were too expensive to replace.

"It was a tool we as Aboriginal people once used, and we don't use that tool today.

"I've turned it into a craft, and turned it into art, so that it carries on that storyline but also keeps that process alive."

Hand-weaving on a grand scale

When Nicholls began Miwi Milloo in February last year, COVID-19 had just reached Australia.

She hunkered down in her studio where she would spend the next seven months weaving.

Curator of Indigenous Art at the NGV, Hannah Presley, who commissioned the piece for the Triennial, says the magnitude of the project could not have been realised had it not been for the time the pandemic allowed Nicholls to just "sit and weave".

"A hand-woven net of that scale, I just don't think it exists anywhere else," Presley says.

"There is no way we would have had the net at the scale that we have it, had it not been for [the pandemic]."

Reflecting on the process of making Miwi Milloo and its feather flowers, the artist gives a fairly frank assessment.

"It was pretty full-on ... I just kept weaving."

But for Nicholls, the everyday reality of the pandemic, and its consequent social restrictions, would become just as significant for the artwork as the ancestral practices she used to make it.

"There were a lot of stories woven into the net during those months," she reminisces.

"There was a little boy that went missing in the mountains and, of course, I cried when he was found, so that story was woven into the net.

"Lots of stories, just everyday happenings, stories from myself, my friends, my work colleagues - all woven into the net."

And after the long months of toil, the net was complete.

"There was a Dreamtime (AFL) game that happened here in Victoria and that's when my net told me to stop weaving, after I finished watching that game.

'Thrilling' Triennial commission

Nicholls says she was "pretty thrilled" to be commissioned for the Triennial.

"I've got my bucket list and I'm starting to tick things off now," she laughs.

But her NGV showcase is just one of the many achievements to her name and caps off what has been a fruitful decade for the master weaver.

In 2015 she was awarded Victoria's richest Indigenous art prize, The Deadly Art Award, for her woven sculptural work, A Woman's Right of Passage, which consists of three life-sized woven cloaks, which represent the roles Aboriginal women play in Welcome to Country ceremonies.

Nicholls has also created works for the Mildura Palimpsest Biennale and the Australian War Memorial, while her hand-woven piece, Ocra Net won two prizes at the 2012 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards.

Just last year, Nicholls was awarded the prestigious Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship and Residency, which she describes as "the icing on the cake".

She has also found success closer to home with an installation at the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, which commissioned her to create artwork inspired by regenerative agricultural practices for roving exhibition Earth Canvas.

That Nicholls's works would be simultaneously on display in one of the nation's leading cultural institutions as well as her hometown gallery is no small feat.

Nicholls says that when she was born, her mother was forced to give birth on the hospital verandah because Aboriginal women were not permitted inside.

Miwi Milloo's prime position at the beginning of the exhibition, therefore, would seem not without consequence.

"It actually welcomes you into the space," says Presley.

"My hope, and with Glenda as well, was that there would be some kind of recognition as you walked in that, yes we are on Aboriginal land.

"I was so pleased about the placement of this work."

Nicholls is too.

"It's fantastic!" she says.

"We are right at the door."

The Triennial is on at the NGV International until April 18.

Earth Canvas is on at the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery until May 9.

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'I just kept weaving': The huge artwork that was only made possible by lockdown

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When Glenda Nicholls started making traditional fishing nets she was told it wasn't women's work. Now her massive weaving is hanging in the entrance of one of Australia's major art galleries.

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Mun-dirra (Maningrida fish fence), Bonnie Burarngarra | NGV

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Medium Pandanus (Pandanus Spiralis), Kurrajong (Brachychiton Diversifolius), Bush Cane (Flagellaria Indica), Jungle Vine (Malaisia Scandens), natural dyes

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Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art

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Designer, curator, mentor and business owner Grace Lillian Lee shares her studio practice and provides insights into how she works. Lee's practice combines her Torres Strait Islander heritage with her love of fashion, and takes her creations from the catwalk to the community, writes Bronwyn Mitchell.

