Wednesday 4 May
12.45–1.45pm
Cell Block Theatre
Carol McGregor is of Wadawurrung, (Kulin Nation) and Scottish descent and works with multimedia including ephemeral natural fibres, paint, clay, metal, and paper. Her studio-based research rationale is a desire to unearth and to visually activate histories and memories to further inform an Australian Aboriginal sense of belonging. McGregor’s recent art practice revives the traditional possum skin cloak as an art form and a way to strengthen community and individual identities. With her practice McGregor has worked extensively with Indigenous communities facilitating workshops, teaching and sharing the knowledge and skills around possum skin cloak making. McGregor has exhibited widely and her work features in national and international collections. She is currently the Program Director of the Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art unit at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University.
Mcgregor facilitated the making of Myall Creek Gathering Cloak, currently showing as part of the 23rd Biennale of Sydney: rīvus, in the National Art School Gallery. The collaborative work responds to the 180th anniversary of the Myall Creek massacre. Local Ngarrabul, Gamilaraay, Yuwaalaraay, Kooma artists Adele Chapman-Burgess and Avril Chapman continued the completion of the cloak with help from Gamilaraay, Ngarabul, Bidjigal, Dharawal, Ngoongar artist Jolea Isaacs working with community participants, completing the skins and stitching. Carol McGregor says ‘Making a possum skin cloak is an empowering form of un-silencing — asserting a voice and having continued presence in today’s world. The need to tell our own stories is an important form of resistance and this art form celebrates our memories and cultural survival. The Myall Creek Gathering Cloak enables a continuation of cultural practices that connect to living culture whilst holding on to knowledge and inherited memory.’
Image: Carol McGregor, Skin Country (detail), 2018, possum skins, cotton, ochre, charcoal, binder, 290 x 210 cm.
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