Following military service in the second world war, Clifton Pugh studied under artist Sir William Dargie at the National Gallery School in Melbourne as well as Justus Jorgensen, founder of Montsalvat. For a while he lived on the dole but also worked packing eggs for the Belot family saving sufficient to purchase six acres (2.4 ha) of land at Barreenong Road, Cottles Bridge. He accumulated more land and persuaded several other artists and friends to buy land nearby, resulting in a property of approximately 200 acres, stablishing it as one of the first artistic communes in Australia alongside Montsalvat in Eltham. It was around 1951 that Pugh felt he had '"done moochin' around" and so the name of the property evolved. He bought timber from Alistair Knox to build his house on the crest of a hill. Inspired by local goldminer's huts, it was a one room wattle-and-daub structure with dirt floor. Over the years it expanded with thick adobe walls made from local clay, high ceilings and stone floors. All materials other than the local earth were sourced from second hand materials, most found at wreckers' yards. Artists from across the nation were drawn to Dunmoochin, with several setting up houses and shacks on the property, maintaining their independence but sharing their artistic zeal. Artists who worked or resided at Dunmoochin included Mirka Mora, John Perceval, Albert Tucker, Fred Williams, Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd and John Olsen. In 2002, Pugh's house along with its treasure trove of art and a library of some 20,000 books was destroyed by fire. Traces of Pugh's home remain with the presence of the Victorian doorframe archway with leadlight of intricate design, procured from a demolished Melbourne mansion; and two bronze life-sized female statues created by Pugh and cast by Matcham Skipper. In place of Pugh's house rose two double-storey mud-brick artists' studios topped with corrugated iron rooves curved like the wings of a bird with accommodation for seven. The original studios, gallery and other buildings survived the fire. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p155 It’s not surprising that artist Clifton Pugh was drawn to Cottles Bridge to establish his artists’ colony Dunmoochin. Undisturbed by the clamour of modern life at Barreenong Road, Pugh was surrounded by the Australian bush he loved, and where his ashes were later scattered. The 200 acres (81ha) of bushland, broken by glimpses of rolling hills, has more than 50 species of orchids and Pugh shared his property with native animals including kangaroos, emus, phascogales, wombats, and diverse bird life. Pugh encouraged these creatures to join him in the bush by creating, with Monash University, a holding station where the animals were raised. Dunmoochin inspired Pugh for such paintings as in a book on orchids and the Death of a Wombat series.1 But his love for the bush was accompanied by the fear that Europeans were destroying it and much of his painting illustrated this fear and his plea for its conservation.2 However it was his house rather than the surrounding bush that was to be destroyed. Tragically in 2002 Pugh’s house, with its treasure of art and library of 20,000 art books, was destroyed by fire. Traces of the beauty of Pugh’s home still remain, however, in the magnificent Victorian doorframe archway with leadlight of intricate design procured from a demolished Melbourne mansion; and two bronze life-sized female statues created by Pugh and cast by Matcham Skipper. Now in place of Pugh’s house, are two double-storey mud-brick artists’ studios topped with corrugated roofs curved like birds’ wings, with accommodation for seven. The original studios, gallery and other buildings remain.3 Pugh grew up on his parents’ hobby farm at Briar Hill and attended the Briar Hill Primary School, then Eltham High School and later Ivanhoe Grammar. At 15 he became a copy boy for the Radio Times newspaper, then worked as a junior in a drafting office. Pugh was to have three wives and two sons. After serving in World War Two in New Guinea and Japan, Pugh studied under artist Sir William Dargie, at the National Gallery School in Melbourne.4 Another of his teachers was Justus Jörgensen, founder of Montsalvat the Eltham Artists’ Colony. Pugh lived on the dole for a while and paid for his first six acres (2.4ha) at Barreenong Road by working as an egg packer for the Belot family. Pugh accumulated more land and persuaded several other artists and friends to buy land nearby, resulting in the 200 acre property. They, too, purchased their land from the Belot family by working with their chickens. Around 1951 Pugh felt he had ‘Done moochin’ around’ and so the name of his property was born. Pugh bought some used timber from architect Alistair Knox to build his house on the crest of a hill. Inspired by local goldminers’ huts it was a one-room