Marlene is a proud Wadawurrung artist, who currently lives in regional Victoria. Gilson’s multi-figure paintings work to overturn the colonial grasp on the past by reclaiming and re-contextualising the representation of historical events. Learning her Wathaurung history from her grandmother, Gilson began painting while recovering from an illness. The artist's meticulously rendered works display a narrative richness and theatrical quality akin to the traditional genre of history painting. Gilson, however, privileges those stories relating to her ancestral land, which covers Ballarat, Werribee, Geelong, Skipton and the Otway Ranges in Victoria. Often including her two totems, Bunjil the Eagle and Waa the Crow, Gilson’s paintings not only reconfigure historical narratives, but display her spiritual connection to Country. Matrices and images made by the artist at Wunggurrwil Dhurrung Community Centre, and editions printed at Negative Press. Edition of 4 + A/P. Printed by Trent Walter at Negative Press. public art, australian first nations art, printmaking

Edwina Green is a Trawlwoolway First Nations multidisciplinary artist based in Naarm (Melbourne, Australia) that works across painting, film, design, installation and sculpture to investigate narratives of perception, historical re-framing, cultural reclamation and the post- colonial paradigm and its impact on people and place. Graduating from The University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, she has since been exhibited extensively across Australia and internationally. Her research influenced practice, connection to culture, and ties to reclaiming intergenerational disconnection, inform her practice and it’s aims to challenge understandings and interactions of Indigeneity through dynamic and poetic works. She has exhibited in respected galleries and festivals such as Firstdraft, Pari Ari, Incinerator Gallery, The Granville Centre, SEVENTH Gallery, TCB Gallery, Collarworks (New York), Yirramboi, Gertrude St Projection Festival, Brunswick Music Festival, and EFFA (Environmental Film Festival.) She has also worked as an art director, producer and programmer for RISING Melbourne, Samsung, Arts Centre Melbourne, Next Wave, and Darebin City Council. Edition of 4 + A/P. Pigment print by Hound & Bone Studio, screen printed and assembled by the artist and Trent Walter at Negative Press. public art, australian first nations art, printmaking

Transfer drawing made at Wunggurrwil Dhurrung Community Centre, and screen printed at Negative Press. public art, australian first nations art, printmaking

Marlene is a proud Wadawurrung artist, who currently lives in regional Victoria. Gilson’s multi-figure paintings work to overturn the colonial grasp on the past by reclaiming and re-contextualising the representation of historical events. Learning her Wathaurung history from her grandmother, Gilson began painting while recovering from an illness. The artist's meticulously rendered works display a narrative richness and theatrical quality akin to the traditional genre of history painting. Gilson, however, privileges those stories relating to her ancestral land, which covers Ballarat, Werribee, Geelong, Skipton and the Otway Ranges in Victoria. Often including her two totems, Bunjil the Eagle and Waa the Crow, Gilson’s paintings not only reconfigure historical narratives, but display her spiritual connection to Country. Matrices and images made by the artist at Wunggurrwil Dhurrung Community Centre, and editions printed at Negative Press. Edition of 4 + A/P. Printed by Trent Walter at Negative Press. public art, australian first nations art, printmaking

Ellie Franks is a proud Gubbi Gubbi woman, living and working in Naarm. Her practice is print informed and utilises print techniques to talk to concepts of identity, belonging and connection. She focuses on the malleability of materials and leans into the fluid nature of various mediums, mistakes and chance. Ellie graduated from RMIT University in 2020 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and is currently participating in the 2023 Koorie Heritage Trust Blak Design Program. Matrices and images made by the artist at Wunggurrwil Dhurrung Community Centre, and editions printed at Negative Press. Edition of 4 + A/P. Printed by Trent Walter at Negative Press. public art, australian first nations art, printmaking

