Bangerang painter Michael Hamlyn was born in Mooroopna (VIC) in 1965. He is the son of Irene Thomas who is a respected storyteller of the Bangerang people of Shepparton (VIC). Thomas was the storyteller of the book and CD-ROM, How The Murray River Was Made , edited and illustrated by Jan Deans and Robert Brown, published in 2007 by the University of Melbourne.
Hamlyn studied visual art in 2005 at the Taree (NSW) campus of the North Coast Institute of TAFE under the tutelage of Russell Saunders. His paintings of synthetic polymer on canvas often depict native Australian animals and his family’s stories told to him by his mother. An exhibition of his paintings was held at The Aboriginal Community, Strategic Planning and Policy Unit (SPPU) in Shepparton following which, the organisation continued to display and sell his work.
Hamlyn spends five months of each year living in Taree, and seven months in Shepparton working as a seasonal worker and fruit picker.
- Writers:
- Allas, Tess
- Date written:
- 2008
- Last updated:
- 2011