Growing up in Cairns in the 1990s, Grace Lillian Lee says her creative expression was fostered by her parents, and she began making art from a young age. In high school, an annual competition for wearable art gave Lee the opportunity to explore design and art on the body. 'I really loved creating wearable art and creating the performance that went with the stories I was telling at the time', she says. 'I knew I wanted to go on to study fashion design.'

Now in her early thirties, Lee has curated several fashion performances for the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair and runs workshops on country to nurture the creative vision of other young First Nations designers. In 2016, she presented a TEDx talk for James Cook University exploring 'how the western medium of the catwalk can . . . empower designers and young people from remote locations to share their culture and talent'. The same year, Arts Queensland named her one of 16 Queenslanders to watch.

As a budding young artist, Lee's first studio was in the laundry of her family home, shortly followed by the dining room. Today she works from her garage, which she renovated with the help of family and friends:

I wanted a place where I feel inspired and creative - it wasn't, to begin with, but we painted the walls white, polished the concrete floor. My father found some windows from the dump, so he knocked out some holes in the walls so I could have natural light. He also made a large studio table out of recycled pallets, and there are felt walls where I can pin up images, story boards, schedules and budgets.

Lee says she has been wanting to tell stories through wearable adornment, fashion and culture for many years. 'A huge turning point for me to explore my identity and lineage was in 2010, when I took my grandma back to the Torres Strait. She had not returned for 57 years. This made me want to explore and express myself the best way I knew how, and that was through my creative practice of fashion design.'

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One of Grace Lillian Lee's woven neckpieces / Photograph: Jeremy Virag / View full image

'My mentor and elder Uncle Ken Thaiday taught me the grasshopper weave, a technique I further developed into my body sculpture works', Lee says. She also worked closely with Gabori's daughters in the first Aboriginal community she visited for one of her collaborative fashion and design projects. Lee's collaborative design process evolves out of 'a lot of yarning, listening and sharing', she says. She begins by exploring the practice of each artist she works with, whether printbased, ceramics, lino cutting, jewellery making or weaving.

We then play with the idea of telling stories on the body, and that directs and informs the piece. My favourite part is seeing the ideas come alive through either the creator or the models, who are generally family or friends. They embody the stories and dreams of the designer and creator. I believe this activates the piece by being connected and touching the skin - there is a power to this, especially when done out on country. It's a really deadly feeling.

Asked about the role of fashion and design in preserving culture and connecting communities, Lee says: 'This is a very big question. This is clearly a space which is growing very fast at the moment, and there is huge interest from the broader Australian community to have access to Indigenous fashion and design.'

The relationship between fashion, design, culture and community is something she has been invited to explore as a PhD candidate, if time ever permits her to accept the offer around all her other activities, such as her work with First Nations Fashion Design (FNFD), an initiative she established to support others in the industry. 'My aspiration through FNFD is to create a progressive space to support the development of Indigenous fashion and design, to do this in a way that is authentic and safe for the creator.' Lee also says that she wants to find ways to drive economic development within remote communities 'to empower and engage our mob to feel excited about the space of fashion and design. I believe fashion and design is the gateway to our young people wanting to [preserve] our culture, [just] as I do through my weaving.'

Bronwyn Mitchell is former Assistant Editor, QAGOMA

Featured image: Grace Lillian Lee photographed in the Museum of Brisbane's 'Dress Code' exhibition, 2018 / Photograph: David Kelly / Image courtesy: Museum of Brisbane

Endnotes

1. ^ 'Culture to Catwalk | Grace Lillian Lee | TEDxJCUCairns', TEDx Talks, 20 December 2016, <https://youtu.be/vTqVWdZHhC8>, viewed January 2020.

2. ^ '16 Queenslanders to watch', Arts Queensland, 14 January 2016, <https://www.arts.qld.gov.au/news/2016/january/16-queenslandersto-watch>, viewed January 2020.

