Our Stories
Mitch Mahoney on Collaboration and Community
This story is part of a series profiling artists and mentors involved in the Country Road + NGV First Nations Commissions: My Country. In their own words, artists and mentors share their personal stories, shine a light on their work and community and share the messages they have for the next generation of First Nations creatives.
Here, Mitch Mahoney talks about the power of collaboration, the revitalisation of culture and what made the Country Road + NGV commissions process so unique.
I am a proud descendant of the Barkindji and Boonwurrung peoples here in south eastern Australia. I grew up around the Mildura area but later moved to Melbourne, which is where I started working with Auntie Maree Clarke.
I think I was around 16 years old when I made my first possum skin cloak and that cloak represented my whole family line.
I’ve been engaged in cloak making for a long time. I think I’ve always been interested in making cultural items and I’ve been involved in a lot of projects over the years. But I’ve been particularly passionate about supporting community to relearn the art of cloak making.
After I made my first cloak, people started asking me how I did it and my practice kind of went from there. My practice and what I do is something that just kind of happened. I didn’t necessarily have that strong conviction; it just evolved the more I practiced and connected with people.
I think I’m just meant to be doing this. There have been times in my life where I have resisted my practice and tried to do other jobs, but I always fell back into art.
It’s that connection with people that I love the most. If I had to describe what it’s like working with community… well that’s my whole reason. I love the connections, meeting people and being part of community workshops.
I think that working in this way is really a form of continuation and revitalisation of culture.
It’s all about coming together to tell stories through making and learning from each other. I’ve been involved in community projects that have created everything from river reed canoes, coolamons, kangaroo teeth necklaces and lots of other things. I’ve even been down to Phillip Island to make a stringy bark canoe with the community there.
Most of the work I’ve created in my life has been commissioned work, but this commission process has been really different.
This process has probably felt the most the natural to me and the thing I loved most about it was how broad the scope was, centred around the theme of My Country. It’s one of the only times that I have seen a process be set up to give artists the freedom and time to do what they want to do; in the way they want to do it.
There were no strict parameters around what I had to make or how to make it and I have to say, that’s pretty rare. It’s actually a great model for working with artists and I hope that this becomes the standard.
The process meant that it became all about what the community wanted to achieve and that’s the thing that we should lean into, ensuring there is open and free process.
There are definitely things I hope that people learn from my work. The big message I hope people take away, and it’s the message I always give, is that the communities and practices of south eastern Australia are here and present and that people in these communities are working in amazing ways.
I hope what I do also inspires people to learn about the Country they come from or live on and just deepen that connection.
My work does also touch on the devastation of Country and some of the things we need to confront and talk about. But ultimately, I want people to know that we are alive and thriving and that our culture is coming back stronger with each generation.
For me, the process of creating is just as important as the work that comes from it.
When I think about each work, the process of making it has usually involved a whole lot of travel to communities across Victoria and there have been a whole lot of people who have been a part of it.
The process of making actually has other outcomes. We have the ability to grow and make connections and reconnections. Through this, I have spent time on Country and got to learn and relearn and regrow things in myself.
Sometimes we get fixated on how things will end up, but a lot of the time, the richness comes from the doing.
The Country Road + NGV First Nations Commissions: My Country is a national, biennial mentorship and exhibition program that pairs emerging Australian First Nations artists and designers with one of eight esteemed industry mentors. Working collaboratively, the mentors each support and guide an emerging artist to create new and ambitious works.
Responding to this year’s theme of ‘My Country’, these new works are displayed in a major exhibition that’s now open and free to visit at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia.
