Biyala Baya Kaiela (Red Gum River)

Biyala Bala Kaiela (Red Gum River) Kaeila Arts, Shepparton

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Biyala Bala Kaiela (Red Gum River) Kaeila Arts, Shepparton Carers

Front: Suzanne Atkinson, Yakapna (Family) 2019, raffia, 115 x 115 cm (irregular) Left: Cynthia Hardie, Bush Tucker Coolaman 2020, Ceramic – unglazed with gold leaf mendings, 60 x 30 cm (irregular)

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EXHIBITINGARTISTS Amy Briggs Cynthia Bux Cynthia Hardie Dylan Charles Eva Ponting Jack/Craig Anselmi Kella Robinson Laurel Briggs Robinson Melissa Cowan Norm Stewart Suzanne Atkinson Tammy-Lee Atkinson

Left clockwise from top: Kaiela (Goulburn River) outside Shepparton, Red River Gums, Dungala (Murray River), Buloke Wattles

introduction

Biyala Bala Kaiela (Red Gum River) is a research and art project initiated by the artists of Shepparton’s Aboriginal art centre, Kaiela Arts.

Kaiela (the Goulburn River ) which runs through Shepparton and Dungala (the Murray River) form the huge Riverland area at the top of Victoria and into NSW. This beautiful country which includes extensive floodplains, is home to the Yorta Yorta people and was once filled with a huge diversity of flora and fauna. Grasslands were rich in wildflowers, herbs, orchids and lilies; woodlands dotted with Grey Box and Buloke Wattles and floodplains supported forests of majestic River Red Gums, wattles and sedges.

Due to the degrading of this fragile eco system by European agricultural practice over the last 250 years, much of this vegetation has now died out.

Many of Kaiela Arts 90 artists have long had a commitment to researching the Indigenous ecology of their region with the resulting artworks the physical, cultural and artistic manifestation of this research.

The works in this exhibition have been created by 12 Kaiela artists in response to an invitation by the Mornington Peninsula’s Everywhen Artspace in mid 2019 to present an exhibition of the work of Kaeila artists at Everywhen in April 2020.

The subject for the exhibition – the bringing back to life of the once rich flora of the Kaiela Dungala region through research and art – was decided on by Kaeila’s senior ‘aunties’ with artists starting the research towards the end of 2019. Research included trips to the Kaiela flood plains at Shepparton and in Kaiela Arts workshop space with aunties and younger artists sitting around the large central table sharing stories passed on from previous generations.

As the artists listened to the stories and visualised the plants and their uses, they sketched and wove – the artworks taking shape with ever increasing surety as their own memories and knowledge evolved.

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As Kaiela Arts manager Angie Russi notes, “Many of the artists under 60 weren’t aware of many of the plants as they largely no longer exist. They were fascinated and inspired to learn of them and the ways that Yorta Yorta people used them. These include for dyeing, for medicinal purposes, and the great variety that formed the staple diet.”

“It’s hugely important that this knowledge is passed on and recorded by new generations so it’s not lost entirely.”

Making art, she says, is a great way of recording this knowledge permanently.

Yorta Yorta ‘aunties’ include Amy Briggs who grew up the one-time mission of Cummeragunja and who records memories of her trips going out with her father in their tin boat, looking at all the wildlife; Cynthia Bux portrays both the leaves used for healing and a plant called ‘old man weed’ and Laurel Briggs Robinson’s paintings of bull rushes and a platypus tap her childhood memories of the time when “Dungala used to run beautiful and clear, fish were plentiful as were the ducks and the black swans”.

Award winning ceramicist Cynthia Hardie’s stunning Bush Tucker Coolamon is finished with gold leaf edges or ‘mendings’ to “indicate the ongoing mending of our Aboriginal culture and the precious nature of our collective past” while her paintings include those of coloured barks, the milk thistle and gumtrees at sunset and her weavings include dilly bags decorated with fine wires depicting witchetty grubs and campsites.

Young Yorta Yorta artist Dylan Charles who spent much of his youth with family in the Barmah Forest has painted elders collecting bush plums and ruby salt bush on Country with a snake representing Biami, the rainbow Serpent and a central rondel to represent the medicine trees on Yorta Yorta country used by elders for healing – both spiritual and phsyical.

Gunditjmara weaver and artist Eva Ponting’s works include sophisticated organic raffia and stringybark weavings as well as a linocut which represents her ‘weaving journey’; Yorta Yorta award winning artist Jack/Craig Anselmi has depicted “Four Yorta Yorta ladies talking by the

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stars” and a delicate large drawing of the gumnuts of the red gum tree that “needs a very hot fire to germinate for future regrowth”. Yorta Yorta artist Suzanne Atkinson’s large weaving Yakapna (Family) she describes as her journey – “mapping my movements along the three rivers and where my life began with my husband, at Cummeragunja, NSW to my mother’s birth place of Mooroopna.”

