As both an Aboriginal man and a volunteer firefighter Lin was fascinated with the ways in which we interact with fire. Whereas the majority of Australia view fire as a destructive force of nature, Lin saw its inherent beauty as the tool which had helped his people to shape this continent for thousands of years. Fire didn’t just destroy, it cleaned and rejuvenated the land.

Tiriki Onus on behalf of his father Lin Onus, Yorta Yorta

I wanted to show anguish, confinement and the absolute isolation that Custody brings, away from family and people who care or understand. I wrote a few words in my journal: All alone, so alone, kicked and punched, taken away from your world, out of sight of justice, dying behind bars, where no one can see the truth. When I was painting this, I reminded myself of the story my father told my mother as they drove past the boy’s home where he was a young boy of around 8 or 9 years of age. He pointed to the tower on the building and said to my mother, that that was where they locked him up all night in the dark alone, as punishment for not being able to say his rosary. He described the terror and fear he experienced that night, he was just a boy. Trying to imagine the way he felt and what this did to him make me very emotional and angry. He was at the mercy of his keepers, powerless and tortured emotionally. My father's mother was Molly Murray born at Cummeragunja. Her father was Bill Murray a Wiradjuri man, and her mother Lyla/Priscilla Atkinson, Yorta Yorta Clan.

Jenny Murray-Jones, Yorta Yorta

I went on a trip to Asia early in the year and as I wandered around Thailand and Hong Kong I started to think about Aboriginality in a global perspective. This series of works are a response to feeling overwhelmed by globalisation, consumerism and celebrity.

Peter Waples-Crowe, Wiradjuri/Ngarigo

My work is concerned with the emergence of memories: The construction of symbols that embody a cultural Essentialism. They are embodied through the series of changes by interlocking of external and internal worlds. By articulating my Aboriginal consciousness I can maintain an Aboriginal 'body' in this way, the representation of identity and the construction of symbols sustain the art. The reconnecting of memories, experience and emotions maintains a context, which rejects the fragmentation of assimilation colonialism.

Jennifer Mullett, Kurnai/Gunnai/Monero

"I had an intense emotional experience when I first held Uncle Wally's possum skin ball.

After initially being seduced by the softness of the fur I remember a raw wave of emotion surging through my body and a flood of tears that I could not explain. At the time I was working in the Collections and Exhibition departments of the Koori Heritage Trust and learning more about my family and identity through the Family History service there.

My father was born in 1938 in Tibooburra, a small outback town in north-western NSW. In the same year, his great uncles and aunties were forcibly removed on a truck to the Brewarrina Mission because the non Indigenous residents of the town didn’t want their children to go to school with Aboriginal children.

Dad’s family lived on the outskirts of town in tin shacks that had dirt floors, no running water or electricity, and they were racially abused on a regular basis. When he was 14, my father was fostered to a non Indigenous family in Broken Hill, 300 kms south of Tibooburra, by the Aboriginal Welfare Board against the express wishes of his mother and uncles.

After completing his secondary schooling and unable to go to university, Dad travelled to Melbourne to join the airforce, to leave his troubled upbringing behind and to fit in by concealing his identity. My sister and I were both born prior to the 1967 referendum, and in this atmosphere, our parents decided it would be best to not be told of our Aboriginal heritage due to the discrimination so apparent at the time. When I was eleven years old, Dad took our family to Dubbo to meet his mother and one of his sisters who he hadn’t seen for over 15 years. This was a revelation for my sister and I but unfortunately didn’t go well for Dad and this extraordinary event was never spoken about again. After this meeting all our lives changed forever and my father eventually drank himself to an early grave.

I travelled to Tibooburra in 2010 for the first time and experienced the country where my father grew up. The landscape and artifacts at the Tibooburra Local Aboriginal Land Council, fired my imagination.

My father was a Barkindji man and some of the best times we had were kicking a footy."

Kent Morris, Barkindji

Lindsay Kirby's artwork of Australian animals reflect both the traditional style of his Paakintji heritage and influences from Aboriginal artists of other regions.