wattle-and-daub structure with a dirt floor. It was so small that the only room he could find for his telephone was on the fork of a tree nearby.5 Over the years the mud-brick house grew to 120 squares in the style now synonymous with Eltham. It had thick adobe walls (sun-dried bricks) made from local clay, high ceilings and stone floors with the entire structure made of second-hand materials – most found at wreckers’ yards. Pugh’s first major show in Melbourne in 1957, established him as a distinctive new painter, breaking away from the European tradition ‘yet not closely allied to any particular school of Australian painting’.6 Pugh became internationally known and was awarded the Order of Australia. He won the Archibald Prize for portraiture three times, although he preferred painting the bush and native animals. In 1990 not long before he died, Pugh was named the Australian War Memorial’s official artist at the 75th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli. Today one of Pugh’s legacies is the Dunmoochin Foundation, which gives seven individual artists or couples and environmental researchers the chance to work in beautiful and peaceful surroundings, usually for a year. By November 2007, more than 80 people had taken part, and the first disabled artist had been chosen to reside in a new studio with disabled access.1 In 1989, not long before Pugh died in 1990 of a heart attack at age 65, he established the Foundation with La Trobe University and the Victorian Conservation Trust now the Trust for Nature. Pugh’s gift to the Australian people – of around 14 hectares of bushland and buildings and about 550 art works – is run by a voluntary board of directors, headed by one of his sons, Shane Pugh. La Trobe University in Victoria stores and curates the art collection and organises its exhibition around Australia.2 The Foundation aims to protect and foster the natural environment and to provide residences, studios and community art facilities at a minimal cost for artists and environmental researchers. They reside at the non-profit organisation for a year at minimal cost. The buildings, some decorated with murals painted by Pugh and including a gallery, were constructed by Pugh, family and friends, with recycled as well as new materials and mud-bricks. The Foundation is inspired by the tradition begun by the Dunmoochin Artists’ Cooperative which formed in the late 1950s as one of the first artistic communes in Australia. Members bought the land collaboratively and built the seven dwellings so that none could overlook another. But, in the late 1960s, the land was split into private land holdings, which ended the cooperative. Dunmoochin attracted visits from the famous artists of the day including guitarists John Williams and Segovia; singer and comedian Rolf Harris; comedian Barry Humphries; and artists Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd and Mirka Mora. A potters’ community, started by Peter and Helen Laycock with Alma Shanahan, held monthly exhibitions in the 1960s, attracting local, interstate and international visitors – with up to 500 attending at a time.3 Most artists sold their properties and moved away. But two of the original artists remained into the new millennium as did relative newcomer Heja Chong who built on Pugh’s property (now owned by the Dunmoochin Foundation). In 1984 Chong brought the 1000-year-old Japanese Bizan pottery method to Dunmoochin. She helped build (with potters from all over Australia) the distinctive Bizan-style kiln, which fires pottery from eight to 14 days in pine timber, to produce the Bizan unglazed and simple subdued style. The kiln, which is rare in Australia, is very large with adjoining interconnected ovens of different sizes, providing different temperatures and firing conditions. Frank Werther, who befriended Pugh as a fellow student at the National Gallery Art School in Melbourne, built his house off Barreenong Road in 1954. Werther is a painter of the abstract and colourist style and taught art for about 30 years. Like so many in the post-war years in Eltham Shire, as it was called then, Werther built his home in stages using mud-brick and second-hand materials. The L-shaped house is single-storey but two-storey in parts with a corrugated-iron pitched roof. The waterhole used by the Werthers for their water supply is thought to be a former goldmining shaft.4 Alma Shanahan at Barreenong Road was the first to join Pugh around 1953. They also met at the National Gallery Art School and Shanahan at first visited each weekend to work, mainly making mud-bricks. She shared Pugh’s love for the bush, but when their love affair ended, she designed and built her own house a few hundred yards (metres) away. The mud-brick and timber residence, made in stages with local materials, is rectangular, single-storey with a corrugated-iron roof. As a potter, Shanahan