Who we are

The ACT Indigenous Textile Artists Group first came together in 2003. We have had 46 exhibitions since then, representing a amazing diversity of genres, media and techniques, and now continue our success with our first online gallery.

Collectively ITAG embodies over 70 years of artistic practice, and represents an impressive diversity of contemporary Indigenous cultures from Victoria, Western Australia and Central Australia to Queensland and New South Wales. Such artists as Jenni Kemarre Martiniello, Renee Smith, Lyndy Delian and Kerry Reed-Gilbert have been well known to a wide national and international audience over many years. Judy Hammond and Kerry Reed-Gilbert draw extensively on their long standing photographic experience and the transformations of their works into digital new media and prints on paper are arresting. Renee Smith’s accomplished design elements drawn from her traditional country around Tingha in Northern NSW are as elegant and serene as the country itself and her prints and paintings present a seamless transition from her textile works. Melanie Reed, Sarah Fahey and Noelene Morrison, as recent newcomers to the group, bring the sensitivities they hold to country, place, water and fauna to the group’s visual presence, as well as their own significant artistic histories. Lyndy Delian and Jenni Kemarre Martiniello continue to explore their own vastly different, but inherently empathetic interpretations of land, place, identity and environment, their distinctive individual styles as natural on paper and canvas as textiles.

Our Artists

You will find profiles and examples of work for each of our artists by clicking on each Artist’s name above. Also represented here are works by Ambrose Bin Juda and Richard Sharman, former member of ITAG who have now gone home to their traditional countries, Ambrose to Hammond Island in the Torres Strait, and Richard to Sanctuary Point on the NSW coast near Nowra.

Media

Our artists work with a wide range of media, including silks, other natural fabrics, paper, canvas, glass and photography. In the gallery you will find screen-printed and hand-painted textile works and quilted wall hangings; lino-cuts, wood-blocks and screen prints on paper; poetry graphics, glass works, photography, digital new media works and fashion design.

Collections

Our artists are represented in many public and private collections in Australia and internationally, including various Institutions, the National Gallery of Australia and the National Museum of Australia.

Acknowledgements

Contact ACT Indigenous Textile Artists Group

Profiles

Lyndy Delian was born in Melbourne and traces her heritage through her artist father, his mother and her mother before her, to Blacks Town outside of Dunolly in Western Victoria. She is an accomplished visual artist, writer and musician and has seven children. Her art works and textiles are held in the collections of the National Museum of Australia, the National Gallery of Australia, the Canberra Institute of Technology, and in numerous private collections. Also an experienced curator, Lyndy has been profiled in the book ‘Black Lives, Rainbow Visions: Indigenous Sitings in the Creative Arts’ (1999), and has exhibited widely. She has taught part-time in the Indigenous Art and Fashion Course at  the Canberra Institute of Technology, and for various community groups. Lyndy is a founding member of the ACT Indigenous Textile Artists Group and its current coordinator. 

Renee Smith’s traditional country is around Tingha in New South Wales. This is her maternal Grandmother’s country,  the Anaiwan/Gamilaroi nation. Her father is from the Wiradjuri nation which spans western New South Wales and parts of Victoria. Despite having lived in Canberra for the last ten years, she still goes home to her country and family often. Her formal training at the Canberra Institute for the Arts, and in Indigenous Art and Fashion at CIT have allowed her to explore and develop innovative and contemporary ways to express her cultural heritage. These new artistic dimensions of visual expression have pushed  the boundaries of design, concept and technique beyond the traditional and are reflected in all dimensions and media in her work. Renee’s source of inspiration for her art is derived from childhood memories and the stories told to her by her maternal Grandmother, and her own personal research  into her family history. Renee conducts her own online arts business under the name of Googarh Designs.

Jenni Kemarre Martiniello is an award winning writer, visual artist and academic of Arrernte, Chinese and Anglo-Celtic descent. She has published  four books and won a variety of awards, including the Canberra Critics Circle Award 2000 for Literature. She has a BA in Visual Art, and her works are held in numerous private collections. Jennifer has exhibited her textiles widely in the ACT, Regional and Metropolitan NSW, and her lino and wood blocks prints have been editioned by Northern Editions, NT and Megalo. Jennifer has taught Contemporary Indigenous Social Issues (University of Canberra), Cultural Studies, Indigenous Art History and Creative Writing (Canberra Institute of Technology) and conducted numerous regional community workshops. She  is currently a member of the ACT Indigenous Textile Artists Group, and is the ACT representative on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. Jenni is the Director of Kemarre Arts.

Kerry Reed-Gilbert is a Wiradjuri woman from central NSW whose skills and expertise include professional business woman, writer, photographer, poet, editor, graphic designer, curator, and publisher. She is mother, grandmother, auntie, niece, sister, daughter, cousin. As a family member she is the youngest of eight, second eldest of six and stuck somewhere in twelve, that's her Mob. Kerry conducts her own business Kuracca Consultancy & Communications (White Cockatoo) was established in 1993 to assist government and non-government bodies in working with Aboriginal people, to achieve self-determination and self-management by addressing the interests, concerns and issues of the Indigenous People of this land.

Judy Hammond is a Murri woman of Aboriginal, Irish and Anglo-Celtic descent whose family comes from the Carnarvon Gorge area of Queensland. She is a qualified Art Therapist, has a Graduate Certificate in Community Counselling from the University of Canberra, and is pursuing further studies at the Canberra School of Art. Judy’s art and performance works are deeply centred expressions of identity, healing and survival, and her digital and photographic transformations onto textiles are extensions of that through the imagery of her children.

Mel Reed is a Wiradjuri woman from New South Wales who now lives in Canberra. She has begun her artistic career through ITAG, and is passing those skills on to her children.

Sarah Fahey is an Aboriginal woman who’s mother comes from Mildura on the River Murray, near the Victorian/New South Wales Border. She is married with five children and lives in Canberra. By joining with ITAG, Sarah is rejuvenating the artistic career she began many years ago.

Noelene Morrison is a Nyoongah woman from Perth in Western Australia. Now living in Canberra with her partner and daughter, Noelene works in Indigenous Health and is pursuing her artistic career through ITAG.

Ambrose Bin Juda is an artists from Hammond Island in the Torres Strait, and is a member of the Hammond Island Artists Group. A mariner for twenty-seven years, he piloted boats through the Straits to remote communities across the Top End of Australia and through the Pacific to Japan. He is an excellent carver of turtle, trochus and pearl shell, as well as an experienced painter, printmaker and ceramicist. Ambrose retains links to ITAG, of which he was a member while he studied in the Indigenous Arts Program at the Canberra Institute of Technology. His works are represented in numerous collections both in Australia and overseas.

Richard Sharman is a Yuin man born at Nowra in New South Wales. He worked for many years as a landscape gardener until his disability forced him to retire. He took up stained glass, frame making and French Polishing, and still produces hand carved and polished tables from recycled timber. Richard developed his visual arts skills through the Indigenous Arts Program at the Canberra Institute of Technology. His favourite subjects are birds, which feature on his textiles, lino-cuts, and quilts. Richard has now moved back to his traditional country but retains strong links to ITAG.