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Grace Lillian Lee: Preserving culture through fashion & design - QAGOMA Stories

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Designer, curator, mentor and business owner Grace Lillian Lee shares her studio practice and provides insights into how she works. Lee's practice combines her

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Djilpin Arts on Instagram: "Evangeline Wilson shows two of her stunning prints - they form a part of Djilpin Arts’ show titled BATHI opening at Honey Bones Gallery @honeybonesgallery next Friday night and runs til the 9th.
It promises to be a stunning celebration of the Dilly Bag - with woven pandanus pieces, fine art jewellery and collograph prints.

Get along to the opening Friday 31st - 6-9pm to meet artists, Evangeline Wilson, Loretta George, Janice Cameron and Henrietta (Ambeo) Kennedy."

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Join us for the BATHI exhibition at Honey Bones Gallery, featuring Evangeline Wilson's stunning prints and a celebration of the Dilly Bag. Meet the artists and experience the vibrant artwork on display. Learn about the significance of the Dilly Bag and its cultural relevance.

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A look at a new acquisition by Ngarrindjeri artist Trevor Nickolls.

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A Murriality

#GordonHookey

A Murriality is the first survey of renowned Waanyi artist Gordon Hookey, charting three decades of work fusing art and activism.

Hookey is known for his biting satire of Australian culture and politics, his witty critique of racism, and his exploration of oral and image-based history-making traditions. Encompassing large-scale painting, sculpture, printmaking, and video, A Murriality presents perspectives on historical and contemporary issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples-including legal injustices, international conflict, cultural representations, and language-via Hookey's lived experience as a Murri person.

The exhibition features a significant new commission, which continues Hookey's acclaimed series of protest banners that draws inspiration from Hookey's vast collection of political posters. Made for use in Invasion Day marches and rallies recognising the Aboriginal resistance fighter Dundalli, these banners offer timely socio-political commentary, while imagining an empowered Indigenous future.

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A Murriality is the first survey of renowned Waanyi artist Gordon Hookey, charting three decades of work fusing art and activism. Hookey is known for...

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Works in fibre from the Maningrida region are widely recognised as some of the finest in Australia. Artists confidently push the boundaries of fibre craft and cultural expression, adapting traditional techniques and forms to produce strikingly inventive and aesthetically exquisite artworks.

Weaving here takes many forms: utilitarian and decorative, ceremonial and sculptural. Fibre objects include mats, baskets, dillybags and string bags; flattened wall-hanging interpretations of subject matter usually rendered on bark paintings; ceremonial regalia such as armbands and dancing belts; and the sculptural forms of conical fish traps.

Commonly used fibres include the leaves of pandanus ( Pandanus spiralis), and palms ( Livistonus), mírlírl (burney or jungle vine, Malaisia scandens), and the inner bark of kurrajong and stringybark eucalyptus trees. Weaving is physically hard work, now done only by women. They colour the pandanus using natural dyes made from the roots, leaves or flowers of plants within the weaver's clan estate.

The art of fibre has a long history in Arnhem Land as evidenced by the many depictions of fibre objects in the rock art of the escarpment plateaus. There are also spiritual dimensions to weaving, which vary according to the materials used and the totemic significance of the object made.

In the late 1980s, Maningrida artists were closely involved in bringing together a collection of works representative of fibre production in the region, including bark paintings that depict the ancestral origins and use of fibre items. This important collection of approximately 600 works is held in trust for the Maningrida community by the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Mats

Artists weave many different kinds of mats. Conical mats were traditionally used to shield babies from mosquitoes. Long flat mats were used for blocking creeks so that fish would be diverted into fish traps. A small triangular mat made of pandanus fibre used to be worn by women during ceremonial gatherings, tied around their back and covering them at the front. Mats are also used for wrapping and rinsing food in water.

