Treaty Artworks

Biyin by John Patten

2025
Yorta Yorta (Dhulinyagan), Dhudhuroa, Bundjalung man
North East Region

Treaty Giants celebrates our Old People – our Elders who have sacrificed so much, in order for us to be where we are now. They are and always will be our guiding hand. This work draws its inspiration from our Elders and the distinctive Koori artistic traditions of Victoria, as represented on our cloaks, tools, and ceremonies. 

Dindi Thanggi: River Country by Jade Kennedy

2025
Tatti-Tatti and Mutti-Mutti man
North West Region

The Murray River is our life source, and important part of our future. It’s sustained the land, the trees, the vegetation and all the creatures within the river and the lakes and the lagoons. Along with the Kuli, ‘people’, that live, travel, gather and create.

Our song lines lead to the corroboree, our gatherings. And travelling throughout the water ways, the life veins, was a way to travelling to and from. The natural resources, our life source. The nutrients we continue to grow from. All flow from the Murray River. The ochre quarries, the salt lakes, the clay balls, and the bardi grubs. The fish species and the tribes along and throughout the water ways.

by Kiewa Austin-Rioli

2025
Gunditjmara woman
South West Region

The Murray River is our life source, and important part of our future. It’s sustained the land, the trees, the vegetation and all the creatures within the river and the lakes and the lagoons. Along with the Kuli, ‘people’, that live, travel, gather and create.

Our song lines lead to the corroboree, our gatherings. And travelling throughout the water ways, the life veins, was a way to travelling to and from. The natural resources, our life source. The nutrients we continue to grow from. All flow from the Murray River. The ochre quarries, the salt lakes, the clay balls, and the bardi grubs. The fish species and the tribes along and throughout the water ways.

Ngetal Narmung – Ngetal Wurruk (My veins – My Country) by Njarala Paton

2025
Monero Ngario, Gunai, Gunditjmara woman
South East Region

My artwork reflects how I see, experience and connect to my Country as a young person. It comes through the little things: the details of Country in the leaves, the movement of the river, the patterns in the tree bark, and then the way water moves slowly over rocks in a stream. I think about the sound of rain– how it sounds and how I feel it from the soft touch of mist to large heavy drops pelting on the roof. The feathers, tiny animal tracks in the bush, their patterns through the sand and the way wind moves through the trees.

I’m drawn to the colours of Country – the early morning light over distant hills, the colours hiding in the shadows of plants, and how colours change as the sun moves across the sky,changing into deep reds, pinks and oranges at the end of the day. My own sketches are in there too – things you might not see, but I do.

All these snippets of connection sit as windows underneath the painting like little windows into my connection with Country and my Gunaikurnai culture.

The five Gunaikurnai shields represent cultural strength and I have layered them over the detailed windows. The shields and connecting veins lightly touch and if you look closely, you’ll see those windows and the veins connecting them – because Culture and Country are always one.