EXHIBITION: DREAMS – ABORIGINAL WOMEN’S COLLECTIVE

A week or so past International Women’s Day, it’s encouraging to hear a battle cry from some of the most marginalised women in Australia. The Aboriginal Women’s Collective’s new exhibition at the Wilson Street Gallery is appropriately entitled Dreams, as theirs is to one day hang on the white walls at the Art Gallery of NSW. You may recognise some of the names, like Euphemia Bostock, Bronwyn Bancroft and Joy Duncan and Aunty May Hinch from the Euraba Paper group in Boggabilla; while others, like Danielle Gorogo, Kim Healy and Jess Birk are fresh, and show it. “We are a big family that loves the collaborative delights of exhibiting: showcasing our work and culture. We are bound by mutual respect, the connection of bloodlines, the shared history of our families and our Aboriginality,” says the collective’s mentor, Bronwyn Bancroft. Her pieces, They Had a Dream, I Have a Dream feature black and white snapshots framed with vibrant circles, points, leaf-like shapes and block colours – a repositioning of memory for a different future – one which, hopefully, fulfils this group’s dreams.

Until Mar 28, Wilson Street Gallery, 30-34 Wilson St, Newtown, 9516 3144, wilsonstreetgallery.com.au