Artists usually use ngarakáya, pandanus spiralis, to weave fragrant, decorative round or oblong mats, as well as the less common triangular and conical shapes. The radial woven patterns of the finest round mats appear to vibrate with colour, sometimes regarded as an aesthetic manifestation of deep cultural meaning, as there is a significant spiritual dimension to pandanus mats. Leading artists in this genre include Freda Wayartja Ali, Bonnie Burarn.garra, Doreen Jinggarrabarra, Lorna Jin-gubarrangunyja.

Dillybags

Béla (dillybags) are collecting bags traditionally used in food and medicine gathering, as well as ceremonially. They are carried by placing the string handle around your forehead, so that the dillybag rests down your back.

Both kinds of béla have a characteristic domed shape and are usually made of fibre from the leaves of the ngarakáya (pandanus plant, Pandanus spiralis). They can be woven in an open twine to allow the circulation of air, so that they are good for carrying food such as shell fish, or woven so finely and tightly that they are leakproof, and thus useful for collecting sugarbag (native honey).

The handles of béla are made from string that is rolled from the fibre of the inner bark of trees such as márno (kurrajongs, Brachychiton diversifolius and Brachychiton paradoxum).

Huge dillybags, yángkaba, were used for carrying large catches of fish. This type of dillybag is usually made from mírlírl (burney vine, Malaisia scandens), a strong pliable plant that grows along the floor and into the canopy of monsoon vine thickets. Yángkaba are crafted in an open twine, and they are very strong and durable.

Ceremonial dillybags are used by men in ceremonial contexts. They often have decorative features, such as a ring of parrot feathers near the brim and strips of fabric woven in with the pandanus fibre at regular spaces. Variations in the decorations, such as the presence or absence of tassels, have spiritual meanings. These meanings are secret and are usually specific to one clan or group of clans that share ceremonial privileges.

Artists today make dillybags in many sizes and they are sold as elegant art pieces as well as functional objects for storing items and dry goods.

String bags

String bags are used for collecting and carrying food such as mud crabs and shellfish. They are flexible and made in a net-like weave from string that is rolled from fibre gleaned from the bark of trees such as kurrajongs ( Brachychiton diversifolius and Brachychiton paradoxum) and nja-djéngka, the white fig ( Ficus virens). The fibre may be dyed with natural pigments from plants.

The bag begins as several strands of string or fibre, which is looped around the weaver's legs as she sits on the ground and then commences to loop string in a spiral from the brim of the bag towards the base. The string bag develops as a woven cylinder until the bottom edge is brought together and secured. A basic looping technique is used for string bags, but sometimes a weaver will modify it by adding an extra twist in the loop. A weaver might also add feathers to string as she rolls the fibre, to create a decorative feathered bag.

Baskets

Coil basketry is a well established fibre art in the Maningrida region, especially for women from the Kuninjku, Rembarrnga, Ndjèbbana and Nakkara language groups.

Artists make coiled baskets of many shapes and sizes, ranging from small round baskets to large oval baskets that were used to carry babies. Mostly they use pandanus fibre that is dyed with natural pigments. Bundles of fibre are formed into coils and the coils are covered and stitched together with strands of fibre threaded onto a needle. The basic stitching technique is a close blanket stitch, but often weavers use variations and add elements such as rosettes for decorative effects, combining colours and patterns to create intricate graphic patterns.

The technique of coil and stitch basketry is believed to have been introduced to Arnhem Land by Greta Matthews, a missionary on Goulburn Island in the 1920s. She had probably learnt coil basketry from Aboriginal people in the south-east of Australia, possibly Murray River people such as the Yorta Yorta or the coastal Ngarrindjeri. The coiling technique spread quickly from Goulburn Island to people on mainland Arnhem Land.

2D artworks

In 2003, Kuninjku artist Marina Murdilnga brought a revolutionary new form of pandanus weaving to Maningrida Arts & Culture: a flat yawkyawk made from knotted pandanus on a jungle-vine frame, painted with natural pigments. She next explored using dyed pandanus and feathers in this way. Murdilnga's innovation inspired many other weavers, who are producing an array of beautifully resolved flat figurative works (stingray, butterflies, spiderwebs) and spiritual figures and Ancestral beings. Alongside Murdilnga, leading artists of this form of fibre art are Anniebell Marnngamarnnga, Frewa Baradluna and Rembarrnga artists Vera Cameron and Maisie Cameron. Lulu Larandjbi is weaving interpretations of the rock pools at Kobumi where Ngalyod (the Rainbow Serpent) entered and died.