Younger artist Melissa Cowan documents the striking green ‘marshwort’ plant in paintings and ‘On the Woka (land)’ – an inventive woven raffia basket dyed with paprika, coffee and turmeric and finished with natural bead work. Yorta Yorta artist and Kaiela cultural tutor Tammy Lee Atkinson’s sophisticated acrylics feature the common heath, gum leaves and black cotton bush.

Kella Robinson born in Western New South Wales and who moved to Shepparton on her retirement tells an extraordinary story in her modest watercolour ‘Toe Trees’ of the trees at Lake Jellico, central NSW – so named because of the men’s practice of cutting small ‘toe holds’ in the trunks in order to scale the trees to hunt for possums, birds-eggs and possibly to have a vantage point from which to survey the surrounding country.

Striking for their representation of men’s traditional weapons are the three extraordinary carved and decorated wooden battle shields by Yorta Yorta and Kwat Kwat artist Norm Stewart.

Depicting the traditional marks of the fresh water Dungala country, the shields were inspired by the work of Stewart’s great, great grandfather, the famous 19th century artist Tommy McRea.

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ABOUT KAIELA ARTS Established in 2006, Kaiela Arts is an Aboriginal art centre located in Shepparton, Victoria.

Representing some 90 artists, Kaiela provides an important space for artists and the community to connect with art and culture. Artists are supported to develop their practice through training and mentoring at the centre which also assists with exhibition and award possibilities – resulting in works being exhibited around Victoria and winning prestigious awards as well as appearing in interstate events such as the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair. All artwork is produced locally by members of the Dungala Kaiela Aboriginal community. Media includes paintings, didgeridoos, woven baskets, woodwork, ceramics, clap sticks, boomerangs, jewellery, carved emu eggs and poker work and well as books, cards and textiles. Kaiela artists are active in promoting the South Eastern Australian Aboriginal linear art styles, traditional to the Aboriginal peoples of the Kaiela-Dungala region.

In late 2020 Kaiela Arts is entering a new and exciting phase as a significant presence with workshop and studio facilities and display spaces in the inclusive, multi-dimensional new $50 million Shepparton Art Museum, designed by Denton Corker Marshall, located on the entrance to town and adjacent to a parkland overlooking the Victoria Park Lake.

With thanks to all the wonderful Kaiela artists who have worked with such joyous commitment and with such a great result on this project. We are deeply sorry that due to Covid-19 we had to postpone our plans for the gallery exhibition due to open with Eric Brown’s didgeridoo playing and the weaving demonstration by Suzanne Atkinson and Eva Ponting scheduled for Everywhen on April 4, 2020. We thank you all for sending us the works for this exhibition and a special thanks to the Mornington Peninsula’s Baluk artist Lisa Waup who was to have given an address at the opening, Kaiela manager Angie Russi, assistant manager Mandy Saunders and curator Eric Brown.

Susan McCulloch & Emily McCulloch Childs May 2020

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Amy Briggs

Born in 1950 in Mooropna, Amy Briggs is a Yorta Yorta woman. A mother and grandmother she grew up on the Dungala (Murray River) at Cummeragunja and now lives mostly in Shepparton. She says: ‘As an artist, I love the amazing and inspiring journey with our group of elders, coming together and working on our art and telling our stories. Kaiela Arts is a place of learning, healing and hope”.

Amy says this painting is her recollections of the flooding in the bush around Cummeragunja.

“Going out in the flood waters with my dad in a tin boat, looking at the wildlife”.

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1. Amy Briggs, Flooding of the Dungala 2020, watercolour on paper, 60 x 50cm MM4936 | $890

CynthiaBux 2. Cynthia Bux, Healing Leaves 2020, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 100 cm MM4950 | $1500

Cynthia Bux is a Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman who grew up in the bush near Munatunga Mission before moving to Robinvale with her parents and five siblings. After her father passed away, her mother, a strong Moonaculla woman taught her how to look for Malee roots, make didgeridoos and boondies (sand cakes). She also taught her to fish, hunt and to recognise bush foods and animals. Her mother went on to become the first Koori Educator in Robinvale.

Her grandfather was a Wiradjuri man and her grandmother a Yorta Yorta woman from Swan Hill who both greatly influenced her life. Her grandfather taught her how to make boomerangs, spears, shields, carved emu eggs, boondies and wood burnings. Her grandmother taught her to make feather flowers. After moving to Shepparton-Mooroopna and with the encouragement from Aunty Kay Morgan she began to paint. Her works are now in national and international collections.

