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Arabella Walker is a contemporary Aboriginal artist who descends from a maternal line of Wulli Wulli, Auburn Harkwood people. In highlighting and honouring Aboriginal ways of knowing and being, Walker’s work is a striking representation of Aboriginality in the present-day colony. It’s been a big 12 months for Walker, who has garnered widespread acclaim across Brisbane and beyond following her exhibit at the Queensland College of Art (QCA) Graduate Show in 2023 – the culminating event of her Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art.
The Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art is an undergraduate degree offered by Griffith University, during which students foster and nurture an intimate understanding of the cultural expressions, storytelling practices, and diverse artistic traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In addition to gaining a wealth of practical experience in various media (such as painting, sculpture, and photography) students also contemplate the historical, social, and political context of so-called Australia. Students are empowered with a wealth of knowledge and technical skills to challenge harmful stereotypical narratives and incite positive social upheaval in the contemporary colony.
It was at the 2023 QCA Graduate Show that Walker’s work piqued the interest of Lemonade’s Founder and Editor, Louise R Mayhew, as well as prominent gallerist and Teneriffe institution, Jan Manton. Manton acknowledges the integral platform that the QCA Graduate Show provides to emerging artists, stating:
I first saw Arabella’s work at the QCA graduation show in 2023, the year she graduated, and later at an exhibition at Side Gallery. What immediately stood out to me was her strong narrative style and use of colour. Her artist talk, [in which she articulated how her art practice allows her to explore and navigate her Aboriginal heritage and connection to Country] further reinforced my decision to offer her a show at my gallery.
Via correspondence with this reviewer, Walker herself attests to the significance of both her degree and her QCA Graduate Show exhibition, stating:
The QCA graduation was a significant milestone for me. I was both nervous and incredibly excited, as it marked my transition from an art student to a professional artist. It was the first time I was being showcased as someone who was not only qualified but also ready and eager to pursue a career in the art world. This moment symbolized more than just the completion of my studies—it was a defining step toward fully embracing my identity as an artist.
It is clear to this reviewer that the Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art and the QCA Graduate Show are valuable platforms for emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to hone their skills and to make an all-important first impression upon the art world at large. This is affirmed by Walker’s most recent showing at Jan Manton Gallery, Gentle Shifts. Through her vibrant exploration of Wulli Wulli flora, Walker brings her deep connection to Country to life on the canvas as she contemplates ‘the subtle transitions of nature and memory’.
Gentle Shifts begins at the end of the day with Wattle at Sunset, in which Walker establishes and depicts one of the show’s motifs – wattle – in an array of dusky tones. The warm tones of a Wulli Wulli sunset are mirrored in the neighbouring work, Auburn, along with a deep cerulean that carves its way through the landscape like a serpent. This winding blue incites thoughts of rivers and waterways – Country’s ancient veins – transporting a precious, life-giving resource from one Mob to another.
Arabella Walker: Gentle Shifts, installation view featuring Auburn. Courtesy of Jan Manton Gallery.
The waterways in Auburn trickle across into Roots and Whispers of Green. These neighbouring works are small in size but mighty in their subject matter as twin meditations on water, culminating in The Storm’s Pulse, an eruption of energy and life unfurling from the canvas.
Unlike The Storm’s Pulse, which announces itself with vigour and volume, In the Midst of it feels contemplative and quiet – the calm after the storm, so to speak, and a whisper of what’s yet to come. In truth, In the Midst of it resonated with this reviewer on an inherent, indescribable level. It seems as if this particular canvas can barely contain the wisdom that Walker channels in her work, as if ancient energy is breaking free from its borders, escaping in pockets of blinding light. In the Midst of It seems to be the contemplative interlude separating two ancient and opposing (yet equally valuable) resources: water and fire.
In both Fire and Where Fire Fades, Walker’s assured brushstrokes burn across the canvas in tones of umber and yellow ochre, invoking thoughts of cultural burning (also referred to as cool burning), a land management practice long harnessed by Aboriginal peoples; a practice that is finally being acknowledged within Western schools of thought as a legitimate approach to minimising the devastating effects of Australia’s annual bushfire season (which has unfortunately increased in severity as a direct result of the current climate crisis).
In addition to reducing the intensity of wildfires, cultural burning also promotes healthy, abundant revegetation, encouraging new life to triumphantly emerge from the ashes. Walker vibrantly demonstrates this in the works that follow Fire and When Fire Fades. In Dancing Wattle, Walker’s motif radiates from the centre of the canvas in bright yellow sunbursts; in Wildflowers Gone Wild and Bursting, assortments of Wulli Wulli flora dance across the canvasses in an array of vibrant, pleasant tones. Finally, standing stoically, bearing witness to the regeneration in Dancing Wattle, Wildflowers Gone Wild, and Bursting, is Grass Trees, the piece de resistance of Gentle Shifts. The ancient grass tree is renowned for its beauty and hardiness; it is capable of not only surviving but thriving in the harshest of conditions. For example, a grass tree’s living growth point is embedded so deeply underground (and insulated by the thick skirt of leaves that accumulate around its trunk) that exposure to fire often stimulates its abundant flowering. A projection of the titular tree, rustling in a gentle breeze, accompanies the canvas, signifying the way that Walker’s artistic practice fuses traditional cultural expressions with a contemporary flourish.
In the current climate of political unrest, in which the likes of Peter Dutton and his merry band of conservatives call for the erasure of our flag from public spaces, Arabella Walker’s Gentle Shifts is a representation of Blak excellence. Much like Walker’s Grass Trees, we Aboriginal peoples are resilient – capable of enduring the harshest of conditions. We have lived in harmony with these lands for tens of thousands of years, and we will continue to do so. When the fire comes, we stand proud and strong, bolstered by both our deep and ancient connection to our ancestral lands and the knowledge that we will keep flowering, keep living, keep loving, keep creating on Country for centuries to come.
Arabella Walker’s Gentle Shifts is a triumph – thoughtfully curated to demonstrate our cyclical relationship with Country and the ancient cultural traditions that we have practiced within it for time immemorial. Her canvases are physical manifestations of her deep connection to and knowledge of her ancestral Country; they vibrate with an indescribable energy. While Walker’s showing at the 2023 QCA Graduates Show rendered her as ‘one to watch’, it is safe to say that Gentle Shifts signals her official and undeniable arrival.
Darby Jones is a freelance writer and editor with matrilineal ties to the Kamilaroi mob in Southwest Queensland. As an advocate for diverse representation in literature, he has dedicated his career to amplifying the voices of marginalised and underrepresented peoples.
