Artists statement

"I like painting. In particular, I like painting colours because they make me feel happy. When I am working it feels like nobody, or no force could interfere. This painting is about dancing and what an important part of our spiritual growth and culture it is." - Uncle Brian Birch

Artist Bio

Born in Fitzroy, Brian Birch is Wurundjeri and was 'the only boy in [his] family to be reared by all the matriarchs'. His grandmother is Yarra Yarra and lived in a humpee on the Yarra, near Dights Falls. Brian attended the George Street State School from age 5 to 12, after which he went to Victoria Park trade school in Collingwood. He subsequently completed a five-year apprenticeship with Julius Marlow shoes. He married at 17 and has 5 children. Fitzroy b.1936 Yarra Yarra. Brian Birch was born in Fitzroy, Melbourne in 1936. He completed a Certificate III in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Arts at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE in 2005 and won the National Gallery of Victoria Acquisitive Art Award in the 2006 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards for his painting, Koorie Elders and Family Dancing and Singing, 2006. Uncle Brian Birch passed into the Dreaming in 2024.