Cynthia is married and has seven children and seven grandchildren. She has travelled extensively around Australia and is inspired by the beauty of the outback and wildflowers.

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CynthiaBux 3 Cynthia Bux, Old Man Weed 4 2020, acrylic on canvas, 91 x 61cm MM4949 | $1200

Cynthia Bux is a Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman who grew up in the bush near Munatunga Mission before moving to Robinvale with her parents and five siblings. After her father passed away, her mother, a strong Moonaculla woman taught her how to look for Malee roots, make didgeridoos and boondies (sand cakes). She also taught her to fish, hunt and to recognise bush foods and animals. Her mother went on to become the first Koori Educator in Robinvale.

Her grandfather was a Wiradjuri man and her grandmother a Yorta Yorta woman from Swan Hill who both greatly influenced her life. Her grandfather taught her how to make boomerangs, spears, shields, carved emu eggs, boondies and wood burnings. Her grandmother taught her to make feather flowers. After moving to Shepparton-Mooroopna and with the encouragement from Aunty Kay Morgan she began to paint. Her works are now in national and international collections.

Cynthia is married and has seven children and seven grandchildren. She has travelled extensively around Australia and is inspired by the beauty of the outback and wildflowers.

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Cynthia Hardie 4. Cynthia Hardie, Bush Tucker Coolaman 2020, Ceramic – unglazed with gold leaf mendings, 60 x 30 cm (irregular) MM4946 | $890

Cynthia Hardie was born and raised in Mooroopna and over the years has filled her home with her beautiful creations. Reluctant to part with anything, she says her home is almost full to the rafters Her paintings adorn canvas, rocks, emu eggs, timber, papiermache bowls, clap sticks boomerangs, anything she can get her hands on and often more than one thing at a time.

Her love of art and craft began as a child and has continued throughout her life.

Mostly self- taught, she enjoys teaching her granddaughters how to paint, sharing her art supplies and painting small canvases and boomerangs.

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In 2016 she was joint winner with Jack Anselmi of the Indigenous Ceramic Art Award for the installation piece, Midden. Her themes include stories and connection to place.

Wildlife, totems including long-neck turtles, emu, kangaroo. She works in a wide variety of media including acrylics. wood, feathers, weaving and ceramics.

Cynthia says “coolamons carried food and babies and are still an important symbol of our culture. My coolamon has been mended with gold leaf to indicate the ongoing mending of our Aboriginal culture and the precious nature of our collective past�.

Cynthia Hardie 5. Cynthia Hardie, Dilly Bag – Witchetty Grub 2020, string and wire, 32 x 27 cm MM4945 | $490

Cynthia Hardie was born and raised in Mooroopna and over the years has filled her home with her beautiful creations. Reluctant to part with anything, she says her home is almost full to the rafters Her paintings adorn canvas, rocks, emu eggs, timber, papiermache bowls, clap sticks boomerangs, anything she can get her hands on and often more than one thing at a time.

Her love of art and craft began as a child and has continued throughout her life.

Mostly self- taught, she enjoys teaching her granddaughters how to paint, sharing her art supplies and painting small canvases and boomerangs.

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In 2016 she was joint winner with Jack Anselmi of the Indigenous Ceramic Art Award for the installation piece, Midden. Her themes include stories and connection to place.

Wildlife, totems including long-neck turtles, emu, kangaroo. She works in a wide variety of media including acrylics, wood, feathers, weaving and ceramics.

She says this knitted string bag features witchetty grubs made from wire.

Cynthia Hardie 6. Cynthia Hardie, Dilly Bag (Campsite) 2020, String (woven and knitted), 32 x 27 cm MM4941 | $490

Cynthia Hardie was born and raised in Mooroopna and over the years has filled her home with her beautiful creations. Reluctant to part with anything, she says her home is almost full to the rafters Her paintings adorn canvas, rocks, emu eggs, timber, papiermache bowls, clap sticks boomerangs, anything she can get her hands on and often more than one thing at a time.

Her love of art and craft began as a child and has continued throughout her life.

Mostly self- taught, she enjoys teaching her granddaughters how to paint, sharing her art supplies and painting small canvases and boomerangs.

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In 2016 she was joint winner with Jack Anselmi of the Indigenous Ceramic Art Award for the installation piece, Midden. Her themes include stories and connection to place.

Wildlife, totems including long-neck turtles, emu, kangaroo. She works in a wide variety of media including acrylics. wood, feathers, weaving and ceramics.

She says this knitted string bag features the design of a camp site which she made in wire.

