We acknowledge the Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr and Yaegl people as the Traditional Owners of the land on which we live and work. We honour the First Nations people’s culture and connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
A Grafton Regional Gallery exhibition.
Beyond The River is the perfect antidote to the pressures that life places on us all.
The 11 First Nations female artists connected with the Clarence River region share with us the space and place that the Clarence holds for them as contemporary Aboriginal women, artists, carers, thinkers, creators and connectors. They generously share with us the sacred.
This exhibition is part of a broader journey. And this journey would not have been possible without the considered mentorship of Dr Bronwyn Bancroft and Dr Bianca Beetson as well as the collaborative vision of the exhibition’s Curator, Frances Belle Parker.
It is a journey that the Grafton Regional Gallery is proud to be part of.
Dr Jane Kreis Regional Gallery Director
GUEST CURATOR STATEMENT
Beyond The River explores our deep connection to the Clarence River, known by many names: Breimba, Biirrinba, Bindarray, or simply the Mighty Clarence. No matter what we call it, this river is a life-giving force. It lives within us as First Nations women, as artists, as caretakers, and as people of this land.
This exhibition is grounded in connection to Country, to kin, to culture, and to each other. It brings together a strong group of First Nations women artists who live on, work with, or hold deep ties to the Clarence Valley. For many of us, this is where our ancestors walked, where our families grew, and where our stories continue. The river flows through all of it, carrying memory, nourishing identity, and reminding us of the strength and resilience that lives in place.
When I was first asked to curate this show, my vision was to create a space where the artists could make work purely for themselves, not for galleries, audiences, or expectations. I wanted them to feel the freedom to create from a place of personal connection and joy.
I remember a body of work I made while studying at uni, inspired by a holiday back home on Yaegl Country. The vision for that series came so clearly that I could not wait to get back into the studio each day. That feeling of being completely immersed in creating something meaningful is what I hoped these artists would experience too. I wanted this show to be about that spark, that passion, and putting themselves first in their practice.
We are grateful for the guidance of Dr Bronwyn Bancroft and Dr Bianca Beetson, amazing artists and mentors who inspire us. In February 2025, they led workshops that shaped our work. Bianca’s focused on deeply listening to Country and the river, while Bronwyn’s explored Country up close through microscopy, helping us see new details.
Their support has helped shape the voices of Deb Breckenridge, Danielle Gorogo, Kim Healey, Aneika Kapeen, Bianca Monaghan, Maddy Richey, Kristal Russ, Deborah Taylor, and me. Together, we form a strong community rooted in the stories and spirit of this place.
For many of us, living and working on Country is not just a privilege, it is a responsibility. Our work reflects the landscapes we are part of, the waters that run through us, and the communities that hold us. The Clarence River in particular is more than a backdrop, it is a living being, a teacher, and an archive. It carries the joy of childhood swims, the pain of floods and disconnection, and the knowledge of our Ancestors. It is ever-present in our lives and work.
The artists in Beyond The River explore this deep, layered relationship through painting, weaving, sculpture, textiles, and installation. Some works are quiet meditations, others bold declarations, but all speak to an enduring truth: that we, as First Nations women, are deeply connected to the lands and waters we come from. This connection transcends physical geography; it lives in language, ceremony, kinship, and the stories we continue to tell.
This exhibition is also an act of reclamation. By centering our voices, our art, and our experiences, Beyond The River challenges dominant narratives and affirms that we are still here, creating, remembering, resisting, and celebrating. We honour our mothers, grandmothers, aunties, and daughters, and the long lines of women who have come before us.
In the end, Beyond The River is not just about the Clarence River, it is about what lies beneath, beyond, and within it. It is about connection, community, and Country. It is a reminder that the river is not something we look at, it is something we are part of.
Guest Curator
Frances Belle Parker
DR BRONWYN BANCROFT AM
Dr. Bronwyn Bancroft AM is a Bundjalung Woman and Artist. Her professional career as an artist began following her graduation from the Canberra School of Arts in 1980. Bronwyn’s career has included both national and international exhibitions. Her work has been acquired by major Australian galleries, state libraries and private collections.
Bronwyn’s contribution to Indigenous literature has been immense and has included the creation of 50 books. Bronwyn has received the Dromkeen Medal and the Lady Cutler Award for her services to children’s literature and has been nominated for prestigious international awards including the Hans Christian Andersen and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Awards.
Bronwyn is a Founding Member of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative (est. 1987) and has been the Co-operative’s volunteer senior strategist since 2009. Bronwyn is a volunteer and advocate for equality and contributes her extensive expertise to a number of community organisations and not for profits. Bronwyn is a Board member/Director of Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME), The Returning and the Commonwealth Bank Indigenous Advisory Council.