did not originally qualify as an official Cooperative member.This collection of almost 130 photos about places and people within the Shire of Nillumbik, an urban and rural municipality in Melbourne's north, contributes to an understanding of the history of the Shire. Published in 2008 immediately prior to the Black Saturday bushfires of February 7, 2009, it documents sites that were impacted, and in some cases destroyed by the fires. It includes photographs taken especially for the publication, creating a unique time capsule representing the Shire in the early 21st century. It remains the most recent comprehenesive publication devoted to the Shire's history connecting local residents to the past. nillumbik now and then (marshall-king) collection, art gallery, clifton pugh, dunmoochin, cottlesbridge, cottles bridge, barreenong road

Great Hall at Montsalvat built 1938-52, designed by Justus Jorgensen Covered under National Estate, National Trust of Australia (Victoria) State Significance, Victorian Heritage and Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p129 At first glance, Montsalvat, the artists’ community at Hillcrest Avenue, Eltham, could belong to another time and place. The French provincial Gothic-style buildings blend picturesquely with the introduced and native trees and farm animals on the five hectare property. But Montsalvat belongs very much to today’s Eltham, having inspired much of its creative activity and style. The use of mud-brick and recycled building materials, for which Eltham is so well-known, was largely popularised by Montsalvat. Montsalvat – unique in Victoria and probably in Australia – is registered by the National Trust and National Estate.1 Montsalvat, named after the castle of the Knights of the Holy Grail, has attracted artists and intellectuals since it was founded in 1934. For years at weekends, artists, lawyers, philosophers, politicians and others, who shared a love for what Montsalvat stood for, gathered for a meal and stimulating discussion. The focus for this gathering of talent was Justus Jörgensen, an eccentric man with vision and charisma. It was Jörgensen’s foresight that saw the creation of Montsalvat, which in 1975 was formed into a trust to benefit the Victorian people. The property was then valued at about three million dollars. It is now visited by thousands of people annually. Born in 1894 and brought up a Catholic, Jörgensen had trained as an architect. He later studied painting at the National Gallery School under artist, Frederick McCubbin, then joined the studio of artist Max Meldrum. In 1924, Jörgensen married medical student Lillian Smith, and with artist friends they travelled to Europe to study the great masters. In London Jörgensen exhibited in several major galleries. One of his still life paintings was included in the book The Art of Still Life by Herbert Furst, which featured 100 of the greatest ever still life paintings.2 In 1929, Jörgensen returned to Melbourne where Lil, now qualified, worked as an anaesthetist at St Vincent’s Hospital. They bought a small house in Brighton and Jörgensen rented a large building in Queen Street for his studio until the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria bought it in 1955. While designing and overseeing the building of a studio for his friend the famous cartoonist Percy Leason, in Lavender Park Road, Jörgensen decided to buy land for a country retreat in Eltham. So the building of Montsalvat began. Jörgensen gathered around a dozen of his friends and students from his Queen Street studio. They set to work, first at weekends then some decided to live permanently on the site. Jörgensen had seen mud-brick buildings in Spain and recognised that Eltham’s clay soil was ideal for mud-bricks and although labour intensive, it was a very cheap way of building. Jörgensen’s students and friends worked under his direction with the help of local tradesmen, including carpenter, Len Jarrold and later stone mason, Horrie Judd. In return Jörgensen would give the students a painting lesson or two. It was the Great Depression when many were out of work. Jörgensen also inspired people to give generously of money and materials. With their help Jörgensen found second-hand materials for building. Friends donated slate for roofing, discarded firebricks were used for flooring and windows and doors and a cast-iron circular staircase came from a wrecker. The students’ day started at 7am with building and domestic chores, shared equally between the sexes. The first building was used by his friends at weekends and then became a home for his wife Lil. It consisted of three rooms and an attic under a high-pitched roof. Jörgensen then built a similar structure with the same high-pitched roof as a more permanent home for his students. The two buildings were joined together with a tower and a studio for Jörgensen. While