Cynthia Hardie 7. Cynthia Hardie, Bark of Many Colours 2020, watercolour on paper, 42 x 32 cm MM4940 | $570

Cynthia Hardie was born and raised in Mooroopna and over the years has filled her home with her beautiful creations. Reluctant to part with anything, she says her home is almost full to the rafters Her paintings adorn canvas, rocks, emu eggs, timber, papiermache bowls, clap sticks boomerangs, anything she can get her hands on and often more than one thing at a time. Her love of art and craft began as a child and has continued throughout her life.

Mostly self- taught, she enjoys teaching her granddaughters how to paint, sharing her art supplies and painting small canvases and boomerangs. In 2016 she was joint winner with Jack Anselmi of the Indigenous Ceramic Art Award for the installation piece, Midden.

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Her themes include stories and connection to place. Wildlife, totems including long-neck turtles, emu, kangaroo. She works in a wide variety of media including acrylics, wood, feathers, weaving and ceramics.

She says this is a painting of the bark which has ‘many colours.’

Cynthia Hardie 8. Cynthia Hardie, Old Man Gum Tree at Sunset 2020, watercolour on paper, 64 x 41cm MM4939 | $890

Cynthia Hardie was born and raised in Mooroopna and over the years has filled her home with her beautiful creations. Reluctant to part with anything, she says her home is almost full to the rafters Her paintings adorn canvas, rocks, emu eggs, timber, papiermache bowls, clap sticks boomerangs, anything she can get her hands on and often more than one thing at a time. Her love of art and craft began as a child and has continued throughout her life.

Mostly self- taught, she enjoys teaching her granddaughters how to paint, sharing her art supplies and painting small canvases and boomerangs. In 2016 she was joint winner with Jack Anselmi of the Indigenous Ceramic Art Award for the installation piece, Midden.

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Her themes include stories and connection to place. Wildlife, totems including long-neck turtles, emu, kangaroo. She works in a wide variety of media including acrylics, wood, feathers, weaving and ceramics.

This work is the ‘old man gum tree with long roots in the water. The colour of the bark is reflected in the water when the sun sets’.

Cynthia Hardie 9. Cynthia Hardie, Barkobany (Milk Thistle) 2020, acrylic on canvas board, 53 x 73cm MM4932 | $380

Cynthia Hardie was born and raised in Mooroopna and over the years has filled her home with her beautiful creations. Reluctant to part with anything, she says her home is almost full to the rafters Her paintings adorn canvas, rocks, emu eggs, timber, papiermache bowls, clap sticks boomerangs, anything she can get her hands on and often more than one thing at a time.

Her love of art and craft began as a child and has continued throughout her life.

Mostly self- taught, she enjoys teaching her granddaughters how to paint, sharing her art supplies and painting small canvases and boomerangs.

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In 2016 she was joint winner with Jack Anselmi of the Indigenous Ceramic Art Award for the installation piece, Midden. Her themes include stories and connection to place.

Wildlife, totems including long-neck turtles, emu, kangaroo. She works in a wide variety of media including acrylics. wood, feathers, weaving and ceramics. She says this knitted string bag features the design of a camp site which she made in wire.

This work is of the milk thistle which helps ease the itch of bites and scratches.

Dylan Charles 10. Dylan Charles, Salt Bush & Plum, Surrounding the Medicine Tree 2020, acrylic on canvas, 140 x 97 cm MM4954 | $3500

Dylan grew up in Shepparton and spent many years with family at Cummeragunja (Barmah). He recounts how he learnt to get Sardi Grubs with his grandfather who passed away when Dylan was four years old. He says, “I learnt the majority of my culture from my Uncle (Mum’s brother) and he’s still teaching me now. I spent a lot of time at the Charles/ Walker bend of Dungala (second on the left hand side! ) When I was younger going to the ochre mines was a really spiritual experience for me and also going to the sandhills where our law and initiation took place over time.”

“I like to interpret from the stars because our Nan told us that the stars are our map and so I like to reference the night sky in my work like the Emu in the sky. I like to imagine that I am looking from above - a bird’s eye view! I also like to mirror that view - the land and sky in the one view in my work, which represents the connection between the sky and the earth.”

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Dylan uses ochre in his paintings because he says “it feels more connected to my traditions.

It has a spiritual feel for me My Uncle Shane has always told me I am from the Dulunyagan bloodline to Ulupna. Our language group in Yorta Yorta and this language is classed as endangered due to colonisation and language and culture being forbidden”.

This painting represents elders collecting bush plums and ruby salt bush on country.

