leni (1960s- ) Born Melbourne Wotjobaluk "leni is both a long story and a short life. A Wotjobaluk woman, born in Melbourne in the sixties, adopted into a non-Aboriginal family and raised by true destiny on country in the Wimmera. leni was reunited with her mother and extended family in her late teens. Simple swift sentences with complex challenging undertones. Thus began an ever evolving and endlessly deep cultural and personal exploration which has passionately consumed, confused, enticed and enriched her since. leni’s creativity is inspired strongly by her cross cultural heritage, learnings and loves, failures and fears, passions and dreamings. This artwork has its own determination and authenticity. leni’s work constantly explores concepts of the past and present. leni has exhibited in the Koorie Heritage Trust, The Convent Gallery, Kirret Barreet Gallery, Gallery on Sturt, Tussock Gallery and others. Her work has been commissioned by various organisations, public and private collectors.aboriginal, aboriginal education centre collection

Ronald EDWARDS PEPPER Gunai Ronald Edwards Pepper is the grandson of Dulcie (Dolly) Mullet and Watson Pepper, Ronald’s family moved to Morwell in the 1960s from Lake Tyers Mission. He graduated from Federation University with a Bachelor of Visual and Media Arts in 2017, and has completed several commissions and participated in numerous exhibitions, in Australia and overseas. Artist Ronald Edwards-Pepper is keen to express himself through painting and telling stories of his Gunai/Kurnai ancestors. "My nanna and her stories have been part of my life, and who I have become today, and this influences my artworks. My grand-parents are Dolly Mullet & Watson Pepper. They came from Lake Tyers Mission and moved to Morwell in the 1960s with their mob of kids. Now this is the family home." EDUCATION: 2013-2017 - Bachelor of Visual & Media Arts/Federation University. 2010 - Trainee Mentor in Education (Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell) 2008 - Certificate III in Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander in Languages 2007 - Traineeships, Young Ambassador at the Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell 2006 - Completed & Graduated - Awarded 'Student of the Year’ 2005 - Certificate IV ATSI Cultural Arts, TAFE Mid-valley Campus Gippsland 2003 - Certificate 4 in Aboriginal and Torres Strait lslander Art & Design, TAFE Mid-valley Campus, Gippsland 2002 - Certificate 3 in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art & Design, TAFE Mid-valley Campus, Gippsland AboriginalSigned verso "R.Edwards"ronald edwards, aboriginal, gunai kurnai

Wayne C. Wemba Wemba This work was donated to the student engagement team at Mount Helen. Aboriginal dot painting featuring a turtle, fish, and crocodile. If you can assist with information on this artist or artwork please make contact using the email link below right.aboriginal, turtle, fish, crocodile

Rohan Robinson is an artist born in Geelong, and attended “the Mill” part of Deakin University in 1980-82, studying Fine Art. In 2010-11, he was the manager of Kayili Artists Aboriginal Corporation, at Patjarr in the Gibson Desert W.A., where he oversaw the development and marketing of artworks of the corporation’s members. The community is the remotest in Australia and averaged 25 people, mostly consisting of elderly people and part of the Ngaanyatjarra region, with some members not having any consistent contact with white fellas up to the mid 1960’s. During his time it was common for all the community members to go out hunting and having a visit to important areas, where members would get some tucker of rabbits and lizards and honey ants and perhaps some “meow meow” and have a nice sleep in the shade on the warm sand. Robinson would often take his painting gear along and do some work on unstretched linen on the desert ground, he would paint for a while and then perhaps lie around with the elders or follow one of the expert hunters and observe from a distance [several meters] the skills of elderly women casually walking through some recently burned spinifex knocking cowering bunnies on the head with a steel rod. It was on one of these occasions, when this particular painting was being conceived, that after returning from the hunting mission, he was informed by some of the mob, that an elder had been spending time looking at this work in it’s infantile stage...”You know the old fella over there, he been looking at that painting of yours” It was later in the day, when returning to Patjarr, that the elder Arthur Robertson approached Robinson, and demanded/asked that Robinson paint his stories for him. Mr Robertson was suffering from Parkinson’s disease, and was having trouble painting, but had been doing some brilliant work with Posca markers. It was with a certain reluctance that Robinson agreed, as he felt this to be a “political hot potato in some quarters” but also respected a relationship between artists beyond the cultural divide. Mr Robertson demanded that they start immediately and armed with pencil and paper they created the notes for several paintings under Mr Robertson’s direction. The painting that you are viewing is signifcant in that it was the catalyst for this relationship between the two artists. Mr Arthur Robertson died later that year 2011.Gold framed blue and earth tone painting. Painting depicting four circles with mountain and sky in the background.