excavating for the studio a reef of yellow mud-stone was found and then used in construction. The next building was the Great Hall, to be used for dining, exhibitions and meetings and completed in 1958, after a halt during the war. Whelan the Wrecker donated the stone-framed windows from the building that housed the Victorian Insurance Co. in Collins Street, which had been demolished in the 1930s. The swimming pool was donated and cubicles were built for the students with their initials marked in tiles on each doorstep.1 One of Jörgensen’s great abilities was to recognise how to use material which harmonised. He would comb through wreckers’ yards for what he needed. Regarding his buildings as sculptural pieces, his first consideration was for the aesthetic quality of a building and only then for its functionality.2 At Montsalvat, Jörgensen found he was able to put his ideas into practice without compromise and those who worked with him had to conform to his ideas. With the Jörgensens, the colony’s original nucleus consisted of the Skipper family – Mervyn and wife Lena, daughters Helen and Sonia and son Matcham,who was to become an eminent jeweller and sculptor represented in National Gallery collections throughout Australia and in European museums.3 Other members were Arthur Munday, Lesley Sinclair, Helen Lempriere, Ian Robertson, John Smith, George Chalmers, John Busst and Sue Van der Kellan; also Jörgensen’s three sons – Max, Sebastian and Sigmund – and Saskia, Sonia Skipper and Arthur Munday’s daughter. Montsalvat went through some hard times when local gossips spread rumours of sexual shenanigans at Montsalvat. However Montsalvat also had many local supporters – especially amongst the local tradespeople. The colony was certainly unconventional – with Jörgensen’s wife Lil (and son Max) and life-time partner Helen Skipper, (mother of Sebastian and Sigmund) living at Montsalvat. Sonia Skipper says in her biography that the group were ‘very conscious of their responsibilities to each other and a desire to make their relationships work’.4 By World War Two many buildings around the Great Hall were completed. Jörgensen was a pacifist, as were most of his students. Some of the Montsalvat community enlisted while others engaged in essential services like dairy farming and market gardening for the war effort. It was then that Jörgensen constructed farm buildings. After the war many well-known personalities such as Clifton Pugh, landscape gardener Gordon Ford, and builder Alistair Knox, were drawn to Montsalvat. They learnt that building was not a ‘sacred cow’ only for professionals, but that anyone who was willing to get their hands dirty could do it. The post-war shortage of materials also encouraged builders to follow Montsalvat’s lead in reusing materials. When Jörgensen died in 1975, his influence did not – thanks largely to the vigilance of his son, Sigmund, who became its administrator. The weekend dinners have gone, but in 2008 about 14 artists still work at Montsalvat – some living there – including a couple who have been there since its early days. Under Sigmund’s direction Montsalvat further expanded its activities which included festivals, art exhibitions, concerts and weddings. Sigmund completed the Chapel, then the Long Gallery next to the pool, After the barn burnt down, he replaced it in 1999 (the builder was Hamish Knox, Alistair’s son) with a new gallery and entrance and added a restaurant. Sigmund has been careful that any new building blends in with the character of Montsalvat. In 2006 Montsalvat was restructured for its continued financial viability and with the help of Arts Victoria a new executive officer was appointed. A representative board from the wider community was established, which includes members from the former Montsalvat Trust including Sigmund Jörgensen – who is now the heritage and arts adviser to the new company Montsalvat Ltd.5 Today, visiting Montsalvat one still sees artists, students and visitors enjoying the unique and beautiful surroundings.This collection of almost 130 photos about places and people within the Shire of Nillumbik, an urban and rural municipality in Melbourne's north, contributes to an understanding of the history of the Shire. Published in 2008 immediately prior to the Black Saturday bushfires of February 7, 2009, it documents sites that were impacted, and in some cases destroyed by the fires. It includes photographs taken especially for the publication, creating a unique time capsule representing the Shire in the early 21st century. It remains the most recent comprehenesive publication devoted to the Shire's history connecting local residents to the past. nillumbik now and then (marshall-king) collection, eltham, great hall, montsalvat