The Creation Serpent is the central image moving through the land. As well as being the creator of the land, it's whole image, coloured blocks and individual dots represent the Gunditjmara Nation, tribal groups and individual clans respectively. The four hands in the corners mark all peoples who at present form our community. They show the people that live on the land in the north, south, east and west of the Shire. The two shaded hands in the background represent the spirit of the old people living within the land. They not only point to the law which governs the country but also remind us of the spirits of those elders whose lives were lost both in battle and in life itself.This artwork was the cover art chosen for the Memorandum of Understanding between the Glenelg Shire Council and Indigenous Communities of 2005. Danny Lovett is a Gunditjmara artist.An image of a serpent in the centre of the work. The serpent is depicted in white dots. Its body has sections of yellow and blue. It's head is burgundy. Surrounding the serpent in each corner there are four handprints. The background of the work is painted blue, red and yellow areas which look sponged. Surrounding the artwork is a border of black and white also with a sponged effect. It is framed in dark brown plain wood.first nations, aboriginal art, serpent

Since our early ancestors first glimpsed their reflection in water the mirror has served as our most immediate means of personal identification. While our sene of self is intricately linked to our physical image, the discovery of DNA and subsequent mapping of the human genome has introduced a new mode of observation and level ofperception, on the one hand acutely defining out personal differences, while at the same time extending our awareness beyond the bounds of individualism and enabling us to witness our undeniable bonds with the rest of the natural world. This work has multiple levels of meaning, drawing on DNA sequencing patterns as living code, while high lighting the very fluidity created between extremes of biological distinction and our shifting states of identity and perception. public art, australian first nations art

Ngaya is a cut and paste, collage, punked-up look at my Country. It’s a country with conflicting narratives which the film explores through found footage and animation. It looks at Country from an insider-outsider perspective, someone who at once belongs to the Country but who has never lived on Country for any extended time, and has viewed it from Naarm for the past twenty years. I want people to think about the snow country away from being a holiday destination to be exploited, to think about the first people of the snow and fragility of Country. australian first nations art, video, ngarigo, animation, identity, country

Tony Albert’s 2022 solo exhibition at Sullivan+Strumpf, Remark, continues the artist’s investigation into the imagery and identification of appropriated Indigenous Australian iconography in domestic decoration and design. Incorporating fabric from his extensive collection of ‘Aboriginalia’, Remark sees Albert expand on his acclaimed Conversations with Margaret Preston series dimensionality, critically engaging with the fabric in his own right. Like the fabric of Australian society, the appropriated Indigenous imagery printed on souvenir tea towels intertwines in a complicated web of national identity. These are not images by Aboriginal people and our voices and autonomy continued to be silenced through the object’s inauthenticity. As a country we must reconcile with these objects’ very existence. They are painful reiterations of a violent and oppressive history, but we also cannot hide or destroy them because they are an important societal record that should not be forgotten. As an artist this juxtaposition and tension fascinates me. Tony Albert’s multidisciplinary practice investigates contemporary legacies of colonialism, prompting audiences to contemplate the human condition. Drawing on both personal and collective histories, Albert explores the ways in which optimism can be utilised to overcome adversity. His work poses important questions such as how do we remember, give justice to, and rewrite complex and traumatic histories. Albert’s technique and imagery are distinctly contemporary, displacing traditional Australian Aboriginal aesthetics with an urban conceptuality. Appropriating textual references from sources as diverse as popular music, film, fiction, and art history, Albert plays with the tension arising from the visibility, and in-turn, the invisibility of Aboriginal People across the news media, literature, and the visual world. australian first nations art, colonialisation

