Nillumbik Prize finalist (2018, 2016, 2015, 2014). The artist lives and works in Nillumbik. Abstract sculpture inspired by the artist attending a local ceremony in Nillumbik to harvest tubers of the Murnong (yam daisy), a traditional staple of the Wurundjeri people. Wirth was also inspired by the writing of Bruce Pascoe. Wirth works intuitively with awareness that meaning may be deciphered through the combination of material/mediums/techniques that she uses randomly. Through the process of experimentation and automatism Wirth allows her work to evolve organically. Wirth is represented in public art collections including: Victorian College of the Arts, Victorian Performing Arts Centre and Ararat Regional Gallery. She also completed a residency at Laughing Waters in 2012. Yellow abstract sculpture woven into a vessel with long tentacles using cotton yarn. N/Afinalist, nillumbik prize, abstract, textile, yellow, vessel, yam

As part of the redevelopment of the Indigenous Coastal Trails, this work was commissioned by Bayside City Council as one of four prints produced in a limited edition of ten. This etching was produced in response to stories of the Boon wurrung people as written by Carolyn Briggs, Boon wurrung elder.Vicki Couzens, Women's journey 2010, etching, 28 x 19.5 cm. Bayside City Council Art and Heritage Collection. Commissioned 2010.etchingetching, journey, vicki couzens, yam, eel, bayside indigenous coastal trail, carolyn briggs

Barbara Weir (b. 1945-03/01/2023) Born: In the region of Utopia, North East of Alice Springs, formerly known as Derry Downs Station Language: Anmatyerre and Alywarr Country: Atnwengerrp, Utopia Region, North East of Alice Springs, Northern Territory One of the Stolen Generation, Barbara Weir was removed from her Aboriginal family at the age of nine, and she was raised in a series of foster homes. Reuniting with her mother, Minnie Pwerle, in the 1960s, Weir eventually returned to her family territory of Utopia, 300 kilometres northeast of Alice Springs. Active in the local land rights movement of the 1970s Barbara Weir was elected the first woman president of the Indigenous Urapunta Council in 1985. Barbara’s career as an artist was inspired by the dynamic community of artists at Utopia and the work of her adopted auntie Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Highly experimental in her approach, Barabara Weir tried many mediums before travelling to Indonesia in 1994 with other artists to explore batik technique. She returned full of ideas on how to develop her own style which has since evolved to a more expressive abstract form. Grass Seed is part of her Dreamings and is associated with women’s ceremony and the activity of food gathering of local seeds, grasses, berries, potato, plum, banana, flowers and yams. This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 1000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007.Barbara Weir's paintings include representations of particular plants and "dreamings". Inspired by a small grass found in Utopia called Lyaw, Munyeroo or Pigsweed, Barbara's Grass Seed paintings consist of a series of small brush strokes that overlap and weave to create a swaying effect. This Dreaming tells the story of grass seed that is part of the bush tucker found in the region of Utopia. This seed is collected, crushed to a fine powder and is then used to make a bread, very similar to damper. The people of Utopia were still using this seed as late as the 1950s. During that time the seed grew in abundance but as the years passed there were very few good seeds to be found due to bullocks roaming the land and eating the grasses. The people then began to eat a substitute that the white man provided, and today very few Aboriginal people collect these seeds. art, artwork, barbara weir, aboriginal, dreaming, stolen generation, acrylic on linen

Poster produced by the City of BrimbankExperience Brimbank|Explore town centres of Deer Park, Keilor, St. Albans, Sunshine & Sydenham|Get up close with nature - Brimbank Park, Maribyrnong River Trail, Organ Pipes, Taylors Creek Trail, Kororoit Creek & Jones Creek Trail|Out and about with the kids - Alice's Playspace, Buckingham Reserve, Cliff Harvey Lagoon Reserve, Isabella Williams Memorial Reserve, Kevin Flint Memorial Reserve & The Lakes Reserve|Key places of interest - H.V. McKay Memorial Park, Overnewton Castle, Bowery Theatre, Black Powder Mill, Keilor Golf Course, Mt. Derrimut Golf Club, Brimbank Cente Shopping Centre, Keilor Central Shopping Centre, Sunshine Marketplace Shopping Centre, Sunshine Plaza Shopping Centre, Watergardens Shopping Centre, Clader Park Thunderdome|Public Art locations - Eagle sculpture Federation Trail Brooklyn, Spiral Graph Seat Lennon Parkway Derrimut, Seeds of Hope and Dreams Drift Alfredia St, Seeds of Hope and Dreams Yam Daisy St. Albans Square, Kangaroo Sculpture Matthews Hill, Reflexio Qualis sculptures Sunshine Bus Interchange and City Place, Man Lifting Cow Hampshire Rdbrimbank

