RMIT School of Art is thrilled to see so many staff, students and alumni featured in the NGV exhibition Melbourne Now.

Today we feature alumnus Moorina Bonini.

Alumnus Moorina Bonini is a proud descendant of the Yorta Yorta Dhulunyagen family clan of Ulupna and the Yorta Yorta and Wurundjeri Briggs/McCrae family. Bonini’s practice is informed by her experiences as an Aboriginal and Italian woman and re-examines the lived experiences that have influenced her cultural identity.

In Gowidja (After), 2021, Bonini intersperses newly filmed and found footage to ponder the past of First Nations people and propose a new future. As the fragments of imagery accumulate on the screen, Bonini questions past and present representations of First Nations people and their cultures. Using the moving image, Bonini presents an Indigenous-led future, where all centralised governance and power has been dispersed among Indigenous people and communities. In this future, First Nations people have ownership of their cultural materials and objects, autonomy over their representation and agency to achieve self-determinism. Bonini’s practice is based within Indigenous knowledge systems and brings this to the fore, unsettling the narrative placed upon Aboriginal people as a result of colonisation.

Free entry
Booking is not required

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Fed Square
Community Hall
Ground Level

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