Tony Albert’s 2022 solo exhibition at Sullivan+Strumpf, Remark, continues the artist’s investigation into the imagery and identification of appropriated Indigenous Australian iconography in domestic decoration and design. Incorporating fabric from his extensive collection of ‘Aboriginalia’, Remark sees Albert expand on his acclaimed Conversations with Margaret Preston series dimensionality, critically engaging with the fabric in his own right. Like the fabric of Australian society, the appropriated Indigenous imagery printed on souvenir tea towels intertwines in a complicated web of national identity. These are not images by Aboriginal people and our voices and autonomy continued to be silenced through the object’s inauthenticity. As a country we must reconcile with these objects’ very existence. They are painful reiterations of a violent and oppressive history, but we also cannot hide or destroy them because they are an important societal record that should not be forgotten. As an artist this juxtaposition and tension fascinates me. Tony Albert’s multidisciplinary practice investigates contemporary legacies of colonialism, prompting audiences to contemplate the human condition. Drawing on both personal and collective histories, Albert explores the ways in which optimism can be utilised to overcome adversity. His work poses important questions such as how do we remember, give justice to, and rewrite complex and traumatic histories. Albert’s technique and imagery are distinctly contemporary, displacing traditional Australian Aboriginal aesthetics with an urban conceptuality. Appropriating textual references from sources as diverse as popular music, film, fiction, and art history, Albert plays with the tension arising from the visibility, and in-turn, the invisibility of Aboriginal People across the news media, literature, and the visual world. australian first nations art, colonialisation

Tony Albert’s 2022 solo exhibition at Sullivan+Strumpf, Remark, continues the artist’s investigation into the imagery and identification of appropriated Indigenous Australian iconography in domestic decoration and design. Incorporating fabric from his extensive collection of ‘Aboriginalia’, Remark sees Albert expand on his acclaimed Conversations with Margaret Preston series dimensionality, critically engaging with the fabric in his own right. Like the fabric of Australian society, the appropriated Indigenous imagery printed on souvenir tea towels intertwines in a complicated web of national identity. These are not images by Aboriginal people and our voices and autonomy continued to be silenced through the object’s inauthenticity. As a country we must reconcile with these objects’ very existence. They are painful reiterations of a violent and oppressive history, but we also cannot hide or destroy them because they are an important societal record that should not be forgotten. As an artist this juxtaposition and tension fascinates me. Tony Albert’s multidisciplinary practice investigates contemporary legacies of colonialism, prompting audiences to contemplate the human condition. Drawing on both personal and collective histories, Albert explores the ways in which optimism can be utilised to overcome adversity. His work poses important questions such as how do we remember, give justice to, and rewrite complex and traumatic histories. Albert’s technique and imagery are distinctly contemporary, displacing traditional Australian Aboriginal aesthetics with an urban conceptuality. Appropriating textual references from sources as diverse as popular music, film, fiction, and art history, Albert plays with the tension arising from the visibility, and in-turn, the invisibility of Aboriginal People across the news media, literature, and the visual world. australian first nations art, colonialisation

Waa Waa – Crow Feathers is a painting from Aunty Marlene Gilson’s 2022 exhibition ‘Bunjil Wour Kun Ya – Spirit of My Ancestors’. This work tells the story of Waa-Waa, the first Wadawurrung to see a white man, Matthew Flinders and his crew surveying the southern Australian coastline near the You Yangs on 1 May 1802. Speaking to Wyndham Art Gallery’s curatorial framework themes of Foregrounding, Habitat and Localism, the work portrays in Wadawurrung lore the first sighting of a European and acknowledges Australian First Nations peoples original and ongoing connections with land, history, politics and knowledges of place. The scene is overlooking the You Yangs which is deeply connected with the local place and habitat of the Werribee Plain. Aunty Marlene Gilson is a Wathaurung (Wadawarrung) Elder living on country in Gordon, near Ballarat. Marlene Gilson’s multi-figure paintings work to overturn the colonial grasp on the past by reclaiming and re-contextualising the representation of historical events. Learning her Wathaurung history from her grandmother, Gilson began painting while recovering from an illness. The artist’s meticulously rendered works display a narrative richness and theatrical quality akin to the traditional genre of history painting. Gilson, however, privileges those stories relating to her ancestral land, which covers Ballarat, Werribee, Geelong, Skipton and the Otway Ranges in Victoria. Often including her two totems, Bunjil the Eagle and Waa the Crow, Gilson’s paintings not only reconfigure historical narratives, but display her spiritual connection to Country. australian first nations art, cultural story, australian painting, wathaurung, female artist

