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

This work was created during a program called Flipping the Script, funded via Wyndham City Council and Creative Victoria, August - September 2018. The project was aimed at young women from the African diaspora, to provide an opportunity to learn methods of digital and visual storytelling.african diaspora, portrait, photography, digital, australian first nations art, first nations photography

This work was created during a program called Flipping the Script, funded via Wyndham City Council and Creative Victoria, August - September 2018. The project was aimed at young women from the African diaspora, to provide an opportunity to learn methods of digital and visual storytelling.african diaspora, digital, portrait, photography, australian first nations art, first nations photography

This work was created during a program called Flipping the Script, funded via Wyndham City Council and Creative Victoria, August - September 2018. The project was aimed at young women from the African diaspora, to provide an opportunity to learn methods of digital and visual storytelling.african diaspora, digital, portrait, photography, australian first nations art, first nations photography

This work was created during a program called Flipping the Script, funded via Wyndham City Council and Creative Victoria, August - September 2018. The project was aimed at young women from the African diaspora, to provide an opportunity to learn methods of digital and visual storytelling.african diaspora, portrait, photography, digital, australian first nations art, first nations photography

This work was created during a program called Flipping the Script, funded via Wyndham City Council and Creative Victoria, August - September 2018. The project was aimed at young women from the African diaspora, to provide an opportunity to learn methods of digital and visual storytelling.african diaspora, portrait, photography, digital, australian first nations art, first nations photography

This work was created during a program called Flipping the Script, funded via Wyndham City Council and Creative Victoria, August - September 2018. The project was aimed at young women from the African diaspora, to provide an opportunity to learn methods of digital and visual storytelling.african diaspora, portrait, photography, digital, australian first nations art, first nations photography

This work was created during a program called Flipping the Script, funded via Wyndham City Council and Creative Victoria, August - September 2018. The project was aimed at young women from the African diaspora, to provide an opportunity to learn methods of digital and visual storytelling.african diaspora, photography, digital, portrait, australian first nations art, first nations photography

This work was created during a program called Flipping the Script, funded via Wyndham City Council and Creative Victoria, August - September 2018. The project was aimed at young women from the African diaspora, to provide an opportunity to learn methods of digital and visual storytelling.african diaspora, portrait, digital, photography, australian first nations art, first nations photography

This work was created during a program called Flipping the Script, funded via Wyndham City Council and Creative Victoria, August - September 2018. The project was aimed at young women from the African diaspora, to provide an opportunity to learn methods of digital and visual storytelling. african diaspora, portrait, photography, digital, australian first nations art, first nations photography

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

The Kangaroo Hoppet is Australia’s premier long distance cross country ski race, and a member of the Worldloppet series of international cross country ski events. The first race at Falls Creek was held in 1979 under the name of “Australian Birkebeiner”. It was a 21km race with about 80 participants organised by the Birkebeiner Nordic Ski Club of Mount Beauty. The course started and finished at Falls Creek Alpine Resort and took participants out into the Bogong High Plains. After running the event for 10 years, it was decided they should become part of the Worldloppet series of marathon ski races. Representatives from the Birkebeiner Nordic Ski Club and the Australian Ski Federation attended the Worldloppet Annual Meeting in Finland in June 1990 to put the case for the acceptance of an Australian event into the Worldloppet series. Before being admitted, they had to demonstrate that the Birkebeiner Club could run a world class event, so three months later in August 1990 a 42km event named the Australian International Ski Marathon was held at Falls Creek together with a 21km Birkebeiner race and a 7km event called the Birkebeiner Lite. The event was approved by delegates from USA, Norway and Austria, in 1991 Australia became the 12th member of Worldloppet, with the condition that there had to be a name change. After some late night discussion allegedly involving red wine from North East Victoria the main event became the 42km Kangaroo Hoppet, with the minor events being the 21km Australian Birkebeiner, and 7km Joey Hoppet. In the winter of 1991, the first Kangaroo Hoppet was held. It was a great success and has been a regular fixture on the international ski calendar ever since. It features the main 42km event as well as a 21km event and a 7km event. The Hoppet brings the Australian snowfields to an international audience. In 2019 the Kangaroo Hoppet attracted 1070 entries from 26 nations. The Men's Winner was Valerio Leccardi from Switzerland in a time of 1:43:19.5. The winner of the Women's event was Iris Pessey of France in a time of 2:04:29.2. This poster is significant because it documents an event which brings international attention to Falls Creek and the surrounding region.A poster featuring an image of a lone skier with mountains in the background. Logos of Worldloppet, AGL, Falls Creek, Alpine Shire Council, Victorian State Government, the Birkebeiner Nordic Ski Club. FIS and Kangaroo Hoppet are across the bottom of the poster. Text: KANGAROO HOPPET No. 29 24 August 2019 FALLS CREEK AUSTRALIA 7 km 21 km 42 km Beside the logos: www.hoppet.com.au kangaroo hoppet, worldloppet events, falls creek, mt. beauty

This lapel pin originates from the Birkebeiner Lodge in Norway. The cross country ski race which originated there in 1932 was the inspiration for the annual Kangaroo Hoppet Race held in Falls Creek, Victoria. The Kangaroo Hoppet is Australia's premier long distance cross country ski race, and a member of the prestigious Worldloppet series of international cross country ski events. The first race at Falls Creek was held in 1979 under the name of “Australian Birkebeiner”. The course started and finished at the alpine ski village of Falls Creek, and took participants out into the wilderness area of the Bogong High Plains. Later, 42km became the main distance and after a few name changes, the name of Kangaroo Hoppet was adopted in 1990. The lapel pin was owned and donated by Diana Patterson who was a talented cross country skier. She was born in Tasmania and originally pursued a career as a physical education teacher. After making a major career change, she applied to join the Australian Antarctic Division. She applied four times before she was accepted. Diana first travelled to the Antarctic in October 1987. By this time only ten Australian women had spent a winter there. She first worked at Casey Station, before becoming leader at Mawson Station therein becoming the first female leader of an Antarctic base of any nation. After retiring Diana guided tourist expeditions to the Antarctic for many years, as well as continuing work in research and conservation. In 2012 she published her story “The Ice Beneath My Feet: My Year In Antarctica”. Diana Patterson was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for "service to conservation and the environment”. As well as these outstanding career achievements, Diana has been a Board Member of both the Mt. Buller Alpine Resort Management Board, including a period as Chairman, and also the Falls Creek Resort Management Board. She was also a founding member of Falls Creek Historical Society.This medal belonged to a highly recognised Australian and founding member of the Falls Creek Historical Society.A small gold lapel pin from the Birkebeiner Lodge in the form of a Nordic skier with the name beneath it.diana patterson, falls creek, cross country skiing, kangaroo hoppet

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