Bronwyn has a Diploma of Visual Arts, two Masters degrees and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Sydney. Bronwyn was the 2020 recipient of the University of Sydney’s Alison Bush Graduate Medal. In 2024 Bronwyn was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to the arts, and to the Indigenous community.
I was inspired to create this series of works as a tribute to my Grandmother Baabinje on my Father’s side. To honour her as an Aboriginal woman and matriarch of our family at Budgerahgum in NSW. Annie Alice made a garden that had 4 beds, all in the shapes of a heart, club, spade and diamond. I think this represents that saying, ‘you never know what cards you will be dealt’.
Baabinje’s Flowers (2025), acrylic on canvas, 175 x 172 cm
Baabinje’s Flowers II (2025), acrylic on canvas, 175 x 172 cm
Baabinje’s Flowers III (2025), acrylic on canvas, 175 x 172 cm
DR BIANCA BEETSON
Dr. Bianca Beetson is a proud Kabi Kabi and Wiradjuri woman and a multidisciplinary artist whose 29-year practice spans painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, fibre arts, and public art. She completed a Doctor of Visual Art at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University in 2018. A former member of the influential Aboriginal artist collectives Campfire Group and proppaNOW, she is also an award-winning curator, recognised for Myall Creek and Beyond.
Bianca has held key academic positions, including lecturer and Director of the Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art (BCAIA) and Director of the Indigenous Research Unit at Griffith University. From 2022 to 2024, she was part of Queensland’s Interim Truth and Treaty Body, co-designing the Path to Treaty Bill 2023. In 2023, she became the inaugural Director, First Nations at the Queensland Museum.
She continues to shape the arts and cultural sectors through leadership roles, including as a Trustee of QAGOMA, member of its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Panel, and Chair of the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF).
Surface Tension is a quiet reckoning—a visual and sonic meditation on memory, movement, and the spirit of Country.
Filmed on the Clarence River in Lawrence, NSW, the work captures the river’s surface as a living canvas: shimmering, shifting, never still. It reflects not just light and sky, but the weight of history beneath—echoes of past atrocities, silenced Aboriginal stories, and enduring resilience.
Light and water unfold in abstract choreography—ripples become rhythms, distortions become whispers. A soundscape by Cormac Finn pulses beneath, evoking submerged frequencies and imagined currents: the voice of the riverbed, the breath of Country, the heartbeat of memory.
Together, image and sound create a space where time dissolves and reflection deepens. Surface Tension invites the viewer to listen with their eyes, feel with their ears, and sit in the tension between beauty and grief, presence and absence. This is not just a river. It is a witness. It is a mirror. It is a memory.
Surface Tension 2025, film, Bianca Beetson in collaboration with Cormac Finn
DEB BRECKENRIDGE
A proud Yaegl woman from Maclean NSW
“My Grandmother was Jessie Randall, it was her wisdom, knowledge, empathy, strength, courage, humour and resilience that has continued to inspire me. Her sharing of knowledge and culture has driven my desire to put those memories into my art.”
I have been a practising visual artist with 30+ yrs experience.
Mediums regularly used include – but are not limited to – acrylic on canvas, woodwork, wood burning and designing jewellery on native woods.
Bilwaali is my connection to the three nations that have lived and continue to survive along Biirrinba (Clarence River). Yaegl, Mum/Grandmother: Bundjalung, Dad: Gumbaynggirr, Grandfather.
Generational appreciation and knowledge of Wadyarr (Country) helps me understand what Bilwaali is.
In this piece, I have etched the Dirraanggan watching over the Clarence Valley. Bundjalung Nation, Gumbaynggirr Nation, Yaegl Nation. Starting from fresh water to brackish water to salt water. The flow of the water mimics flames and vice versa. Ancestry. Journey on Wadyarr.
Bilwaali (home) 2025, Black Wattle/Acacia, 1.14m x 35cm
Cellular Dreaming 2025, acrylic on canvas, 51cm x 61cm
Underwater Realms 2025, acrylic on canvas, 61 x 51cm
Ancestral seeds 2025, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 50cm
Inner Earth 2025, acrylic on canvas 150 x 30cm
Country is Alive 2025, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30cm
Skyworld 2025, acrylic on canvas 50 x 60cm
River
DANIELLE GOROGO
Danielle Gorogo is a multidisciplinary artist based in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. With Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr, Dunghutti, Papua New Guinean, Māori, and Melanesian heritage, her work reflects deep connections to Country, family, and ancestral knowledge. Working primarily in acrylic on canvas, she paints stories rooted in culture, transformation, and personal experience. Her practice bridges past and present, exploring contemporary issues while honouring First Nations traditions, knowledge, and spirituality.