Lindsay Kirby, Paakintji/Yitti Yitti/Nyari Nyari/Wiradjuri

Deberer (bogong moth) travel hundreds of kilometres from their winter homes to the high country on my country where, in the past we feasted on them in the warmer months.

The long zigzag lines represent the wind currents that deberer fly on and the gentle wavy lines inside deberer demonstrate their ability to use those winds to fly hundreds of kilometres to our country every year.

Mick Harding, Taungurung

This headband design is worn by a dancer during a ‘song and dance’ ceremony. The emu feathers represent the spiritual importance this has to Aboriginal people in Victoria when they came together as people for ceremony and trade.

Marilyne Nicholls, Waddi Waddi/Yorta Yorta/Ngarrinjeri

This hoodie is made for all the woman who want to just: live life, laugh loud; and love eternally!!! Wergaia language: live (murrin), laugh (wek), love (wurrpa).

Beautiful black woman your spirit is a shining star, I can always find you wherever you are. Beautiful black woman that's what I see/A beautiful black woman in you and me/together we'll continue, this Spiritual Dreaming. Let me see you grin/For sister you are wonderful- Be proud at the colour of your skin. I announce to the world that I am - A Black Indigenous woman, with culture, love and respect. I blossom with happiness and take pride in myself. An Aboriginal Woman/I wouldn't want to do anything else.

Kat Clarke, Wotjobaluk

This photo is from a display of scarred Trees that was dedicated to the Traditional Owners of Wotjobaluk Country and in particular, to the memory of Patrick Kennedy. Rest in Peace Old Friend.

Come with me on a journey to Wotjobaluk Country. I would like to share with you some glimpses of the Trees of this Country. As far as I know, there is no other area in the whole of Australia that you would be able to find so many scarred trees so close together.

You will hear the People of the Land speak through their Trees. They tell of what they had, seen through the eyes of the Trees.

Trees were the supermarkets of the Land. They provided food, shelter, transport, medicines, tools and weapons. These scarred Trees are a testimonial to the skills of the People, who harvested the canoes, coolamons and shields without taking the life of the Tree.

The scarred Trees are a witness to a way of life, and freedom for the People to roam at will throughout their own Country.

I feel deeply emotionally stirred and saddened that what we can see of this way of life and identity, with the traditions of language, customs, beliefs and culture, were not able to be passed down through the generations. The Government policies and mission life all played a part ……….. and yet, some of the government policies and missions may have saved us from total extinction.

These scarred Trees are a reminder of the past, and they are linked to all Trees. Take the memory of these scarred Trees with you forever. Share their story with your Family.

Take too this gift

Close your eyes and hug a Tree.

The heartbeats you hear is your heart beat and the heart beat of the Tree.

For a brief short moment, you and the Tree are One.

In time, you, the Tree, and I will become as One, as we return to our

Spiritual Mother, the Land.

Close your eyes and hug a Tree.

This eel trap is made of hay bale twine. In 2012 we did a healing walk from Lake Bolac to Hopkins Falls. There were about 6 artists on the walk, 20 of us all up. We had to take something and make something from that walk. I got the hay bale twine from a farmer from Woorndoo and that's what I made.

Sandra Aitken, Gunditjmara

The techniques I used were based on visits with my Uncles over many years. One Uncle taught me the technique of making string from the stringy bark tree. The other Uncle taught me the technique of collecting and making the bonding agent, i.e. resin gum. The third Uncle taught me the importance of recognising our protocols especially in recreating objects relating to our culture.

Len Tregonning, Gunnai/Kurnai

Tribe: two sculptures with thirty eight pieces in each representing the men and the women of the thirty eight plus tribes of Victoria.

Lee Darroch, Yorta Yorta/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung

I see something and I will have a go at experimenting to see if I can make it. And this is the outcome. I am happy with it.

Bronwyn Razem Gunditjmara/Kirrae Wurrong