Karen Casey (1956 – 2021) Palawaaustralian first nations art, female artist, projection, video art

From the tranquil Lake Condah on Gunditjmara land, my artistic journey began on my Grandmothers country (Gunditjmara). Over six fruitful years, I've honed my craft as a professional artist, specialising in acrylics on canvas, captivating murals of varying scales, and digital innovation. A modern storyteller, my creations intricately weave tales of place, country, identity, and connection—a tribute to the past, a celebration of the present, and a gaze into the future. My palette, a symphony of colours, harmonises with each location's spirit and the rhythm of changing seasons. Having collaborated with Government, Private, and Corporate sectors, my work has adorned diverse spaces with its charm. A pivotal chapter saw me join forces with the esteemed artist Adnate, together crafting five murals that transcend reality, delve into cultural depths, and explore spirituality. As I stand today, my art echoes untold stories, honouring heritage, and uniting human experiences across time's canvas.Muralpublic art, mural, australian first nations art, cultural story

This artwork is a story of life over coming darkness. Rebirth and renewal. As a Bunurong person this story means a lot to my people, this represents community past, present and future and the struggles we have had to overcome to become the people we are today in the world we are today. Kobi Summers is a young emerging Aboriginal Artist, who is a Proud Bunurong Man living in Melbourne. He specialises in Digital Art, Contemporary aboriginal Canvas Art, Mural Art and Clothing Art.australian first nations art, bunurong, cultural story

A central tableau is beautifully lit to expose choreographed arrangements of plants, animals, objects and food. Grounded in a photographic aesthetic that echoes Dutch Old Master paintings, they examine the industry and practices that have so effectively brought damage to traditional Aboriginal culture, the natural environment of the Australian continent – and the globe. Each image explores an aspect of the devastating impact of colonisation on Australia’s First Nations peoples, and the global repercussions of environmental degradation. The translation of the French in the title of this series, “Natures mortes” is dead nature. Yet in the simmering emotional register of each image lies an inherent belief in the individual over environment, and the redemptive nature of culture. australian first nations art, photography, colonialisation, environment

Invasion places an imaginative eye in Australian colonial history and turns around the dominant view, taking alien creatures into iconic London-based cityscapes, with white urban residents their victims. Cook's images express the shock that enveloped the Australian continent when European people appeared on Aboriginal shores. Aboriginals as aliens, sci-fi scaled animals - featherless birds, super sized grubs, giant lizards, possums on ufo's, laser shooting fembots, and clouds of rainbow lorikeets - arrive into urban London, the 'mother' country, and wreak havoc. Within the broad narrative are mini narratives that speak to the past, historical references that tease out and reverse the racist practices imposed on Aboriginals. The drama of such an event heightened with the use of vintage-inspired B-grade horror movie aesthetic - an ironic 'spoofy' edge.australian first nations art, photography, colonialisation, sci-fi

Invasion places an imaginative eye in Australian colonial history and turns around the dominant view, taking alien creatures into iconic London-based cityscapes, with white urban residents their victims. Cook's images express the shock that enveloped the Australian continent when European people appeared on Aboriginal shores. Aboriginals as aliens, sci-fi scaled animals - featherless birds, super sized grubs, giant lizards, possums on ufo's, laser shooting fembots, and clouds of rainbow lorikeets - arrive into urban London, the 'mother' country, and wreak havoc. Within the broad narrative are mini narratives that speak to the past, historical references that tease out and reverse the racist practices imposed on Aboriginals. The drama of such an event heightened with the use of vintage-inspired B-grade horror movie aesthetic - an ironic 'spoofy' edge.australian first nations art, photography, colonialisation, sci-fi

