Local indigenous artist Aunty Jeanie Mason has curated the Be Bold Blakout Exhibition that stretches across its home inside the Brimbank Community and Civic Centre.
The exhibition was officially launched on July 5, as part of NAIDOC Week celebrations with the 2023 theme of ‘For Our Elders’.
Brimbank council partnered with Aunty Jeanie and Jinkigi Consultancy to engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and youth that work and live in Brimbank. The show features work by Mandi Barton, Ella Clarke, Aunty Lee-Anne Clarke and students from Koorie Homework Club and St Albans Secondary College.
Aunty Jeanie said this year’s exhibition is very special, and she feels honoured to have been asked to curate the art work collection.
“This is the year of the elders and our exhibition is a display of what the old and young can do together,” she said.
“We really wanted to help kids in the local area show their art and have their hard work on display. We are so proud of them.”
Aunty Jeanie is from Wilcannia located on the Darling River in New South Wales, the traditional lands of the Bakandji people who call the river ‘Baaka’. Flowing across the walls of the exhibition are Aunty Jeanie’s paintings which represent the local Maribyrnong river.
She has been painting since she was a child and has lived in the Western Suburbs for the last 33 years.
Last year Aunty Jeanie shared her story as part of the ‘The Blak Voices of Brimbank’ documentary which featured a collection of stories from first nations people across Melbourne’s west.
The exhibition is running until September 6 at the Brimbank Community and Civic Centre.
Hannah Hammoud