“The snake represents Biami, the rainbow Serpent, the center landscape represents the medicine trees on Yorta Yorta country, where elders took medicine for healing spiritually and physically. The flowers represent the growth of the salt bush and berries, the white hands sacredness the diamond on the land of Yorta Yorta. The snake represents that a man painted it and the U shape is the elders on country collecting roots.”

Eva Ponting 11. Eva Ponting, Weaving Journey 2020, linoprint on rice paper, two sided, framed under glass. 28 x 28 cm (image), 35 x 35 cm (frame) MM4952 | $1300

Eva Ponting is a Gunditjmara woman born in 1965. She is a mother, nanna, aunt, sister wife and friend from the “Rose mob”. She started her art studies at GOTAFE Shepparton in 2007 in a Koorie Arts class where she says “my journey of art started. I love to do different types of art – weaving, painting, jewellery, lino, prints and etching.”

With a diploma in graphic design at TAFE she has been a professional artist since around 2010. In 2012 she undertook a 7-month Indigenous Arts Residency at the Shepparton Art Museum where she was able to extend her experience in facilitation of groups as well as working on the delivery of public programs for the Indigenous Ceramic Award.

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A member artist at Kaiela Arts she is also one of Kaiela’s workshop facilitators instructing weaving groups. Highly talented, Eva is a dedicated artist who is serious about developing her professional network and reputation as an artist.

Works such as this linoprint on rice paper which pays tribute to her work as a weaver, demonstrate her ability as an imaginative and skilled weaver and artistic creator.

Eva Ponting 12. Eva Ponting, Inspire 2020, woven raffia, framed under glass, 15 x 15 cm weaving, 52 x 44 cm frame MM4951 | $1300

Eva Ponting is a Gunditjmara woman born in 1965. She is a mother, nanna, aunt, sister wife and friend from the “Rose mob”. She started her art studies at GOTAFE Shepparton in 2007 in a Koorie Arts class where she says “my journey of art started. I love to do different types of art – weaving, painting, jewellery, lino, prints and etching.”

With a diploma in graphic design at TAFE she has been a professional artist since around 2010. In 2012 she undertook a 7-month Indigenous Arts Residency at the Shepparton Art Museum where she was able to extend her experience in facilitation of groups as well as working on the delivery of public programs for the Indigenous Ceramic Award.

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A member artist at Kaiela Arts she is also one of Kaiela’s workshop facilitators instructing weaving groups. Highly talented, Eva is a dedicated artist who is serious about developing her professional network and reputation as an artist.

Works such as this raffia weaving demonstrate her ability as an imaginative and skilled weaver and artistic creator.

Jack/Craig Anselmi 13. Jack/Craig Anselmi, Red Gum Gumnuts 2020, Pen/Pencil drawing, 68 x 99 cm MM4948 | $1600

Yorta Yorta man Jack Anselmi was born in 1965 at Mooroopna, Victoria. A regular participating artist at Kaiela Arts, Jack enjoys sharing his knowledge with others and learning new skills. He is highly regarded for his striking animal carvings, sculptures and ceramics. Jack has received various commissions including from Melbourne University and Goulburn Valley Grammar School.

In 2016, Jack Anselmi worked with fellow artist Cynthia Hardie to create a large ceramic installation called ‘Midden’ for the Indigenous Ceramic Art Award at Shepparton Art Museum. ‘Midden’ was one of five shortlisted entries and won the 2016 Award for its innovative use of the medium of ceramic.

A recurring theme in his ceramics is the long-neck turtle which is the Yorta Yorta totem. Jack breathes life into previously inanimate objects whether in wood or ceramic, his animals have an energy about them that is captivating.

This highly skilled, finely-drawn pen and pencil work depicts the red gumnuts that Jack Anselmi says: ‘need a very hot fire to germinate for future regrowth.’

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Jack/Craig Anselmi

Yorta Yorta man Jack Anselmi was born in 1965 at Mooroopna, Victoria. A regular participating artist at Kaiela Arts, Jack enjoys sharing his knowledge with others and learning new skills. He is highly regarded for his striking animal carvings, sculptures and ceramics. Jack has received various commissions including from Melbourne University and Goulburn Valley Grammar School.

In 2016, Jack Anselmi worked with fellow artist Cynthia Hardie to create a large ceramic installation called ‘Midden’ for the Indigenous Ceramic Art Award at Shepparton Art Museum. ‘Midden’ was one of five shortlisted entries and won the 2016 Award for its innovative use of the medium of ceramic.

A recurring theme in his ceramics is the long-neck turtle which is the Yorta Yorta totem. Jack breathes life into previously inanimate objects whether in wood or ceramic, his animals have an energy about them that is captivating.