Dani aims to foster unity and a deeper understanding of our shared humanity. Inspired by her family, spirit, and Country, she seeks to create work that encourages appreciation and celebration of the rich heritage of First Nations peoples.
These works speak of the living spirit of water and its sacred journey from the first moments of life to the vastness of the cosmos. For First Nations Peoples, water is not only essential for survival, it is life itself. It holds memory, carries spirit, and sustains us from the womb to our final breath. The journey begins with Cellular Dreaming, where water cradles us in the womb and life first stirs within our cells. In Underwater Realms, we enter the mysterious depths where ancestral stories and energies dwell. Ancestral Seeds show how water nurtures culture, memory, and new beginnings across generations. These seeds take root in Inner Earth, where rock, soil, and underground waters hold the memory of Country and the presence of Ancestors. Country is Alive celebrates how water sustains all life, flowing through land, body, and spirit as one lifeforce. Finally, Skyworld expands the cycle to the heavens, where waters become clouds, rain, and cosmic rivers connecting Earth to the Universe.
At the heart of this exhibition is the Washpool, a sacred, sentient river that has nourished our people for generations. Here, physical and spiritual worlds meet, offering renewal and healing. Each year, families gather for Ceremony: entering the stone circle that represents Mother Earth’s womb, marked with ochre, cleansed by the smoke of burning gum leaves, and blessed with sacred waters carried in a coolamon. Smoke and water work together, one to cleanse, the other to bless, preparing us for new beginnings.
Today, the Washpool River area faces the threat of mining. This is more than environmental damage—it is a threat to our spiritual and cultural survival. But this is not only our fight; the health and protection of Country affects us all. To hurt the Planet is to wound humanity, Mother Earth, and the generations yet to come. Through this exhibition, I share both the stories within my artworks and the Ceremony of the Washpool. Visitors are invited to reflect, release, and reconnect, understanding that the river is not an end, but a pathway that flows always beyond.
KIM HEALEY
Deeply connected to her culture and country, Kim Healey has forged a reputation for her storytelling through a unique array of artistic mediums.
Working and creating out of her small studio on Gumbayngiirr country in Regional NSW, Kim continues to attract and engage a diverse audience, using a contemporary palate, modern design, deeply embedded with her heritage through the Gumbayngiirr and Bundjalung people.
Kim strives to add additional dimensions to her art forming a strong sense of connection. Entwining colour, light, and shadow, to bring a deeper meaning to her pieces. She has developed works across many mediums including , design concepts, sculptural design,mould casting, printing, jewellery making, works on Paper, mixed media on canvas, collage, intaglio printing, ceramics, montage 3D imagery, Graphic Design, Illustration and sculpture. Spanning decades her exhibitions and commissions continue to build her reputation in the Indigenous art and design world.
Bloodlines is a body of work that captures the ancient reflection of our rivers under a microscopic lense that allows anaglyphic perception to a layered narrative about Identity, family and ethos of time that has been deconstructed to evoke a deeper meaning to the work.
Bloodlines 2025, resin on perspex panels
2x panels = 900 x 600 x 5 mm
4x panels = 400x400 × 8 mm
9 x panels = 15.24 × 15.24 × 3mm
9 x pound = 10 cm x 2 mm
1 x wall sculpture = 30 cm diameter
ANEIKA KAPEEN
Aneika Kapeen is a proud Yaegl and Bundjalung woman, mother, sister and daughter who was raised on Yaegl country. Aneika’s art reflects her connection to country and her cultural identity as both learner from Elders and teacher to her children.
“My connection to country is strongly linked through cultural stories and practices. Art is a way to express my culture and connect with traditional elements of country. Tying Yaygirr into my works keeps language and culture alive.”
Body of work: Biirrinba Yaluuwi (Clarence River Bank)
Biirrinba Yaluuwi features numerous artworks all representing connection to country, culture and identity found at the edge of the Biirrinba (Clarence River). This collection holds natural elements that enhance the feeling of sitting on the riverbank and stories that are told while there with family. Each piece tells a different story of deep and undying connection to our past present and future.
