EXCHANGE

Maree Clarke Maree Clarke, a Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung artist, is dedicated to reviving southeast Australian Aboriginal cultural practices. Originally from Mildura and now based in Melbourne, she has spent over 30 years reclaiming traditions disrupted by colonisation. Her work spans possum skin cloaks, kangaroo teeth adornments, echidna quill pieces, and large-scale river reed necklaces, seamlessly integrating traditional and contemporary materials like glass and 3D printing. Through photography, sculpture, and immersive installations, Clarke explores ceremony, memory, and colonisation’s lasting impact. Her collaborative, intergenerational practice ensures cultural knowledge is preserved and shared. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, with major works for the Metro Tunnel, naarm ngarrgu Library, and Footscray Hospital. Her accolades include the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture (2023) and an Australia Council Fellowship (2020), with residencies in Florence, Tacoma, and Pilchuck. "My art is about regenerating cultural practices and passing this cultural knowledge onto the next generation... we haven’t lost anything; some of these practices have just been laying dormant." — Maree Clarke Vicki Couzens & Lisa Couzens Vicki Couzens, a Keerray Wooroong Gunditjmara artist from western Victoria, is renowned for her interdisciplinary practice, which she calls “creative cultural expression.” Her work spans painting, installation, printmaking, language, ceremony, and teaching but is best known for reviving the possum skin cloak tradition, now central to south-eastern Australia. With over 45+years of community work, Couzens has driven cultural and language revival, collaborating as a cultural adviser and creative developer for major institutions like Museums Victoria. Recognized as a Senior Knowledge Holder, her impactful work is held in national and international collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria. Lisa Couzens is a proud Gunditjmara Keerray Woorrong woman from south west Victoria, currently living and working on Wadawurrung Country, with a passion for education and empowerment of our youth. Lisa is also involved in Possum Skin Cloak making. She acknowledges her sister Vicki as being the knowledge holder/keeper within their family and her Ancestors, Country and Community in guiding her work. Lisa does not call herself an artist, she believes that her work in creative and cultural practice is inherent in the survival of culture and family responsibility.  Dr. Kirsten Garner Lyttle Dr. Kirsten Garner Lyttle is a Māori-Australian artist and researcher, born in Sydney, raised in Pōneke (Wellington), and based in Naarm. She rethinks photography by combining customary Māori weaving techniques with digital photographic prints, ‘Maorifying’ the medium. With over a decade of teaching experience, she has lectured in photography, art history, and visual art at RMIT University, Victoria College of the Arts, and Deakin University, and is the inaugural Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Monash University’s Wominjeka Djeembana Indigenous Research Lab. Her work has been showcased widely, including commissions for the National Gallery of Victoria’s Melbourne Now 2023 and the TarraWarra Biennial 2023. In 2024, she earned an Honourable Mention in the Bowness Photography Prize and was a finalist in the National Works on Paper at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. She recently published the book chapter “Ancestors, Not Objects” in Alternative Economies of Heritage (Routledge, 2025). In September 2025 she will undertake an artist residency at Bundanong with colleagues. Her work is held in numerous public and private collections. Brian Martin Born in Redfern Sydney, Brian Martin is Bundjalung, Kamilaroi and Muruwari. As a leading Indigenous artist and academic, he is represented by William Mora Galleries and has been a practising artist for thirty years, exhibiting both nationally and internationally specifically in the media of painting and drawing. His research and practice focus on refiguring creative practice and culture from an Indigenous ideological perspective based on a reciprocal relationship to “Country”. Martin was the inaugural Associate Dean Indigenous at Monash University Art, Design and Architecture and is also Honorary Professor of Eminence at Centurion University of Technology and Management in Odisha, India. He is Professor and Director of Wominjeka Djeembana Research Lab at Monash University. Yhonnie Scarce Yhonnie Scarce, a Kokatha and Nukunu artist from Woomera, South Australia, is a pioneering contemporary glass artist. Holding a Master of Fine Arts from Monash University, she describes her work as “politically motivated and emotionally driven,” often addressing the ongoing impacts of colonisation, particularly the forced removal and displacement of Aboriginal people from their homelands, and Aboriginal children from their families. Her works are held in major collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, and National Gallery of Australia. Scarce has exhibited internationally, including at Harvard Art Museum, Galway Art Centre, and in Hong Kong, Vancouver, Berlin, Japan, and Italy. She has participated in significant Australian projects such as the Palimpsest Biennale and Tarnanthi Festival. Her work was featured in the 19th Biennale of Sydney (2014) and the 55th Venice Biennale collateral exhibition (2013). Scarce has also undertaken residencies and symposiums in the USA, furthering global engagement with Aboriginal art. Frances Tapueluelu Frances Tapueluelu is a New Zealand-born Tongan, of Vava’u and Nuku’alofa descent. Graduating with a degree in fashion design, Frances worked in the fashion and film industries in New Zealand before migrating to Naarm (Melbourne). She has dedicated time to living and working with remote Indigenous communities. Inspired by early cultural influences and her work with Indigenous communities, Tapueluelu extends her creative practice to include wearable art, print media and spoken word. Her works have featured in numerous exhibitions across Australia and New Zealand and have been added to permanent collections internationally. Wani Toaishara wani toaishara is a Congolese practice-led researcher living in Naarm whose works bridge the realms of documentary and conceptual art. His practice explores the effects of colonialism on Africa and its diaspora, dislocation and memory, and the intricate layers of cultural practice, Indigeneity and identity. His works span various mediums, including image-making, performance, installation and film, often interrogating the complexities of Black sociality in urban spaces.