Dyes

The weavers of Arnhem Land use their extensive knowledge of plants to impart a wide range of dyes to the fibres they use. The same dye bath is often used to dye a number of batches of fibre, with variations in the colours depending on the time spent in the dye bath and the potency of the bath. The women skilfully use salt and wood ash as mordants and colour enhancers.

During a dyeing session at her home at Wurdeja outstation, east of Maningrida, Laurie Marburduk uses one dye bath to produce three different colours: orange, yellow and red. The main ingredient for the dye is the root of the plant Pogonolobus reticulatus, a straggly, shallow-rooted shrub.

Marburduk prepares the root by peeling off its outer skin and cutting it into smaller pieces. The pieces of root go into a billycan in preparation for boiling with the raw fibre. The first batch of fibre is cooked for about an hour to produce a deep orange colour. After removing the first batch of fibre, Marburduk places a second batch in the billycan and stirs it around for a few minutes before quickly removing it. This yields a bright golden yellow colour. For the third and final batch of fibre, Marburduk adds ash from the wood of the gumtree Eucalyptus alba to the dye bath. She then places the third batch of raw fibre in the billycan and stirs it around. This yields a rich pinky-red colour.
Source: Margaret Carew, 1996, from MAC website, 1997.
Caring for woven objects

The locally sourced fibres used by Arnhem Land artists are strong and supple. Like all organic fibres, they will naturally deteriorate over the years. The best way to maintain the good condition of your woven object is to:

Place it somewhere airy (especially if in tropical climates);

Keep it dust and insect-free by shaking it out regularly;

Minimise exposure to direct sunlight when not in use; and

Keep it out of reach of any pet or baby that might want to chew on it!

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About weaving | Maningrida Arts & Culture

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Works in fibre from the Maningrida region are widely recognised as some of the finest in Australia. Artists confidently push the boundaries of fibre craft and cultural expression, adapting traditional techniques and forms to produce strikingly inventive and aesthetically exquisite artworks. Weaving here takes many forms: utilitarian and decorative, ceremonial and sculptural.

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Waking up Indigenous weaving practices | Art Works

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A place to share, Elisa Jane Carmichael | NGV

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Medium ungaire (reed), pandanus, wool, cotton yarn, raffia, Red Emperor fish scales, sea ropes

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Tjanpi Desert Weavers Minyma Punu Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters Tree Women), 2013

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Tjanpi Desert Weavers Minyma Punu Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters Tree Women), 2013

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Minyma Punu Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters Tree Women) | MCA Australia

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Located on the spectacular Sydney Harbour, the MCA is open to visitors every day.

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Tony Albert is a politically-minded artist provoked by stereotypical representations of Aboriginal people and the colonial history that attempts to define him, and what Aboriginality is, in the present. Albert has spent the majority of his life in Brisbane, but has strong family connections further…

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Previously displayed on Cockatoo Island as part of the Biennale of Sydney, the wooden 'greenhouse nursery' is 4 metres high and 8 metres in diameter, and contains woven baskets made by artists from Bula'bula Arts, Gapuwiyak Culture and Arts, Numbulwar Numburindi Arts and Tjanpi Desert Weavers in Central Australia, and native plants supplied by the Muru Mittigar nursery.

Albert describes Healing land, remembering Country as a project 'full of love and reflection'. It expands on a work that he created in 2018 at the site of the former Blacktown Native Institution where he collaborated with local children to reimagine the lives of those of a similar age who had been placed there nearly 200 years ago. They gifted messages on paper embedded with local plant seeds that eventually degraded into the soil to regenerate. This 'memory exchange' was a symbolic gesture of intergenerational healing at a site of trauma to Aboriginal people. Healing land, remembering Country similarly invites the public to engage with the complex histories of place and sites of trauma.