Ngarraanga (listen) 2025, acrylic on canvas showing the path of knowledge and connection and how we have to ngarraanga (listen), 101 x 76cm
Maana wiiya (Catch Fish) 2025, handmade woven fish trap, dimensions variable
Irrangiya 2025, handmade glass bottle lines with weaved rafia fish with echidna quills and pippi shells, dimensions variable
Muluurrga dyugaabay 2025, bloodwood hand carved bowl that is engraved with inside sealed with native bee wax/resin with hand engraved seed pods, gum nuts and pippi, dimensions, variable shells
Irrangiyadyi Gulaywan.gu (Fishing for bream) 2025, acrylic on canvas diptych, 202 x 76 cm
Bianca is a proud Bundjalung woman from Baryulgil, Northern New South Wales, and an emerging cultural leader. Her artistic practice spans painting, weaving, and wearable art, blending traditional knowledge with contemporary expression. Her work features in public art installations across Grafton and exhibitions in Northern NSW, including the touring Bulaan Buruuga Ngali exhibition.
Since the early 2000s, Bianca has led Aboriginal dance groups, teaching traditional Bundjalung dances and songs to young people from the Clarence Valley. Her groups have performed at festivals like Boomerang Festival, Splendour in the Grass, Kinship Festival, and Bluesfest.
A devoted mother of three, Bianca raises her children grounded in language and culture while teaching cultural knowledge in local schools and preschools. She is also the founder of Jaana Bulaan, an apparel brand showcasing her original wearable art. “Jaana Bulaan means ‘Stand Together’, all items are ally-friendly, so everyone can wear them with pride.”
The Flow of Knowledge
This work reflects the river as both a physical and cultural force moving across Country, carrying stories, connections, and life along its path. Just as water flows endlessly, knowledge too moves through generations, quietly shaping and nurturing from the very beginning of life.
From the moment a child arrives, they begin learning cultural knowledge, often without even realising it. This piece represents the deep layers of that learning, stories, places, gatherings, ceremony, and the sacred understanding of Country. It speaks to the way knowledge is absorbed, embodied, and eventually carried forward.
As a proud Bundjalung woman, it is my responsibility to ensure that this flow of knowledge continues with my children. I hold the role of teaching them not only the strength and power of our culture, but also the responsibility that comes with carrying it. This means understanding not just what knowledge is held, but how and when it is appropriate to pass it on, so that the flow of culture and wisdom is always respected.
For me, this artwork is also about my children stepping into their own cultural understanding, recognising not only the strength and power that comes with this knowledge, but also the responsibility they hold as future knowledge keepers. The flow must continue, ensuring our stories, culture, and connection endure.
FRANCES BELLE PARKER
Frances Belle Parker is a proud Yaegl woman, mother, and artist from Maclean, New South Wales. Her practice is deeply rooted in her connection to her Mother’s Land, Yaegl country and the stories of Ulgundahi Island in the Clarence River, where her Mother grew up.
“I am inspired by the Yaegl landscape and the stories which were shared with me and passed down from our old people. It is my responsibility to document these stories and to map our landscape. In doing so, I am creating a valuable resource for my children and all of the younger Yaegl mob.”
It’s in My Blood is an installation composed of 237 plastic tubes, each holding water drawn from Biirrinba, the Clarence River. Each vessel marks a year since the 1788 invasion, forming twin spirals that echo the structure of DNA. This configuration speaks to the deep interweaving of ancestry, memory, and place, honouring the unbroken line of connection to Country.
The river water, suspended in each tube, becomes more than a physical substance, it is a living archive. It holds the stories, spirits, and sustenance of Biirrinba, a river that runs through my identity. As a Yaegl woman, mother, artist, and knowledge holder, this river flows through every part of me.
This work is both declaration and remembrance: Biirrinba is not just where I come from, it is who I am. It is, quite literally, in my blood.
It’s in my blood! 2025, river water and plastic tubes. Dimensions: variable
MADDY RICHEY
Born on country, Maddy is a Kamilaroi yinarr raised on Bundjalung country in Grafton, New South Wales. Her earliest artistic memories include painting along the Clarence River with her Pop, a renowned watercolour landscape artist whose guidance deeply shaped her creative journey. His lessons continue to influence her practice. Maddy is a gunidjaar (mother) to three children and works as a registered nurse in a local emergency department while studying to become a midwife. She is passionate about healthcare and advocates against systemic racism and implicit bias in the health system.
Named after her great-grandmother Grace Madeleine Binge, a matriarch who led her family through hardship in Toomelah and Tenterfield, Maddy carries a legacy of resilience. Her artworks blend modern and traditional styles, inspired by the landscape of walaaybaa (home country), special family places, and stories connecting her to her Kamilaroi homelands.
For me, ‘Beyond the River’ elicited esoteric concepts of life-giving, with the river being the ultimate bearer of life for country and its kin. Rivers bind our stories and bring communities together whilst being a foundational part of the ecosystem, delivering nutrients and sustaining life.