Yhonnie SCARCE (1973- ) Born Woomera, South Australia Language group: Kokatha, Southern desert region and Nukunu, Spencer region Yhonnie Scarce works predominantly in glass. She majored in glass withing a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) course at the South Australian School of Art, Adelaide, and holds a Master of Fine Arts from Monash University. One of the first contemporary Australian artists to explore the political and aesthetic power of glass, Scarce describes her work as ‘politically motivated and emotionally driven’. Scarce’s work often references the on-going effects of colonisation on Aboriginal people, In particular her research focus has explored the impact of the removal and relocation of Aboriginal people from their homelands and the forcible removal of Aboriginal children from their families. (https://thisisnofantasy.com/artist/yhonnie-scarce/, accessed 10 September 2018)Artist's Statement 'The More Bones the Better', 2016 Yhonnie Scarce was born in Woomera, SA and belongs to the Kokatha and Nukunu peoples. Scarce embraces a non traditional approach to glass blowing using glass as more than a mere material, acting as a lens and a mirror, Scarce reflects and exposes the tragedies of Australia’s colonisation. She applies the technical rigours of traditional glass blowing techniques in an innovative and unconventional manner. In particular Scarce uses glass to explore the lives and histories of Aboriginal Australians. Hand blown glass is shaped, engraved, painted and smashed to create indigenous fruits and vegetables such as bush bananas, bush plums and long yams symbolic of her peoples culture and traditions. With their elongated, torso-like shapes, they even evoke human bodies. Akin to a gatherer of bush food Scarce creates glass-gatherings of the persecuted. The repetition of brittle ambiguous bodies collected for experimentation and examination conjures the relentless impact of colonisation and the litany of abuses suffered by Aboriginal people. Within her research Scarce encountered a variety of ethnographic studies examining the use of scientific interventions amongst Indigenous cultures. These include Government sanctioned illegal drug testing of children in orphanages and other dubious medical practices amongst indigenous prison inmates. This work metaphorically looks at these situations and poses questions of what might have gone on in such a laboratory. The judge of the 2017 Guirguis New Art Prize (GNAP), Simon Maidment, Senior Curator, Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Victoria said; “The winning work by Yhonnie Scarce captures the sensitivity to materials she displays throughout her artistic practice. The blown and shattered glass elements are a delicate contrast to the shocking and little discussed histories of Aboriginal exploitation and abuse in the name of science in Australia. Engaging this topic, this work is haunting, in the same way those lived and documented experiences continue to haunt the collective unconscious of this country. Yhonnie Scarce’s work, The More Bones the Better 2016, I believe makes an important contribution to the Collection of Federation University Australia and will engage and move diverse audiences with its technical accomplishment, beauty and message. Yhonnie Scarce was born in Woomera SA and belongs to the Kokatha and Nukunu peoples. Scarce embraces a non-traditional approach to glass blowing using her medium as more than a mere material. Applying the technical rigours of traditional glass blowing in an innovative and unconventional manner, Scarce’s glass objects act as a lens and a mirror to reflect and expose the tragedies of Australia’s colonisation and, in particular, explore the lives and histories of Aboriginal Australians. Hand-blown glass is shaped, engraved, painted and smashed to represent indigenous fruits and vegetables such as bush bananas, bush plums and long yams, symbolic of Scarce’s people’s culture and traditions. While these elongated shapes on the one hand represent fruit and vegetables, gathered and grouped as in the gathering of bush food, Scarce’s torso-like bodies and forms are glass ‘gatherings’ representative of the gathering of people. Here, the many brittle bodies act as a metaphor for the collection, experimentation and examinations undertaken by government authorities on Aboriginal communities researched by Scarce. Exposing a variety of ethnographic studies, examining the use of scientific interventions on Indigenous cultures, Scarce also revealed Government sanctioned illegal drug testing of children in orphanages and other dubious medical practices undertaken on indigenous prison inmates. Scarce’s gatherings also reflect the impact of colonisation and the relentless conjuring and litany of abuses suffered by Aboriginal people. The More Bones the Better metaphorically looks at these situations and poses questions of what was undertaken and investigated in these laboratories. guirguis new art prize, yhonnie scarce, glass, aboriginal

Three pieces of correspondence relating to International Students studying at the Ballarat School of Mines in1966.air-india, letterhead, ballarat school of mines, murray s. peden, e.j. barker, colombo plan, international students, chartri boonsoong, ho pui chan, kam cheong chan, mun choe chan, tong loo cheah, sie yee chen, chi hon cheng, kok tee chong, yen kwong chong, yung nien chu, chit cheng foo, beng chin gan, kim shin gan, tiong huat kang, tam chao koo, huong hieng lau, chong lai lee, eng chye lee, king chung lee, ming liang lee, wai yam lee, yew chai lim, king chye mah, subramanian muniandy, ratnam nachiappan, ping cheung ng, gim sen ong, hum lim ong, kok hai ooi, teck shen poh, wirush rujirawanish, paul samuel, bumrung seilaudom, ling eng tang, suey bee tan, kein long teh, chew hoo teoh, tuah giap tiew, pang chew ting, daisy wont wong, kwok cheung wong, yoon lam wong, chak sim yee, kwo ming yep, asmawi said ibrahim

As part of the redevelopment of the Indigenous Coastal Trails, this work was commissioned by Bayside City Council as one of four prints produced in a limited edition of ten. This etching was produced in response to stories of the Boon wurrung people as written by Carolyn Briggs, Boon wurrung elder.Vicki Couzens, Yams and eels 2010, etching, 28 x 19.5 cm. Bayside City Council Art and Heritage Collection. Commissioned 2010. etchingetching, yams, eels, vicki couzens, bayside indigenous coastal trail, carolyn briggs, bayside

This Murnong was found near La Franchi's hutYellow native plant with yellow flower. The root was eaten by Aboriginal people. murnong, microseris sp., yam daisy, flora

Cliff Beauglehole was an orchardist at Portland, Victoria, who throughout hislife took an intense interest in the plants of Victoria. Over his lifetime he collected 90,000 plant specimens as part of a comprehensive study of Victoria's plants and wrote thirteen books under the heading The Distribution and Conservation of Vascular Plants in Victoria, each written to cover the 13 study areas of the Victorian and Conservation Council.A mounted botanical specimen.beauglehole herbarium, herbarium specimen, botany, herbarium, asteraceae, plant science, plant specimen, microseris scapigera, yam daisy, field naturalists' club ballarat, federation university herbarium