In presenting the work at Elizabeth Farm, Museums of History NSW acknowledges the role that Parramatta - the first site of the Native Institution (1814-20) - and the institution's governing committee had in the systemic institutionalisation and control of Aboriginal people, the impacts of which continue today. One of the members of the committee was Hannibal Macarthur, nephew of John Macarthur, owner of Elizabeth Farm.

Healing land, remembering Country was unveiled at Elizabeth Farm for our NAIDOC Week event on Saturday 14 November 2020.

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Healing land, remembering Country | MHNSW

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Healing land, remembering Country, on display at Elizabeth Farm from 14 November, provides an exciting opportunity for Sydney Living Museums to further engage visitors in the Indigenous stories present throughout our sites.

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Medium
synthetic polymer paint on canvas

Measurements
180.6 × 240.3 cm

Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2022
© Richard Bell, courtesy Milani Gallery

Gallery location
Not on display

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Medium synthetic polymer paint on canvas Measurements 180.6 × 240.3 cm Credit Line National Gallery of Victoria, MelbournePurchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2022© Richard Bell, courtesy Milani Gallery Gallery location Not on display

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Medium
synthetic polymer paint on canvas

Measurements
180.6 × 240.3 cm

Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2022
© Richard Bell, courtesy Milani Gallery

Gallery location
Not on display

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Medium synthetic polymer paint on canvas Measurements 180.6 × 240.3 cm Credit Line National Gallery of Victoria, MelbournePurchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2022© Richard Bell, courtesy Milani Gallery Gallery location Not on display

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My art is about regenerating cultural practises, making people aware of, you know, our culture, and that we are a really strong culture, and that we haven't lost anything; I think they've just been, some of these practises have been laying dormant for a while."

- Maree Clake

MAREE CLARKE IS A YORTA YORTA/WAMBA WAMBA/MUTTI MUTTI/BOONWURRUNG WOMAN WHO GREW UP IN NORTHWEST VICTORIA, MAINLY IN MILDURA, ON THE BANKS OF THE MURRAY RIVER. MAREE HAS BEEN A PRACTICING ARTIST LIVING AND WORKING IN MELBOURNE FOR THE LAST THREE DECADES.

Maree Clarke is a pivotal figure in the reclamation of southeast Australian Aboriginal art practices, reviving elements of Aboriginal culture that were lost - or laying dormant - over the period of colonisation, as well as a leader in nurturing and promoting the diversity of contemporary southeast Aboriginal artists.

Maree's continuing desire to affirm and reconnect with her cultural heritage has seen her revification of the traditional possum skin cloaks, together with the production of contemporary designs of kangaroo teeth necklaces, river reed necklaces and string headbands adorned with kangaroo teeth and echidna quills, in both traditional and contemporary materials such as glass and 3D printing.

Maree Clarke's multi media installations of photography including lenticular prints, 3D photographs and photographic holograms as well as painting, sculpture and video installation further explore the customary ceremonies, rituals and language of her ancestors and reveal her long held ambitions to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue about the ongoing effects of colonisation, while simultaneously providing space for the Aboriginal community to engage with and 'mourn' the impact of dispossession and loss.

Maree is known for her open and collaborative approach to cultural practice. She consistently works in intergenerational collaboration to revive dormant cultural knowledge - and uses technology to bring new audiences to contemporary southeast Aboriginal arts.

Maree Clarke has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally, and in 2021 she was the subject of a major survey exhibition Maree Clarke - Ancestral Memories at the National Gallery of Victoria. Other recent exhibitions include Tarnanthi, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2021), The National, Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney (2021), Reversible Destiny, Tokyo Photographic Museum, Tokyo Japan (2021) and the King Wood Mallesons Contemporary Art Prize, for which she was awarded the Victorian Artist award. In 2020 she was awarded the Linewide Commission for the Metro Tunnel project (current) and is the recipient of the 2020 Australia Council Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Fellowship.