This painting is of four Yorta Yorta ladies talking by the stars.

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14. Jack/Craig Anselmi, Yorta Yorta Ladies Talking 2020, charcoal on canvas, 70 x 100 cm MM4934 | $2400

Kella Robinson

Kella was born in a small town called Hilston in western NSW and moved to Victoria after her retirement. She became interested in art and is an active member of the Dungala- Kaiela art program, where she says she “ enjoys the treasure with other like-minded women.”

This work she says comes from her childhood memories and shows a number of ‘Toe Trees’ at Lake Jellico, in central NSW. “Toe trees’ were so called due to the men cutting small ‘toe holds’ in the trunks in order to scale the trees to hunt for possums, birds-eggs and possibly have a vantage point from which to survey the surrounding country.

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15. Kella Robinson, Toe Trees 2020, watercolour on paper, 54 x 41.5 cm MM4937 | $570

Laurel Robinson

Laurel Briggs Robinson is a Yorta YortaWurunjeri woman born at Mooroopna, Vic. She grew up in Shepparton where she attended school to her teenage years. She then went to Melbourne and worked as a telephonist, then to Sydney NSW and work for the Aboriginal medical service for 40 years. She returned to Shepparton and later, joining Kaiela Arts, she realised that she could express her “hidden feelings” in art as well as the memories of her childhood.

She says. “I do love working with the other elders and exchanging stories. I think it’s important that we pass our stories onto the younger generations.”

“This work is my memories of my childhood, of the Murray River, when the river (Dungala) used to run beautiful and clear, fish were plentiful as were the ducks and the black swans.”

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16. Laurel Robinson, Bull rushes 2020, watercolour on paper, 60 x 50 cm MM4938 | $890

Laurel Robinson

Laurel Briggs Robinson is a Yorta Yorta-Wurunjeri woman born at Mooroopna, Vic. She grew up in Shepparton where she attended school to her teenage years. She then went to Melbourne and worked as a telephonist, then to Sydney NSW and work for the Aboriginal medical service for 40 years. She returned to Shepparton and later, joining Kaiela Arts, she realised that she could express her “hidden feelings” in art as well as the memories of her childhood.

She says. “I do love working with the other elders and exchanging stories. I think it’s important that we pass our stories onto the younger generations.”

This painting is of the platypus “also called duckling a small amphibious Australian mammal noted for its odd combination of primitive features, and special adaptations. They are common in the waterways of Eastern Australia they generally feed on bottom dwelling invertebrate, also occasional cray fish and insects. This shy creature forages most actively from dusk to dawn sheltering during the day in burrows”.

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17. Laurel Robinson, Berranga (Platypus) 2020, watercolour on paper, 60 x 50 cm MM4935 | $890

Melissa Cowan 18. Melissa Cowan, Wavy Marshwort 2020, acrylic on canvas, 93 x 93 cm MM4955 | $1500

Melissa Cowan is a Yorta Yorta woman born in 1990. Her passion is art and photography and she has worked as a photographer before embarking on her visual arts practice in painting. She is currently studying Certificate II Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Arts at GOTAFE, Shepparton. She enjoys working on community-based projects such a murals and also exhibits with Kaiela Arts.

Melissa is inspired by Country, stories and a connection to place. The wildlife in the surrounding area including wild brumbies are common themes in her work. She also works in acrylics on wood and weaving.

In this painting she is depicting the wavy marshwort floating free. Normally found in still shallow water it can still be found growing wild in Barmah forest and Loche Garry – a large natural lake in the Lower Goulburn National Park near Shepparton.

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Melissa Cowan 19. Melissa Cowan, On The Woka (Land) 2020, woven raffia & wooden beads, 20 x 10.5 cm MM4953 | $390

Melissa Cowan is a Yorta Yorta woman born in 1990. Her passion is art and photography and she has worked as a photographer before embarking on her visual arts practice in painting. She is currently studying Certificate II Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Arts at GOTAFE, Shepparton. She enjoys working on community-based projects such a murals and also exhibits with Kaiela Arts.

Melissa is inspired by Country, stories and a connection to place. The wildlife in the surrounding area including wild brumbies are common themes in her work. She also works in acrylics on wood and weaving.

Her woven raffia bowl is hand dyed using paprika, coffee and turmeric and finished with natural bead work.

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Norm Stewart After leaving Munatunga, Norm and his siblings became wards of the state of Victoria in 1965; “We were taken from our Grandmother’s care and I spent several years in the institution before being released back to family. During my school years I enjoyed the art classes but never took it to seriously only until in the later years of my life that I began to have an interest in the arts especial through my great, great grandfather Tommy McRrae’s ink sketches; His drawings have inspired me to paint our culture.’