During our workshops we explored the macro lens, and I was allured to the idea of generational life giving and the exploration of biological forms of life giving, such as the embryonic stage of pregnancy and how oxygen is transported through our circulation; which was inspired from my work in nursing and midwifery, and so alike to the way the river carries life through our countries.
From the large and bold ‘Layers of Gunimaa’, exploring the layers of country and its elements, including the spiritual, which sustains life; to the delicate ‘Guuma-li’ (collect/gather), representing the generational respect for how we must care for our river systems and the life it bears for us.
My collection of pieces explores how life-giving in the human form is intrinsically linked to the river and the way it sustains populations globally. At the beginning of this project I also wanted to find a way for my pieces to have a voice for how we are damaging these systems, however I wanted to do this in a subtle, gentle way, which led to me intentionally using metallics throughout as a stark reminder of the delicateness of our river systems and how these minerals should remain within the river, not beyond it.
After the Flood - The Micro Lens of Sea Sponges 2025, pastel on primed paper, 2 x 70 x 50cm Biyarruu - The River and I 2025, acrylic on canvas, 6 x 30 cm diameter circles Guuma-li 2025, woven gold wire, buchirush, gather see sponge, 60 x 20cm Layers of Gunimaa 2025, acrylic on marine ply board, 3 x 122 x 60 cm
KRISTAL RUSS
Through her great-grandmother, Kristal is a proud Jaru woman, born and raised on Ngarinyin country in Western Australia. As a child, art was something to which she frequently retreated, and as she continued to grow and expand her creative practice as a self-taught artist, she found her unique style by combining her Aboriginal heritage with contemporary expression.
Residing and creating on Bundjalung country, her works are inspired by the land, storytelling, and the journeys that connect us. Kristal’s works are not merely products of imagination but visual memoirs of her lived experiences and the deep connections that drive her artistic practice
My works for this exhibition explore the Clarence River not only as a natural force but as a living archive, where past and present blur beyond the surface. Its waters act as a pathway that connects, divides, nourishes, and remembers. Through layers of visual and material elements, I aim to show the river as a shared space of tension and tenderness, carrying both silt and story, a meeting place for opposites: harmony and discord, abundance and loss, memory and motion.
Harmony and Discord invites viewers to sit with these dualities, to feel the flow of shared waters through time, and to reflect on how we are always in relation with each other, with history, and with the forces of nature that flow through and beyond us. The river teaches me that connection isn’t always peaceful but it is always present. Whispers Beneath the Surface, a river lamp, was inspired by the quiet, flowing memory of water carrying sediment, light, stories, and memories. Through layered resin and acrylic textures, I invite viewers to pause and feel the weight of what the river remembers.
Seeds of Life honors the deep bond between Indigenous women and water, both life-givers and nurturers inseparable from each other. For me, Country is not just land; it is kin, spirit, and identity. Life begins, journeys, and always returns to its source, rooted in place and responsibility. Winjin (“big rain” in Ngarinyin) captures the rhythm and weight of heavy rains I experienced upon arriving in the Valley. This chandelier is my homage to those who persevere through the chaos of floods.
The Clarence River has always connected me to my family, from Grafton to Woodford, Maclean, and Yamba. Each bend and ripple carries stories of laughter, resilience, and togetherness. It is more than water—it is a bond that reminds me no matter how far apart we are, the current always brings us back.
Seeds of Life 2025, ochre, acrylic and ink on canvas, 154 x 102cm
Harmony and Discord 2025, ochre, acrylic and ink on canvas, triptych, 142 x 206cm
Whispers Beneath the Surface’ river lamp 2025, resin, acrylic and Tasmanian oak, 65 x 28cm
Winjin Raindrop Chandelier 2025, resin and acrylic, 170x 90cm
DEB BRECKENRIDGE
ANEIKA KAPEEN
MADDY RICHEY
KRISTAL RUSS
In this work the artists speak to the way First Nations women from across different mobs collectively care for water and the Clarence River. The flow and movement of the fabric combines with elements from each artist’s vision of the Creator and the stories that they shared during the exhibition process.
of the River 2025, fabric, dyes, acrylic, resin, river sand and timber
Vein
Text copyright: Grafton Regional Gallery and The Artists
This publication has copyright. Apart from fair dealing for purposes of research, study or otherwise permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without permission. Enquiries should be made to Grafton Regional Gallery.
Grafton Regional Gallery is a cultural facility of the Clarence Valley Council.
Grafton Regional Gallery acknowledges the funding support of the NSW Government through Create NSW.