Born in Healesville, Many Nicholson is a Wurundjeri-willam (Wurundjeri-baluk patriline) artist and Traditional Custodian of Melbourne and surrounds. Mandy also has connections to the Dja Dja wurrung and Ngurai illam wurrung language groups of the Central/Eastern Kulin Nation on her fathers side and German on her mothers.wurundjeri, aboriginal, kulin

Born in Healesville, Many Nicholson is a Wurundjeri-willam (Wurundjeri-baluk patriline) artist and Traditional Custodian of Melbourne and surrounds. Mandy also has connections to the Dja Dja wurrung and Ngurai illam wurrung language groups of the Central/Eastern Kulin Nation on her fathers side and German on her mothers.wurundjeri, aboriginal, kulin

Aunty Frances Gallager is a respected Elder who was born in Bendigo in 1926 and is proudly from the Gunditjmara people of Western Victoria. Aunty Frances studied at RMIT and received her Diploma at the age of 87. She has her work represented in numerous public collections.aboriginal, gunditjmara

aboriginal

Goanna lizard enjoys roaming about in the hot sun, feeding, and resting. Its ability to hunt alone and survive as reptile places a strong vibration on the country it dwells. From the Lagoons, along the rivers and the open sand dunes, to the dried-up lakes and rocky hills. Its fearlessness makes it stand out in the wildJade Kennedy, 2020goanna and aboriginal markings

"Birthing Trees is culturally significant to Aboriginal people. Women would give birth in the hollowed out trees. Men were not allowed there as this was women's business. This 800 year old tree and other ancient trees are in the way of a proposed new western district highway. Let's find a way to respect cultural diversity as we all share this one land". >Purchased & acquired for the City of Whittlesea Cultural Collection in 2018. The work was exhibited in Council's annual art exhibition that was titled "Seasonal".MVRaboriginal birthing tree and aboriginal woman giving birth.

Created for Ballarat Apron Festival to present Ballarat's Aboriginal history, to be displayed along side the Festival's Ballarat Apron. Oil painting on handmade treated canvas apron. Two large thick cotton ties at waist and loop for neck. marlene gilson, ballarat, wadawurrung, aboriginal

Escape is a body of work by Taungurung/Filipino artist Alan Stewart made during Melbourne’s long lockdown to reflect his longing to connect to Country. Alan says, “Country has always been my escape and connection to my culture. Without it, I lost a sense of self and a way to revitalise my spirit. Those early mornings and long drives helped me to see what’s special about being on Country, land that holds such a deep meaning to my ancestors. I look back now and realise how lucky I was.”taungurung

Escape is a body of work by Taungurung/Filipino artist Alan Stewart made during Melbourne’s long lockdown to reflect his longing to connect to country. Alan says, “Country has always been my escape and connection to my culture. Without it, I lost a sense of self and a way to revitalise my spirit. Those early mornings and long drives helped me to see what’s special about being on country, land that holds such a deep meaning to my ancestors. I look back now and realise how lucky I was.”

Sunil Gupta is a British/Canadian citizen, (b. New Delhi 1953) MA (RCA) PhD (Westminster) who lives in London and has been involved with independent photography as a critical practice for many years focusing on race, migration and queer issues. A retrospective was shown at The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2020/21) and The Image Center, Toronto. He is a Professorial Fellow at UCA, Farnham. His latest book is “We Were Here: Sexuality, Photography, and Cultural Difference, Selected Writings by Sunil Gupta”, Aperture New York 2022. His work is in many private and public collections including; the Tokyo Museum of Photography, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Royal Ontario Museum, Tate, Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. His work is represented by Hales Gallery (New York, London), Materià Gallery (Rome), Stephen Bulger Gallery (Toronto) and Vadehra Art Gallery (New Delhi).Part of Queer PHOTO (Midsumm x PHOTO 2024) photography, british photography, queer photography, race, migration, portrait

