About the Artist:

Deanne Gilson is a Proud Wadawurrung woman living on her ancestral Country of Ballarat, Victoria. Having dedicated a lifetime to art, her forty-year practice has seen Gilson working in many mediums including ochre painting, clay (sculptural installation), fashion, textile & jewellery design, photography and drawing.

Gilson celebrates her continued living culture through art, reviving traditional Victorian marks used by ancestors, ceremony and oral story telling. Depicting indigenous plants, trees and birds from her Creation Story, often painting endangered species to highlight her love of all living things.

Her artwork has is held in many other public and private collections including the Koorie Heritage Trust and the National Gallery of Victoria.

About the Artwork:

As an artist and Blak Designer having my products included into the Koorie Heritage Trust merchandise range has been an amazing opportunity. It gives a platform for my art to be seen and purchased by many more people.

I work alone at my kitchen table daily making art and designing scarves and contemporary adornments and never quite know where it will take me. I feel honoured to tell my ancestral stories through art, in particular Victorian First Peoples accounts about our experiences. I want to leave a legacy behind for my sons, Blair and Max.