Speaking at 11:00am

Denise Robinson is a palawa (Trawlwoolway) woman with Scottish/English matrilineage. The greater part of Denise’s work within the creative sector is towards building capacity for Tasmanian Aboriginal practitioners. An artist, administrator, advisor, broker, and mentor she has held a diverse range of roles across government, business, community, and industry sectors as well as managing her own arts practice. She has sat on numerous Arts and Community committees, panels, and boards, including the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s (TMAG) Board of Trustees and Aboriginal Arts Advisory Council.

Denise was appointed as Indigenous Fellow Creative Arts with the School of Creative Arts and Media in October 2022.

Speaking at 11:00am

Cheryl Rose is a Pataway (Burnie) based artist from lutruwita’s north-west. As a multi-media artist Cheryl’s work is inspired by, and responds to the coastal lands, sky and sea that surround her. Her work endeavours to reflect her relationship with the northwest coastal region capturing all that is contained within through intimate and intricate studies of her ‘place’. Cheryl’s work is deeply informed by her community, culture and country.

Committed to sharing and passing on her creative skills and passion Cheryl conducts regular workshops in painting, drawing, and printmaking for her community. Projects include Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre Elder and Youth workshops, University of Tasmania’s ‘Pets Project’, Tasmanian State Government’s Art for Public Space Commissions, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s taypani milaythina-tu: Return to Country, as well as facilitating several health and wellbeing workshops for Alcohol and Other Drugs agencies.

Speaking at 11:30am

Drawing on both personal and collective histories, Tony Albert’s multidisciplinary practice considers the ways in which optimism might be utilised to overcome adversity. His work poses crucial questions such as how do we remember, give justice to, and rewrite complex and traumatic histories? Albert’s commitment to connecting and collaborating with other Indigenous artists and the wider community within his practice, has made him an integral part of Australia’s visual arts sector and the wider Australian community. This commitment was recently acknowledged by Griffith University who awarded him an honorary doctorate for his achievements in the arts.

Albert is the first Indigenous artist on the board of trustees for the Art Gallery of New South Wales, a member of the Art Gallery of New South Wales Indigenous advisory, a board member for the City of Sydney’s Public Art Panel and member of the Queensland Children’s Hospital Arts in Health committee.

Speaking at 11:30am

Warraba Weatherall is a Kamilaroi visual artist, Lecturer at Griffith University and PhD candidate, who is currently based in Meanjin (Brisbane). Warraba’s artistic practice has a specific interest in archival repositories and structures, and the life of cultural materials and knowledges within these environments. Warraba is also a lecturer for the Contemporary Australian Indigenous Arts (CAIA) degree at Griffith University’s, Queensland College of Art. Warraba is passionate about shifting cultural norms within the Australian visual arts sector and contributes to the sector through artistic practice, education and curation.

Speaking at 12:00pm

Jonathan Jones is a Sydney-based artist of the Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi nations of south-east Australia. He works closely with communities to create a range of projects that talk to both the historical and contemporary. His projects are grounded in research and work with elders and community to tell local stories. Jones has exhibited nationally and internationally. Most recently, Jones’s solo exhibition untitled (transcriptions of country) was presented by the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, in conjunction with Artspace, Sydney, over 2021–22. He has been commissioned to create a major new work for the Art Gallery of New South Wales titled bial gwiyuno (the fire is not yet lighted). Jones is a researcher at Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, University of Technology Sydney.

Speaking at 12:00pm

Sophie Honess is a Gomeroi Yinarr based in Tamworth, New South Wales. She has been creating textile art professionally for the past five years. Her works respond to her immediate environment, finding and exploring hidden beauty on Gomeroi country through colour and texture. Sophie has been included in a number of group exhibitions and has held two solo exhibitions at Weswal Gallery, Tamworth, in 2023 and 2021. She has been selected to participate in this year’s 5th Tamworth Textile Triennial (2023) and is also a part of the weaving group Yinarr Maramali, a Gomeroi women cultural weaving collective.