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

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

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

Sydney PERN (c1876-23 October 1967 ) Born Battley, England Dr Sydney Pern began practicing medicine in the Victorian town of Yarram before setting up practice in Ballarat. He was a competent artist, and as an amateur anthropologist collected Aboriginal artefacts during travels in Central and Northern Australia. This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 2000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007. Unframed coastal landscape art, artwork, meetung, sydney pern, unframed

Sydney PERN (c1876-23 October 1967 ) Born Battley, England Dr Sydney Pern began practicing medicine in the Victorian town of Yarram before setting up practice in Ballarat. He was a competent artist, and as an amateur anthropologist collected Aboriginal artefacts during travels in Central and Northern Australia. This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 2000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007.Watercolour landscape glued onto card depicting a view towards Mount Dandenong.art, artwork, sydney pern, landscape, mount dandenong

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

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

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

Jenna Lee dissects and reconstructs colonial 'Indigenous dictionaries' and embeds the works with new cultural meaning. Long obsessed with the duality of the destructive and healing properties that fire can yield, this element has been applied to the paper in the forms of burning and mark-making. In Without Us, Lee uses charcoal to conceal the text on the page, viewing this process as a ritualistic act of reclaiming and honouring Indigenous heritage while challenging the oppressive legacies of colonialism. Lee explains in Art Guide (2022), ‘These books in particular [used to create the proposed works] are Aboriginal language dictionaries—but there’s no such thing as “Aboriginal language”. There are hundreds of languages. The dictionary just presents words, with no reference to where they came from. It was specifically published by collating compendiums from the 1920s, 30s and 40s, with the purpose to give [non-Indigenous] people pleasant sounding Aboriginal words to name children, houses and boats. And yet the first things that were taken from us was our language, children, land and water. And the reason our words were so widely written down was because [white Australians] were trying to eradicate us. They thought we were going extinct. The deeper you get into it, the darker it gets. But the purpose of my work is to take those horrible things and cast them as something beautiful.’Framed artwork

Maree Clarke is a pivotal figure in the reclamation of south-east Australian Aboriginal art and cultural practices and has a passion for reviving and sharing elements of Aboriginal culture that were lost – or lying dormant – as a consequence of colonisation. She a leader in nurturing and promoting the diversity of contemporary Koorie artists through her revival of traditional possum skin cloaks, together with contemporary designs of kangaroo teeth necklaces, river reed necklaces and string headbands adorned with kangaroo teeth and echidna quills. River Reed Necklace forms a key element of the artist’s practice regenerating cultural practices and strengthening cultural identity and knowledge. 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 and was the recipient of the Australia Council Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Fellowship.

Josh MUIR (1991- 2022) Yorta Yorta/Gunditjmara/Barkinjl Muir's art draws on hip-hop and street art culture and often depicts the history of indigenous people and European settlers. He spent a lot of time in his teens researching and enjoying public art, especially graffiti. Inspired by the commitment of graffers he was inspired by the concepts they illustrate. He started expressing his own ideas with pen and pad and once the basic concept down and it was tangible and could be converted that to canvas or walls. Muir experimented with spray and stencil work a lot in his teens and later branched out into acrylic paints, paint pens, and digital forms of Art. In 2016 Josh Muir's work 'Still Here', projected onto the front wall of the National Gallery of Victoria was critically acclaimed. At that time he stated: "‘I am a proud Yorta Yorta/ Gunditjmara man, born and living in Ballarat, Victoria. I hold my culture strong to my heart – it gives me a voice and a great sense of my identity. When I look around, I see empires built on aboriginal land. I cannot physically change or shift this, though I can make the most of my culture in a contemporary setting and use my art projects to address current issues of reconciliation." In 2016 Josh Muir was awarded the second recipient of HMS Trust’s Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship at University of Melbourne, based at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). The Fellowship was created to enable Indigenous artists to undertake significant projects of their choice. Computer generated image on canvas.josh muir, aboriginal, artwork, artist, hutchinson indigenous fellowship