Matt Robert - "Desert Water"

"I was born in Brisbane with my dad moving us to Townsville soon after to be closer to family.After several years, we moved back to Brisbane which I now call home. I have two homes, the first being Brisbane where I was born and where I live but also a small community called Hopevale. This is the home of the Guugu Yimithirr people and where my ancestors originate from.

My grandfather was stolen from Hopevale as a young baby and adopted by a white family and taught nothing of culture. Luckily after travel toHopevale my grandfather and my father were able to reconnect with our country.

My first exposure to art was at the age of 12 when I was encouraged to do a racism piece for a school project. I produced a piece which won awards throughout the school and was a part of the annual exhibition hosting artworks from student’s years 5-12 from all around the community. Art then took a backwards step as I focused on my sport and social life being a busy teenager, it was not until 2018 where I decided to really focuson my art once more. Ambrose and I were asked to design Morningside AFC inaugural Indigenous jersey which was a great success throughout the community. From there our passion sparked once more and we created MA Deadly art.

Today I utilise my inspiration from personal experiences, country, and interpretations to create pieces with strong story and messages. Using a wide range of colours, traditional and contemporary indigenous styles to complete my artwork with the importance of storytelling captured throughout every piece."

If you would like to follow along Matt's journey you can find him @changing_waters_ on instagram

Desert Water Artwork

This piece was completed by Matt in July 2020 and was inspired by the landscape of this beautiful country we call home.

"I have used timber pieces to give a 3D effect, this material was taken from land and first asked of the ancestors for their blessing to create and celebrate culture.

The centre of the piece consists of dot circles representing waterholes with the remainder of the blues representing the flowing water around these water holes. These water holes are sacred and rare being found in few places across the desert by our ancestors. There are several journey lines between the community groups surrounding the water holes to represent the different communities traveling together to meet at this sacred site. Finally, the thin two tone brown lines show the desert landscape."