Norm Stewart was born to Norman Stewart Snr and Ellen Morgan at home in Nowra NSW in 1958.

He is a Yorta Yorta and Kwat Kwat man whose connection to country is through his great, great grandfather Bagot Morgan who originated from Cummeragunja NSW. and also his great, great grandfather – the famous 19th century artist Tommy McCrae who originated from around the area where Corowa/Wahgunyah is today; this is known as Kwat Kwat country.

After moving to follow the picking season the family ended up living at Robinvale with Norm’s Grandmother on a small mission called Munatunga. As a young boy Norm has fond memories of this place specially when he hunted for bush tucker or made canoes out of corrugated iron during the flood sea son this enabled us to collect yabbies, turtles and pelican eggs.

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As a newcomer to the arts Norm originally tried several different media to find which he would prefer most. These include clay, wood carvings, and acrylic and watercolour paintings.

“My style can be a bit vast at times and quite vivid,” he says.” At first I began painting in the Aboriginal (dot) style then attempted portraiture and landscape paintings. This then encouraged me to broaden my knowledge of the arts.”

In 2013 Norm enrolled at Deakin University for a three-year Visual Art Degree. This helped him understand the finer points of painting and assisted in strengthen his style and technique.

He completed only the first year of the degree due to obtaining full time employment. Norm paints as often as he can in his spare time.

“Painting has been a great outlet which allows me to relax and express myself.”

This carved shield is a battle shield from the clan group Yalaba Yalaba of the Yorta Yorta people. The markings are Yorta Yorta and the red & white are traditional colors of Yorta Yorta. Yalaba Yalaba is one of the traditional clans that make up the Yorta Yorta nation.

20. Norm Stewart, Yalaba Yalaba Shield 2020, carved wood, 84cm (l) x 15cm (w) MM4957 | $3500

Norm Stewart After leaving Munatunga, Norm and his siblings became wards of the state of Victoria in 1965; “We were taken from our Grandmother’s care and I spent several years in the institution before being released back to family. During my school years I enjoyed the art classes but never took it to seriously only until in the later years of my life that I began to have an interest in the arts especial through my great, great grandfather Tommy McRrae’s ink sketches; His drawings have inspired me to paint our culture.’

Norm Stewart was born to Norman Stewart Snr and Ellen Morgan at home in Nowra NSW in 1958.

He is a Yorta Yorta and Kwat Kwat man whose connection to country is through his great, great grandfather Bagot Morgan who originated from Cummeragunja NSW. and also his great, great grandfather – the famous 19th century artist Tommy McCrae who originated from around the area where Corowa/Wahgunyah is today; this is known as Kwat Kwat country.

After moving to follow the picking season the family ended up living at Robinvale with Norm’s Grandmother on a small mission called Munatunga. As a young boy Norm has fond memories of this place specially when he hunted for bush tucker or made canoes out of corrugated iron during the flood sea son this enabled us to collect yabbies, turtles and pelican eggs.

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As a newcomer to the arts Norm originally tried several different media to find which he would prefer most. These include clay, wood carvings, and acrylic and watercolour paintings.

“My style can be a bit vast at times and quite vivid,” he says.” At first I began painting in the Aboriginal (dot) style then attempted portraiture and landscape paintings. This then encouraged me to broaden my knowledge of the arts.”

In 2013 Norm enrolled at Deakin University for a three-year Visual Art Degree. This helped him understand the finer points of painting and assisted in strengthen his style and technique.

He completed only the first year of the degree due to obtaining full time employment. Norm paints as often as he can in his spare time.

“Painting has been a great outlet which allows me to relax and express myself.”

This carved shield is of the Yorta Yorta/Kwat Kwat people and of which Norm says the “traditional marks refer to our country – the fresh water country of the Dungala-Murray River”.

21. Norm Stewart, Yalaba Yalaba 2020, carved wood, 93 x 10.5cm MM4959 | $2200

22. Norm Stewart, Yalaba Yalaba 2020, carved wood, 96 x 10.5 cm MM4933 | $2200

Suzanne Atkinkson 23. Suzanne Atkinkson, Yakapna (Family) 2020, raffia, 115 x 115 cm (irregular) MM4956 | $9900

Suzanne Atkinson is a Yorta Yorta woman, mother and grandmother born in 1970. She is a talented artist who practises in a range of media, including traditional weaving, ceramics, painting, poetry and wood burning.

Taking inspiration from her mother’s creative talent and her own ability to make artwork from what nature provides, from 2015 Suzanne has also studied Visual Art for a Bachelor of of Contemporary Visual Arts at Deakin University .

