Material: 100gsm uncoated paper

Dimensions: 50 x 73 cm

The Koorie Heritage Trust is proud to present a range of exclusive merchandise based on artworks by the late Josh Muir (Gunditimara, Yorta Yorta and Barkindji), currently showing in JXSH MVIR: Forever I Live at the Koorie Heritage Trust, Birrarung Building, Fed Square (9 March – 14 July 2024).

JXSH MVIR: Forever I Live is the Koorie Heritage Trust's second solo exhibition of Josh Muir's work, and the first since his passing in 2022.

Featuring works from lenders and collectors across Australia, the exhibition showcases Josh's short but prolific artistic career during which he explored Country, culture, identity, colonisation, mental health, addiction, loss and grief.

We are also incredibly delighted and privileged to have worked with Shanaya Sheridan, Josh's partner, and Justine Berg, Josh's mother, as guest curators for the exhibition.

About the Artwork:

“I am a proud Yorta Yorta, Gunditjmara [and Barkindji] man, I hold my culture strong to my heart and it gives me a voice and great sense of my identity. I look around I see empires built on Aboriginal land, I cannot physically change or shift this, though I can make the most of my culture in a contemporary setting and my art projects are about reconciliation.

We Will Survive symbolises my totem, the long neck turtle. The turtle totem wisdom teaches us about walking our path in peace and sticking to it with determination and serenity. Slow moving on earth, yet also incredibly fast and agile in water, those who have the turtle as totem may be encouraged to take a break in their busy lives and look around or within themselves for more grounded, long-lasting solutions. Traditionally, the turtle is symbolic of the way of peace, whether it’s inviting us to cultivate peace of mind or a peaceful relationship with our environment, which is surrounded by the sun, the light and all its beautiful power. The work also highlights back to back images of myself carrying a boondi, a traditional hunting weapon, in a strike pose of an Aboriginal war dance. I am strongly protected by dingoes, a companion, a spiritual protector, a physical protector and a source of warmth, which ties back into the support I have with family and community. The river represents my connection to water being from the Yorta Yorta and Gunditjmara Countries, it is symmetrically shaped with a scarred tree. With a city shaped treetop, which highlights rapid growth, it is suggesting a journey and construction of a canoe which has led me to the city to adapt in the western world culture. Subliminally in the eye of the woman, the land is my mother, my mother is the land, the birth giver and provider is a shape of a boomerang with compliments to the Aboriginal flag on each side, the boomerang is shaped in a triangular shaped with the three points meaning, physical world, human world and sacred world: The Dream Time, and finally the bottom left corner is a symbol of us gathering in hope of reconciliation.

It was an honour to research the KHT collection particularly the work of Aunty Lyn Briggs of the Wiradjuri, and Aunty Dorothy Lovett of Yorta Yorta this has influenced my work in many ways: colour contrasts, storytelling structuring of the artwork, and the channel of thinking and rhythm.

The use of totems and the layout of the story, and the pastel used in Aunty Dorothy Lovett Artwork is amazing and I have used her painting Change of Seasons as inspiration. Aunty Lyn Briggs level of detail and the boldness and reference to movement in Mopoke (Owl) and Chasing the Frill Necked Lizards, have aided in my process in creating We Will Survive.”

–  Josh Muir, 2015

We Will Survive was Josh’s contribution to the 30th birthday celebration exhibition Wominjeka – A New Beginning at Koorie Heritage Trust, which also toured Victoria in 2015.