The Wreck of Hope (Long-nosed Common Dolphin skeleton, Delphinus delphis) featured as part of the exhibition Anatomy Lessons, shown at the National Wool Museum in 2024. The exhibition featured meticulously-sculpted, life size skeletons, making visitors question their place in this web of the living and the dead. From a towering giraffe stretching 4.4 metres in height, to an army of over 50 delicately rendered frogs, this exhibition was enthralling in scale. Each sculpture is an accurate portrayal of a real animal and is carefully measured, drawn, and moulded from steel, wire, and foam. The frame is then intricately knitted over to create these thought-provoking pieces. Each sculpture tells a story, one of the collection of animals by museums and collectors, of Western safari hunters, of human encroachment, and of the often-sad role of the animals in our lives. These underlying concepts are explored and reflected by the materials used. Wool, that speaks of warmth, of comfort, of care, meets the size, grace, and sheer breathtaking beauty of the pieces, clashing with the hard and complex stories beneath. This knitted dolphin skeleton was the start of Beevor's interest in comparative anatomy. Beevors recalls viewing a dolphin, one of many skeletons alongside a mouse and a lion in the Australian Museum's collection during a school visit in the 1970s. At the time, school children watched TV reruns of 'Flipper', which portrayed dolphins as intelligent and noble animals. Elsewhere, the conservation movement was growing, and appeals to protect marine mammals were gaining momentum through the 'Save the Whales' campaign. The fascination with live dolphin shows had grown throughout the 1960s and 1970s and the ethics began to be questioned. Some believe they played an important role in raising public awareness of cetaceans and their welfare. Others argued the performances glorified the dominance of heroic trainers over the subordinate dolphin, and offered little education about the dolphins' natural characteristics nor prioritised their welfare. Many of these facilities are now closed and all dolphin species are protected by international accords aimed at conserving wild populations. Despite this dolphins are still at risk of swallowing plastic waste, mercury toxicity, toxoplasmosis, boat impacts and being bycatch in commercial fishing operations. Originally from Australia, Michele Beevors has been practicing in New Zealand for the last 20 years. She is Head of Sculpture at Dunedin School of Art, Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand’s oldest, and one of its most prestigious, art schools. Beevors has exhibited in galleries, museums, and exhibition spaces in across New Zealand, Australia and Vienna with art that is defiant, unconventional, and moving.Life sized knitted skeleton of a dolphin, with white wool and internal steel, foam and wire frame. The dolphin is mounted on a wooden base, made from a desk, with books placed under the desk lid. The books and desk are painted black.knitting, art, dolphin, conservation, sculpture, skeletons, anatomy lessons, michele beevors

Angel featured as part of the exhibition Anatomy Lessons, shown at the National Wool Museum in 2024. The exhibition featured meticulously-sculpted, life size skeletons, making visitors question their place in this web of the living and the dead. From a towering giraffe stretching 4.4 metres in height, to an army of over 50 delicately rendered frogs, this exhibition was enthralling in scale. Each sculpture is an accurate portrayal of a real animal and is carefully measured, drawn, and moulded from steel, wire, and foam. The frame is then intricately knitted over to create these thought-provoking pieces. Each sculpture tells a story, one of the collection of animals by museums and collectors, of Western safari hunters, of human encroachment, and of the often-sad role of the animals in our lives. These underlying concepts are explored and reflected by the materials used. Wool, that speaks of warmth, of comfort, of care, meets the size, grace, and sheer breathtaking beauty of the pieces, clashing with the hard and complex stories beneath. The smallest of Beevors’ knitted pieces was made while reflecting on the global tropical fish trade. At the time, press reports predicted that the imminent release of the film ‘Finding Dory’ would increase demand for pet tropical fish. People enjoy a good fish story, but studies have revealed that widespread reports of the ‘Nemo Effect’ following the debut of the film’s predecessor, ‘Finding Nemo’, were exaggerated. Data collected to assess people’s interest in blue tang, the species of the title character in ‘Finding Dory’, revealed an increase in online searches for “blue tang”, but no evidence of an increase in their trade or visits to public aquariums to observe them. When discussing the action and attitude effects of pop culture depictions of animals, it is necessary to investigate evidence-based material. Pop culture, wildlife documentaries, web