Edwina Green is a Trawlwoolway First Nations multidisciplinary artist based in Naarm (Melbourne, Australia) that works across painting, film, design, installation and sculpture to investigate narratives of perception, historical re-framing, cultural reclamation and the post- colonial paradigm and its impact on people and place. Graduating from The University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, she has since been exhibited extensively across Australia and internationally. Her research influenced practice, connection to culture, and ties to reclaiming intergenerational disconnection, inform her practice and it’s aims to challenge understandings and interactions of Indigeneity through dynamic and poetic works. She has exhibited in respected galleries and festivals such as Firstdraft, Pari Ari, Incinerator Gallery, The Granville Centre, SEVENTH Gallery, TCB Gallery, Collarworks (New York), Yirramboi, Gertrude St Projection Festival, Brunswick Music Festival, and EFFA (Environmental Film Festival.) She has also worked as an art director, producer and programmer for RISING Melbourne, Samsung, Arts Centre Melbourne, Next Wave, and Darebin City Council. Matrices and images made by the artist at Wunggurrwil Dhurrung Community Centre, and editions printed at Negative Press. Edition of 4 + A/P. Printed by Trent Walter at Negative Press. public art, australian first nations art, printmaking

BOUND FOLDER, BLACK CARDBOARD COVER 152 PAGESnon-fictionFred Cahir tells the story about the magnitude of Aboriginal involvement on the Victorian goldfields in the middle of the nineteenth century. The first history of Aboriginal–white interaction on the Victorian goldfields, Black Gold offers new insights on one of the great epochs in Australian and world history—the gold story. In vivid detail it describes how Aboriginal people often figured significantly in the search for gold and documents the devastating social impact of gold mining on Victorian Aboriginal communities. It reveals the complexity of their involvement from passive presence, to active discovery, to shunning the goldfields. This detailed examination of Aboriginal people on the goldfields of Victoria provides striking evidence which demonstrates that Aboriginal people participated in gold mining and interacted with non-Aboriginal people in a range of hitherto neglected ways. Running through this book are themes of Aboriginal empowerment, identity, integration, resistance, social disruption and communication. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.first nations history, australia's victorian goldfields

Always wanting to paint the bushfire. Seen heaps of things with burning of heath land for Alcoa and went running through it like we were in the fire. It was beautiful but we were crying as we didn’t want them to do it. We were right in the middle of it as it was all glowing everywhere. Always fascinated by that fire when I think about it as we tried to stop it but they bought the police out and we couldn’t get in there as they had security and we were surrounded. We camped out there for four years we had the camp and would come and go from the house in town. Zac Martin and heaps of people in and out and good times with Uncle Banjo and newspaper journalists. 30 years ago this was, late 70’s and took 6 years to get them to court. Flew a guy out from America (the equaliser) who interviewed us about why we were doing it. They burnt right along the cliff whilst we were camped there and we had seen the seasons and got into the spirit of the land with native blossom and it was beautiful – and they burnt it all, all the little animals, it was incredible as the heathland was absolutely beautiful, it was magic and they could not see that. They pegged it out to do it all and we would sneak out and move the pegs and we tried to fight them every which way. Amy was there with all her kids in a massive striped tent but she moved them out when the police came to move us out. They had us surrounded, police from everywhere. We had no water and people would bring us water and food. Another time a big bushfire came through and we had to get in the dam at Lake Condah Mission. I was aged around 10 or 11.” June 2014 As recorded by Anna Louise Sheba for the entry in the Victorian Indigenous Arts Award Ballarat. Ms. Christina Isabel Saunders Traditional Landowner Elder Gundij Mara Tribe (South Western Victoria, Australia) Descendant of Kilcarer – Cape Bridgewater Clan and Gilgar - Lake Condah Mission Clan A depiction of bushfire. Red, yellow, orange and black paint. Swirls and shapes to represent the flames.Tina Saunders (bottom right in orange paint)aboriginal art, first nations, bushfire, bush, landscape