She is currently enrolled in Certificate 3, Visual Arts Centre for Koorie Education, GOTAFE, Shepparton. In 2018, Suzanne presented her first solo exhibition titled ‘Perfectly Imperfect’ at Kaiela Arts Shepparton.

The title of this raffia weaving is ‘Yakapna’ which means family in Yorta Yorta. Suzanne says: “This story is about my journey, mapping my movements along the three rivers and where my life began with my husband at Cummeragunja, NSW, to my mother’s birth-place of Mooroopna.”

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Tammy-Lee Atkinson 24. Tammy-Lee Atkinson, Gum Leaves 2020, acrylic on canvas, 52 x 80 cm MM4958 | $780

Yorta Yorta woman Tammy-Lee Atkinson was born in 1988. Proud of her Aboriginal heritage, she loves to learn and share personal and familial stories about her culture. Being able to express her own story through painting, drawing and photography, she attaches strong symbolic meaning to images that represent her traditional culture in contemporary art contexts.

Tammy-Lee completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts at IKE at Deakin University in 2016 and she is currently enrolled in Certificate 3, Visual Arts, Centre for Koorie Education, GOTAFE, Shepparton. Since 2014, Tammy-Lee has worked as a tutor in Aboriginal art and culture at Kaiela Arts and has presented works in group shows in Shepparton, Melbourne and also at the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair (DAAF).

Her work includes representations of totems/ symbols, trees, sunsets and line designs.

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Tammy-Lee Atkinson 25. Tammy-Lee Atkinson, Black Cotton Bush 2020, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 90 cm MM4944 | $1700

Yorta Yorta woman Tammy-Lee Atkinson was born in 1988. Proud of her Aboriginal heritage, she loves to learn and share personal and familial stories about her culture. Being able to express her own story through painting, drawing and photography, she attaches strong symbolic meaning to images that represent her traditional culture in contemporary art contexts.

Tammy-Lee completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts at IKE at Deakin University in 2016 and she is currently enrolled in Certificate 3, Visual Arts, Centre for Koorie Education, GOTAFE, Shepparton. Since 2014, Tammy-Lee has worked as a tutor in Aboriginal art and culture at Kaiela Arts and has presented works in group shows in Shepparton, Melbourne and also at the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair (DAAF).

Her work includes representations of totems/ symbols, trees, sunsets and line designs.

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Tammy-Lee Atkinson 26. Tammy-Lee Atkinson, Yellow Danam (plant) 2020, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 60 cm MM4943 | $750

Yorta Yorta woman Tammy-Lee Atkinson was born in 1988. Proud of her Aboriginal heritage, she loves to learn and share personal and familial stories about her culture. Being able to express her own story through painting, drawing and photography, she attaches strong symbolic meaning to images that represent her traditional culture in contemporary art contexts.

Tammy-Lee completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts at IKE at Deakin University in 2016 and she is currently enrolled in Certificate 3, Visual Arts, Centre for Koorie Education, GOTAFE, Shepparton. Since 2014, Tammy-Lee has worked as a tutor in Aboriginal art and culture at Kaiela Arts and has presented works in group shows in Shepparton, Melbourne and also at the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair (DAAF).

Her work includes representations of totems/ symbols, trees, sunsets and line designs.

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Tammy-Lee Atkinson 27. Tammy-Lee Atkinson, Common Heath 2020, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 60 cm MM4942 | $750

Yorta Yorta woman Tammy-Lee Atkinson was born in 1988. Proud of her Aboriginal heritage, she loves to learn and share personal and familial stories about her culture. Being able to express her own story through painting, drawing and photography, she attaches strong symbolic meaning to images that represent her traditional culture in contemporary art contexts.

Tammy-Lee completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts at IKE at Deakin University in 2016 and she is currently enrolled in Certificate 3, Visual Arts, Centre for Koorie Education, GOTAFE, Shepparton. Since 2014, Tammy-Lee has worked as a tutor in Aboriginal art and culture at Kaiela Arts and has presented works in group shows in Shepparton, Melbourne and also at the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair (DAAF).

Her work includes representations of totems/ symbols, trees, sunsets and line designs.

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EVERYWHEN Artspace specialises in contemporary Australian Aboriginal art featuring paintings, barks, ochres, ceramics, sculptures and works on paper from 40 + Aboriginal art centres from around Australia.

Directors Susan McCulloch OAM and Emily McCulloch Childs.

EVERYWHEN Artspace 39 Cook Street, Flinders VIC 3929 T: +61 3 5989 0496 E: info@mccullochandmcculloch.com.au mccullochandmcculloch.com.au