videos, blogs, and news stories: there is a great ocean of content to consume, but the mechanisms by which witnessing these representations of animals and nature leads to tangible behaviour change, positive or bad, individual and social, remains poorly understood. In a world inundated with messaging and content, could a simple phrase like “fish are friends, not food” influence attitudes? Originally from Australia, Michele Beevors has been practicing in New Zealand for the last 20 years. She is Head of Sculpture at Dunedin School of Art, Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand’s oldest, and one of its most prestigious, art schools. Beevors has exhibited in galleries, museums, and exhibition spaces in across New Zealand, Australia and Vienna with art that is defiant, unconventional, and moving.Knitted white woollen fish skeleton, with black pupil.knitting, art, conservation, sculpture, skeletons, anatomy lessons, michele beevors, fish, angel fish

This silver wool-holder was sold as a souvenir at the British Empire Exhibition of 1924-5. This exhibition was staged to strengthen the bonds of the British Empire and 56 of the 58 nations or territories within the Empire participated. Wembley Stadium was built for the Exhibition and called then Empire Stadium. 27,000,000 visited the exhibition in the two years of is existence. Wembley Stadium survived until 2003 when it was rebuilt. This wool-holder is of interest as an example of the type of household item that would have been in a more affluent home in the 1920s. It is also of interest as an example of the type of souvenir sold at the British Empire Exhibition in 1924-5. It is a useful and attractive display item.This is a silver circular-shaped wool holder which was a souvenir of the British Empire Exhibition held at Wembley in 1924-5. It has four silver segments held together at each end with silver pins. The segments have an open fretwork pattern and can retract and open to allow material to be stored and to be easily accessible to the knitter or needleworker. The Wembley emblem with the image of an Art Deco lion is welded onto one of the segments. This silver ball could also be used as a pomander to hold perfumed material and to be placed in a wardrobe or cupboard.‘Wembley’ british empire exhibition, wembley 1924-5, pomander, wool holder

Printed invitation for the opening of the Trammies Exhibition, Immigration Museum, Access Gallery prepared for Warren Doubleday. Invitation featuring a MMTB 6d ticket on the front, giving basic details of the exhibition and on the rear, opening details. Features Connies Performance Troupe logo, BTM logo and VicHealth Smokefree logo. Used on Thursday 20/2/2003. Opened by Peter Batchelor MP, Victorian Minster for Transport. Supplementary File contains papers concerning the exhibition and BTM involvement. See also Reg Item 2454 2455, 2457 for other parts of the exhibition.trams, tramways, trammies, exhibitions, immigration museum, connies

Set of three items associated with a letter from Ken Craven, Secretary of the AETA to John Belot. .1 - White DL size envelope with the five of the Oct 1989 Historic Tramway Stamps with the tram cancellation stamp dated 11 October 1989. Has the "Australia's Historic Tramways" logo in the lower left hand corner, hand addressed to John Belot and the stamp for the stamp show Melbourne 18-22 October 1989 in the bottom right hand corner. On the rear has details of the stamp issue, W.K. Craven's address stamp, and two cancellation stamps - Blackburn 11 Oct. 1989 and Caulfield Post Office stamp. .2 - Handwritten letter from Ken Craven, Secretary of the AETA to John Belot, noting the exhibition at Box Hill and his forthcoming trip to NZ and the Transport Art ticket enclosed. .3 - Transporting Art tram No. 13 ticket No. 0085, dated 17th July 1989, Jenyns tram (Lorraine and Bob). See also Reg Items 470 to 474 for other examples and associated materials and 510 for a Poster. On the rear are detail of the stamp issue, the designers and cover design.trams, tramways, stamps, australia post, aeta, letters, transporting art

Mounted decal "The Melbourne Tram" - glued to green vinyl covered craftwood or similar timber. Has a hanging strip or cord with two metal lugs screwed into the mounting material on rear. Mounted by "The Exhibition Centre" Randal advised that Y469 was painted dark green very briefly in 1992 - an initiative of the Kirner Government to operate "The Melbourne Tram" as a tourist service. See also the front cover of the PTC "Changing Times", Vol 2, No. 22, 18 June 1992 - htd539i4 for the launch of the tourist tram service. See Reg Item 627 for a brochure or pamphlet for the service and 669 for a complimentary ticket. See Reg item 5962 for a calendar image of the tram.trams, tramways, the met, logos, decal, y class, tourist trams

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