Swinton Home Station. Part of a collection of Photographs by Mr. O.G. Armstrong as commissioned by the Shire of Stawell for the Inter-colonial and Paris Exhibition in Melbourne in 1866. Swinton was a family name of John Carfrae, whose father was Thomas Swinton Carfrae of Edinburgh. When John Carfrae came to Ledcourt in 1848 he divided it into three runs, Ledcourt, Swinton and Newington. John Holt occupied Ledcourt and Swindon before 1865, at which time Marcus Clarke was a jackaroo. Alexander Gray came to Swinton in 1881. The Grey family still live at Swinton. The present home was built in 1911 after severe floods in 1909 destroyed the original homestead. Wooden cottage with outbuildings in front of trees. A number of men women and First Nations people standing and sitting in front.stawell aborigional

Brochure for auction of three allotments bounded by 31 - 35 Walwa Street an 84 - 86 Heatherdale Road, Mitcham on 11 April 1992. Plan of 7 room house on site. Agent Cody First Nation.Brochure for auction of three allotmentsauctions, walwa street, mitcham, nos 31 - 35, heatherdale road, nos 84 - 86

Bone China jug, with kangaroo shaped handle with hand painted relief scenes First Nations Peoples brandishing spears at Captain Cook’s sailors, Captain Cook taking possession of the country at Botany Bay April 1770 The words to Advance Australia Fair are also printed . Along the base is a color painted relief of a bullock cart containing logs.souvenirs, captain cook, botany bay, advance australia fair, indigenous, kangaroo, endeavour

Donors were:- Hepburn, Mrs A.E. Hepburn, Miss E Hepburn, Mr. Hepburn Mr. Zeogh Holman, Mrs. Evalie.The Illustrated Australian News published 1864-1896 was a pictorial newspaper based in Melbourne. It was published by David Syme & Co. The framed etching was copied from a supplement in the newspaper. The State Library of NSW. Search Manuscripts, Oral History, and Pictures Catalogue, has copies of the newspaper.A black and white etching titled 'A Native Funeral. A reminiscence of the Murray River' in a black frame with gold inner edge and grey mount. Picture features six canoes with lead canoe, in centre, carrying a body covered with foliage. April 2012: During restoration it was found under the original mount board the print 'Supplement to the Illustrated Australian News December 1885' First Nations.Supplement to the Illustrated Australian News December 1885illustrations, etchings

Framed painting. Background = Australian flag - Centre Front = Shrine of Remembrance - Top Right = Sun with two aircraft and ship below - Foreground Left to Right = Sheep being shorn, ambulance, nurse, windmill/sheep, First Nations men, factory - main feature = Soldier on horseback with rifle./ Entered in Lilydale art show "Australia Remembers - 1945-1995". competition sponsored by Lilydale RSL."Australia Remembers" 1945 - 1995

In the early days of colonial Australia the governors and the land holders saw advantage in singling out certain First Nations people as leaders and distinguishing them in some way. This chest plate was issued to "King George" of the Koenghegulluk Clan of the Djargurd Wurrung whose Country was near Lake Colongulac. This chest plate is inscribed "King Colungulac" and is held in the Museum Victoria collection. ""King George"" is pictured wearing the chest plate in a photograph of First Nations people at Framlingham Mission in 1867.Colour photograph of brass chest plate inscribed "KING GEORGE COLUNGULAC" Front: "KING GEORGE COLUNGULAC"; Back: XP49214 Museum Victoriabreast plate, cdhs, cdhsfirstnations

Isabella Park Taylor, nee Dawson (1842-1929), friend of Western Victorian First Nations people, and student of their languages and customs. Isabella grew up at "Kangatong" (1844-1866) in the company of First Nations people and became fluent in their languages. With her father, James Dawson, she wrote the book "Australian Aborigines" (1881). She married William Andrew Taylor in 1877 and they built a fine homestead on their property at "Renny Hill'' near Camperdown, Victoria. Together they had two children, Effie, born 1878 and Katherine in 1880.Studio portrait of Isabella Taylor (nee Dawson) sitting at an occasional table.cdhs, cdhsfirstnations, djargurd wurrung, djargurdwurrung