greeno: Generations of Cultural Creations and Design

Cultural work and creative making are kin...

... both require close observation and perserverance. While an individual may possess singular creativity, Cultural work is broader and deeper, long-haul and regenerative, continuance is its imperative and driver. The core of Cultural work is participating, acknowledging and honouring who and what came before, the collective.

An ever-present responsibility to past and future is what sustains Culture and Cultural people. This is about survival. To make in Culture is special. Drawn from and with family, these creations signify and express the deep memory-work of holding all of this, together, Elders to youngsters. Across generations, skills and knowledge, ancient to current, continue here in fine hands. Patterns of life, weather, seasons, deeply embedded understandings and arrangements, are necessarily now co-existing with epic changes, impacts Ancestors could hardly have imagined.

These Creative and Cultural works are manifested collaboratively, including with plants and animals from sea and land. They log the endurance, the teachings and transformative generosity of a family, the Greeno family - and by extension the Tasmanian Aboriginal community. Always will be.

- Julie Gough, 2025

Our people have been here for 50,000 years.  They had a family life, they lived in communes, they worked together, they met together, they hunted together, and that's how I depicted my drawings.

 

My inspiration for these drawings comes from growing up in an island family living by the sea, training with my dad to become a professional fisherman. Once I left school, I had the opportunity to help build a family fishing boat. The major part of my sea experience was gained through the knowledge and skills I learned from my grandfather, Silas; my uncle, Tommy; my father, Joe; and my brother, Bruce. My grandfather taught me all the cultural ways of mutton bird season, including snaring kangaroos and fishing from a small wooden boat steaming around the small islands where the mutton birds nested.

In early 2000, my interest in bark canoes grew from reading Rona Hollingsworth's research she compiled on “the Tasmanian Aboriginal Water Craft”. I also had the opportunity to view a scan of a model bark canoe, replicating a traditional canoe made from swamp tea-tree paper bark, which shows the core frame used to maintain strength and form, now in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection.

 Rex's works are held in the the  Muséum d'histoire naturelle du Havre, France; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Museum of Australia, Canberra; Museums Victoria, Melbourne; Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory, Darwin;  Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart; Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane;  Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston.

The main source of inspiration for my work ethic and life perspective are drawn from my place of birth, the island and sea life of my childhood and my extended family. I have important familial artistic references from my mother, father, grandmothers and great grand parents.

My arts practice centres primarily on sculpture, it draws heavily upon my pakana cultural connections to Country and the traditional practices that spiritually connect me to my artwork. These connections began early when my great grandfather took me into the bush and swamps of the East coast of Flinders Island to show me traditional hunting and crafting techniques. This background is combined with the stoicism derived from the journey of my ancestors and people who have continued to practice the oldest living culture from precolonial to current times despite the many horrific challenges they faced on that pathway not excluding war, assimilation and cultural theft. An important aspect of the future pathway within my work is the effects of climate change on traditional Tasmanian Aboriginal resources and recognizing how these effects are being felt not only by the pakana and palawa people themselves but Sky, Land and Sea Country. 

 Along with Uncle Rex Greeno, Dean Greeno was invited as a Master Craftsman to exhibit at the 23rd Sydney Biennale, and in 2024 Dean won the People's Choice Award at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islaner Awards.

My fondest memories of shell collecting was when I was growing up and swimming at our local beach in Lady Barron.  I can remember diving down and scooping the gorgeous jewels off the bottom of the seabed, they were sparkling in the little dips of the sand.  

I am a very proud Pakana woman, being invited to be part of the collection of artists in this exhibit is an absolute delight.  Having both grandmothers as shell-makers (Dulcie Greeno and Valerie MacSween), and my own mother, Lola Greeno, to guide me along the way, has been an absolute blessing for me, learning the ways of our culture.

Vanessa Greeno's practice is vital to the preservation and continuation of her Aboriginal culture. Her dedication to the making of these  necklaces will see them continue to be crafted and cherished for generations to come, carrying with them the stories and traditions of her ancestors. Vanessa's necklaces are held in the collections of the Tasmanian Musem and Art Gallery and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.

Working on this canoe with my grandfather Rex Greeno was very inspirational.  

 I felt very close to my culture and felt very passionate being able to build this alongside him.  This canoe is very special to me as it is one of the first canoes I got to work on mostly my own with a little help from Pop. I was taught many things while building the canoe which I’ll carry with me as I plan to build many more, but I hope you appreciate where my journey began with this little paper bark canoe.

Harrison Greeno is the next generation of canoe builders to come through the ranks having being passed on  knowledge and skills of contemporary bark canoe making from his grand father and father. This canoe was exhibited at the Tasmanian Museum Art Gallery in 2025 as part of Rex Greeno, Memories through Sea Stories.

I have been shell-stringing with my grandmother since I was eight years old, and in more recent years I have been developing my own individual designs.

Using kelp and traditional plant materials are newer practices for me. I was taught about these by my grandmother during her workshop series for her legacy project. Each piece of my artwork I make has a story. Each one inspires me to create more. If there is a simple story to tell, then the artwork shows that story, for example, the patterns in the necklaces. In my other artworks, I strive to capture diverse stories through shapes, colours, and design. Because my stories can be passed down through the generations in my family.