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MAREE CLARKE IS A YORTA YORTA/WAMBA WAMBA/MUTTI MUTTI/BOONWURRUNG WOMAN WHO GREW UP IN NORTHWEST VICTORIA, MAINLY IN MILDURA, ON THE BANKS OF THE MURRAY RIVER. MAREE HAS BEEN A PRACTICING ARTIST LIVING AND WORKING IN MELBOURNE FOR THE LAST THREE DECADES.

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Blak lik her: Remembering Destiny Deacon: Artist Room | NGV

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For almost 40 years, Keerray Woorroong Gunditjmara woman Vicki Couzens has worked in the Aboriginal community, profoundly changing the cultural landscape around her. She talks about making "creative cultural expression" rather than "art", alongside her new collaboration at Buxton Contemporary.

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Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property protocol

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Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property protocol

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Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property | National Library of Australia (NLA)

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We have developed an Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) Protocol to guide people on how to access and use ICIP in our collections.

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2024 Melbourne Art Trams | Destiny Deacon

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True to her name, in recent years Destiny Deacon has blazed an extraordinary trail. Since first exhibiting at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, in 1991, Deacon has been represented in the prestigious international exhibitions Documenta, the Yokohama Triennale, the first Johannesburg Biennale and the fifth Havanna Biennale, as well as the Biennale of Sydney and Brisbane's Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. Like Tracey Moffatt, she is one of the few Australian artists to have established an international audience.

Deacon describes herself as 'just an old-fashioned political artist', and her several careers as performer, academic and activist reflect the complexity of this role. In her installations, videos and laser-generated prints, she considers the casual cruelty of everyday racism with a humour particular to her identity. Jokes mostly rely on mocking the weak, yet in Deacon's twisted currency one cannot be quite sure who is the joker and who the joke is on. In Dreaming in urban areas, 1993, for example, the Goori poet Lisa Bellear appears to be annointed in tribal bodypaint, when in fact she is wearing a Blackmore's facial scrub. Deacon lampoons victimhood in works that are nevertheless full of pathos - she says she uses dolls in her work because she feels sorry for them. Her home-grown theatre of the absurd stars members from her copious collection of Aboriginal kitsch, battered thrift shop effigies that carry the burden of the grotesque incongruity between real and imagined Indigeneity. There is nothing vicarious about Indigenous suffering, however, and beneath the jest is the living hurt of a history of poverty and contempt.

Deacon's anti-art is seemingly slapdash, but is in fact thoroughly cunning. She describes herself as 'just a crappy artist', and has said that the 'worse' the art - the more unfocused or uneventful - the tougher its impact. Deacon's desultory art gives the finger to the narcissism of art making; indeed, one even gets the impression that she is only reluctantly an artist. As one series was titled, she has been 'Forced into Images'. Yet although apparently incidental, Deacon's images are far from casually acquired; in between the inaudible dialogue and unedited meanderings of the home video, the video Taking Pictures, 1995, shows a perfectionist at work. Deacon's beautiful portraits - of herself as Frida Kahlo, or of the Australian artists Janet Burchill and Jennifer McCamley - demonstrate the extent to which the artist works against her innate aestheticism.

Hannah Fink in ' Tradition today: Indigenous art in Australia ', Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2014

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True to her name, in recent years Destiny Deacon has blazed an extraordinary trail. Since first exhibiting at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, in 1991, Deacon has been represented in the prestigious international exhibitions Documenta, the Yokohama Triennale, the first Johannesburg Biennale and the fifth Havanna Biennale, as well as the Biennale of Sydney and Brisbane's Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art.