Speaking at 12:30pm

Vincent Namatjira was born in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) NT, and his early years were spent between Mparntwe and Ntaria (Hermannsburg). After moving to his partner’s home community of Indulkana (APY Lands, SA), Vincent started painting at Iwantja Arts in 2011, where he has established himself as a subversive and witty portraitist. Vincent is the great-grandson of the renowned Western Aranda watercolour artist Albert Namatjira. Since 2013, Vincent has painted portraits of important figures, both personally familiar and famously political. He is an acute observer of national and international politics and the connections between leadership, wealth, power and influence.

Vincent was the winner of the 2019 Ramsay Art Prize. In 2020 Namatjira was the first Indigenous artist to win the Archibald Prize, and received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2020 in honour of his contribution to Indigenous visual arts.

Eric Barney speaking at 12:30pm

Alec Baker – born in Shirley Well, SA circa 1932 – and Eric Barney – born in Alice Springs, NT 1973 – are a collaborative painting duo, who have worked together since 2017. Baker is recognised as a respected Elder and cultural authority, known for his extensive knowledge of Country. As a young man Baker worked as a stockman before becoming one of the founding artists of Iwantja Arts in the 1980s. Baker continues to maintain a prolific art practice alongside his role as community leader today.

Eric Barney grew up in Indulkana Community, where he continues to live and work. Barney has been guided and mentored on painting technique and cultural protocol by the senior men at Iwantja Arts, Kunmanara (Peter) Mungkuri, Alec Baker and Kunmanara (Jimmy) Pompey, and he has worked alongside these Elders on a number of collaborative artwork projects.

Speaking at 1:00pm

James Tylor is a multi-disciplinary visual artist whose practice explores the Australian environment, culture and social history. These mediums include photography, video, painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, sound, scents and food. He exploresAustralian cultural representations through the perspectives of his multicultural heritage that comprises Nunga (Kaurna Miyurna), Māori (Te Arawa) and European (English, Scottish, Irish and Norwegian) ancestry. Tylor’s work focuses largely on the history of 19th century Australia and its continual effect on present day issues surrounding cultural identity and the environment. His research, writing and artistic practice has focused most specifically on Kaurna Indigenous culture from the Adelaide Plains region of South Australia and more broadly European colonial history in Southern Australia. His practice also explores Australian Indigenous plants and the environmental landscape of Southern Australia.

Speaking at 1:00pm

Aidan Hartshorn is a Walgalu (Wolgal/Wolgalu) and Wiradjuri man whose Ancestral lands are located in the Snowy Mountains High Country of New South Wales. In 2019, Aidan completed his tertiary education where he attained a Bachelor of Visual Arts majoring in Sculptural Practices. Following this, in 2020 Aidan participated in the Wesfarmers leadership program at the National Gallery of Australia where he would later take position as the Wesfarmers Assistant Curator working on the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial under Hetti Perkins. Aidan is now working at the Australian National University’s School of Art and Design as an Associate Lecturer of Contemporary Art and is furthering his studies through a Masters of Philosophy in practice led research methodologies.

Speaking at 1:30pm

Peggy Griffiths arts practice reflects her strong commitment to her Miriwoong culture. Her imagery includes references to her background as a renowned dancer and cultural performance. Her works document the traditional country of her mother and grandfather and her recent works capture the movement of wind through the spinifex country which for the artist is evidencethat the spirit of culture is alive.

Born on Newry Station to Dinah Dingle and Frank Moore, Peggy lived and learned about her family and bush life. She is the first indigenous artist to win the prestigious Fremantle Print Award.Peggy is a highly respected senior artist at Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, teaching other artists as well as contributing to leadership of Waringarri Aboriginal Arts in a Director role. Peggy has 5 children, 27 grandchildren and a growing number of great grandchildren.

