Artist statement
‘Painting gives you a reason to yarn up about your stories. If I wasn’t painting, I wouldn’t know anything I’ve learnt. I wouldn’t know what my totems is, I wouldn’t know who my mob was or who my Aunties and Uncles are, I wouldn’t know any of that.
'This painting represents all the different nationalities mixed with Aboriginal mobs.’
About the artist
Thelma Beeton is a Palawa woman with family ties to Cape Barren Island off the north-east coast of Tasmania. She grew up in Swan Hill, a small town on the Murray River in the Loddon Mallee region.
Most of Thelma’s work is inspired by her totem, the Tasmanian emu. A former graffiti artist, she first started creating work with The Torch, an organisation that provides art, cultural and arts industry support to Indigenous offenders and ex-offenders in Victoria, in 2016.
This painting won the Metro Tunnel Creative Program 2D Award in the 2021 Koorie Art Show, presented by the Koorie Heritage Trust.