Classroom Borders Indigenous Designs (Pack of 12)

Part of the series Art & Craft Display Materials.

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Classroom Borders Indigenous Designs 12s. Create eye-catching class and whole school displays that will engage student learning and interest. Use on pin and notice boards, whiteboards, windows and doors. This pack includes two unique and colourful designs _Tribal Country_ and _Songlines to Country_. Designed by Russell Yilamara Brown, who’s Indigenous heritage stems from the Garawa and Mara tribes of South-East Arnhem Land and Groote Eylandt. These borders celebrate identity, ancestral country, and connection to country.

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Artist Biography – Russell Yilamara Brown

Russell Yilamara Brown was born in Hornsby, New South Wales in 1983, his Indigenous heritage is from the Garawa and Mara tribes of South-East Arnhem Land and Groote Eylandt. His family was removed from their Country and placed into the Emerald River Mission on Groote Eylandt, where his grandmother was born. They were later relocated by the missionaries to Sydney due to World War II, where Russell grew up. Russell returned to his grandmother’s Country to live when he was in his early 30’s to reconnect.

Yilamara was the name given to Russell by his Elders. Yilamara is a native orchid, its stem was used for painting and its sap was used to bind the natural ochres together before painting on barks and implements.

Russell began exploring his artistic skills in his mid-twenties and has further refined his traditional style and has developed a contemporary representation.

He is a skilled painter, sculptor and is beginning to explore digital artwork and other mediums. He is a strong advocate for the self-determination of Aboriginal peoples.

Tribal Country

This artwork is about our ancestral Country. Country sustains life and is connected to all our being, it supports us physically, emotionally, spiritually and culturally. It is where we create, sing, dance, celebrate and commemorate. Country is the rivers, the mountains, the waterholes, the plains, the beaches, the desert and the sky. First Nations peoples have cared for this Country for tens of thousands of years and we all must continue to do so to ensure it passed to our future generations. We need to acknowledge and reconcile together. Country is vital to our culture and identity; it is our Mother and where we belong.

Songlines to Country

This artwork shows journey lines, meeting places and patterns that represent the Songlines that connect us together and to Country. It is our dreaming, our Lore, our language, our stories and our knowledge. We are all spiritually and culturally connected to Country, it is intrinsic to our being and identity and important for our physical and emotional health and wellbeing. It is where we belong. It is where and how we are educated through story and song, by our Elders and ancestors.