Speaking at 1:30pm

Jan Baljagil Griffiths is a dedicated and prolific artist primarily working across painting, ceramics and poetry. Her work explores personal family narratives through multi-media installations, ceramics, fashion and photography. Jan has exhibited extensively at galleries and festivals within Australia such as the Ceramics Triennial. She was a finalist in the 2018 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), the 2020 Indigenous Fashion Awards, and exhibited at the 2021 Indian Ocean Craft Triennial.

“I was born in Kununurra and I went to school in Broome. I started painting at Waringarri Arts in 2015 to carry on the stories of my parents, Peggy and Alan Griffiths – the cultural stories that were handed down to them and now to me. I too can keep our tradition alive and hand the stories of our ancestors and how our country came to be, down to the next generation and generations to come. I do this with great pride and honour.”

Speaking at 2:00pm

Pedro Wonaeamirri grew up in Pirlangimpi (Pularumpi) on Melville Island. He was educated in Darwin and returned to the Tiwi Islands in 1989, where he moved to Milikapiti the same year that Jilamara Arts and Crafts was incorporated. He has been exhibiting since this time and his artworks are in many national, state and private collections Australia-wide and overseas. Pedro is a senior cultural leader on the Tiwi Islands with a significant and strong knowledge of the old Tiwi language and all of the songs and dance important in Tiwi culture. With a seat on the board of many organisations, Pedro is the current Vice President of Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association and a Director for Arnhem, Northern and Kimberley Artists (ANKA). Pedro’s contemporary art practice has its foundations in Jilamara – “design” derived from ceremonial body painting and the ornate decoration applied to tutini poles, tunga (bark baskets) and associated ritual objects made for Pukumani (mourning) ceremony and Tiwi Yoi (dance). Pedro continues to exclusively use ochres sourced from in and around his place of work in Milikapiti.

Speaking at 2:00pm

Johnathon World Peace Bush expresses his views on equality, culture, art and language through painting, writing and song. Johnathon’s ochre paintings present a unique combination of Tiwi culture and his personal views on global politics, family and cultural heritage. He adopts some painting techniques that reflect jilamara (Tiwi body paint design) and combines them with representations of political figureheads, Catholic imagery that relates to the colonial experience of the Tiwi, stories of colonial crimes against indigenous people or adaptations of old anthropological images of First Australians. “I hope my artwork gives a glimpse into my strong beliefs of a want for world peace and equality for all humankind.”

Maree Clarke is a Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung woman who grew up in northwest Victoria,mainly in Mildura, on the banks of the Murray River. Maree has been a practicing artist living and working in Melbourne for the last three decades. Maree Clarke is a pivotal figure in the reclamation of southeast Australian Aboriginal art practices, reviving elements of Aboriginal culture that were lost – or laying dormant – over the period of colonisation, as well as a leader in nurturing and promoting the diversity of contemporary southeast Aboriginal artists. Maree’s continuing desire to affirm and reconnect with her cultural heritage has seen her revival of the traditional possum skin cloaks, together with the production of contemporary jewellery designs adorned with kangaroo teeth and echidna quills, in both traditional and contemporary materials such as glass and 3D printing. Maree Clarke’s multimedia practice includes lenticular prints, 3D photographs and photographic holograms as well as painting, sculpture and video installation.

Speaking at 2:30pm

Mitch Mahoney is a Boonwurrung and Barkinji artist. He was born in North-West Victoria in Mildura along the banks of the Murry River where he lived for the first part of His life. After that he lived in the hunter valley for 13 years and is currently living on country in Melbourne, Victoria. Mitch works on a large range of artworks specialising in the revitalisation of South-Eastern Aboriginal practices. He has worked to create cultural items such as possum skin cloaks and kangaroo tooth necklaces, he also specialises in line drawings and South-Eastern Aboriginal design. Mitch’s practice focuses on the connection between culture and nature. Mitch aims to create works that bring attention to the natural work and first people relationship with country.