Historical information

Eileen Harrison was born in 1948 at the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Mission, Gippsland, Victoria. She lived here until she was 13. The family moved to Ararat. Eileen left school returned to Lake Tyers when she fled form her parents’ house in Ararat, and stayed with Uncle Charlie and Aunt Phyl. Eileen found that Lake Tyers had changed for the worse since her childhood, and she only stayed three months because she found this unsettling.

It wasn’t until 1993 that Eileen reconnected with the education system. To provide support for her daughter Jacey, Eileen took Higher School Certificate subjects at the Macmillan TAFE College in Warragul.
In retrospect, completing the TAFE course was a pivotal moment in Eileen’s life: the “beginning of something”.
Eileen later studied fine arts at the Koorie Unit of the Central Gippsland TAFE in Morwell. She received her Diploma in Cultural Studies and Art in 2003, and was the Central Gippsland TAFE student of the year.
Aunty Eileen Harrison is a true living treasure of Gippsland. A regular exhibitor at Gippsland Art Gallery, Aunty Eileen has inspired thousands of people through her moving coming-of-age novel 'Black Swan: A Koorie Woman’s Life' (co-written with Carolyn Landon in 2011). Aunty Eileen stresses the importance of listening deeply from the heart. Her powerful connection to her mother and grandmother, as well as the animals and land is at the heart of these works.