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Yhonnie Scarce: The Light of Day | The Art Gallery of Western Australia

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Internationally recognised Kokatha and Nukunu artist Yhonnie Scarce brings her luminous and powerful works to The Art Gallery of Western Australia in the largest-ever ensemble of her collected glass and mixed-media works seen in Australia, for the Perth Festival in 2024. One of the country’s leading contemporary artists, Scarce is known for her large-scale, unforgettable…

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Pitcha Makin Fellas
(est. 2013, Ballarat, Victoria)

The Pitcha Makin Fellas is an art collective based in Ballarat, Victoria. Hailing from different language groups across Australia, the Fellas - Ted Laxton, Alison McRae and Trudy Fatnowna Edgeley - have become known for their powerful advocacy for First Nations people, tongue-in-cheek humour and the signature stamps that they make to create brightly coloured paintings, which are usually collaboratively made. Inspired by the histories and cultural traditions of South- East Australia, as well as observations, news and public debates, their works span films, paintings, murals, handpainted breastplates and a series of 'Blakfella Time' clocks.

Keep Australia Beautiful, 2023, is a portrait of the degradation of Country over time and a comment on the group's collective desire to protect Australia's natural flora and fauna. It is a picture calling for care of Country for its beauty, spirit and survival. It's also a warning that if we don't really care, the end result will be the loss of all that makes this land extraordinary. The Keep Australia Beautiful organisation began a campaign in 1968 with an emphasis on picking up litter; the Fellas Campaign goes much deeper than that. The Fellas say, 'Pull your pants up Australians or we're buggered'.

Made from acrylic on plywood, the individual wooden panels in the work were allowed to contort during the painting process, eliciting the sense of a contemporary bark. The cassowary, crow and white cockatoo reference the artist's ancestral totems. This monumental work is the artists' way of drawing attention to the environmental devastation that is caused by climate change and pollution of our land and waterways. Since the collective's inception in 2013, it has exhibited in group and solo settings, led community and school-based projects and workshops, and worked on projects everywhere from local schoolhouses to the Koorie Heritage Trust and Bunjilaka at the Melbourne Museum. The collective's work is held in private and public collections, including the NGV and the United Nations in Geneva. In 2017 the Pitcha Makin Fellas published the picture book What's in a Name?, which was included in that year's List of Notable Books by the Childrens' Book Council of Australia and features illustrations by the Fellas.

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Pitcha Makin Fellas | Melbourne Now | NGV

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Connie Hart: One Stitch at a Time - Koorie Heritage Trust

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Connie Hart: One Stitch at a Time, is the first major solo retrospective exhibition to be held by the KHT, dedicated to the fibre-works of the late esteemed Gunditjmara Elder and master weaver, Aunty Connie Hart (1917–1993). This landmark exhibition showcases over fifty works created by Aunty Connie during the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s, […]

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CREATIVE RESILIENCEBY NGARDANG GIRRI KALAT MIMINI (NGKM)

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Sonja and Elisa Jane Carmichael cyanotype resource pack

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Sonja and Elisa Jane Carmichael cyanotype resource pack

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Decolonising Yo'self Booklet - Version 2

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65,000 Years a Short History of Australian Art (2025)

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65,000 Years a Short History of Australian Art (2025)

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The Potter Museum of Art is a learning museum of the University of Melbourne, situated at the Parkville Campus. The Museum will reopen in May 2025. Admission is free.

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Infinite woven symphony | Triennial | NGV

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We're a social enterprise of the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women's Council, working with women in the remote Central and Western deserts who earn an income from contemporary fibre art.

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CIAF Symposium Tony Albert and Freja Carmichael

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CIAF Symposium Tony Albert and Freja Carmichael

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Fibre art, drawing and intergenerational making

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Sonja Carmichael and Elisa Jane Carmichael

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Inspired by Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) to explore contemporary materials and techniques

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Elisa Jane Carmichael educational resource

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Elisa Jane Carmichael educational resource

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Sonja Carmichael and Elisa Jane Carmichael

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Inspired by Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) to explore contemporary materials and techniques

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Long Water (2020) IMA education resource

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Long Water (2020) IMA education resource

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Education resource

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Like a confluence—where bodies of water meet—long water: fibre stories travels across place to bring together fibre practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women from different generations, experiences and ancestries.