Yorta Yorta possum skin cloak maker, printmaker, sculptor, weaver, and painter, Treahna Hamm was born on the 16th May 1965 in Melbourne and grew up at Yarrawonga near her ancestral lands on the Murray River, Victoria but disconnected from her mother and culture. Never denying her identity and heritage, Hamm has maintained strong connections to her environment and has since meeting her birth mother in Sydney in 1992, she has begun incorporating Yorta Yorta stories into her work.
After establishing herself as an artist of repute in the capital cities of the eastern states of Australia, she returned to live and work in her ancestral homelands of Echuca/Moama/Barmah along the Murray River in 2001 and became involved in art projects with the local Yorta Yorta people of the Murray River (Dhungala). Working with the local community is important for Hamm as she sees herself as helping to reclaim the art and cultural practices of her people. As Hamm stated in an interview conducted for this biography, “As a Yorta Yorta artist I focus on the reclamation, revitalisation and regeneration of South East Australian art (Yorta Yorta in particular) and that of the stories connecting me to my culture and heritage as an expression of who I am within my community. Other influences relate to the environmental stories of the Murray River (Dhungala) and the Barmah Forest not only as artworks but for education as well.”
Hamm has been creating and exhibiting art since 1982 when she enrolled in an Art and Design course at Wangaratta TAFE. She continued her education at Charles Sturt University (CSU) Wagga Wagga where between 1984 and 2000 she completed a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts), a Diploma of Education and a Masters of Visual Arts. It was here at CSU that she became influenced by abstract expressionism and aware of the 'urban’ Aboriginal art movement in general and the then newly formed Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative in particular. In 2004 Hamm completed a Bachelor of Arts (Njernda studies) at Victoria University and at the time of writing (2008) she was a PhD candidate at the Royal Melbourne Institute for Technology (RMIT), Melbourne.
Throughout her career Hamm has participated in workshops that challenge and develop her skills as an artist including Theo Tremblay's 1989 Print Workshop at Canberra School of Arts alongside the Melbourne based Indigenous artists, Ellen Jose and Karen Casey. Hamm was also involved in a weaving workshop in Melbourne 2002 that was facilitated by internationally acknowledged weaver Yvonne Koomatrie and local respected weavers “Aunty” Dot Peters and “Aunty” Pat Harrison.
Hamm’s works, Brmah nurrtja biganga (Barmah Forest possum-skin cloak) 2005, Yakapna yenbena dunguja bigagga (Family ancestor strong flight possum cloak) 2007 and a woven grass sculpture, Yabby, 2005 were included in Culture Warriors, the first National Indigenous Art Triennial at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra in 2007/2008. In the accompanying catalogue, Stephen Gilchrist (Aboriginal Curator, National Gallery of Victoria) writes of her weaving that, “Hamm’s whimsical woven Yabby, 2005 demonstrates her command of the coiled bundle technique of Indigenous weaving, and despite the exaggerated size of the crustacean, sensitive detailing is not sacrificed and the artist highlights its irresistible tactility.”
Hamm has received a good deal of recognition of her work including winning the 1996 Australian Heritage Commissions’ National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Heritage Art Award for her work Remains To Be Seen. She was one of the City of Melbourne’s commissioned artists for the 2006 public art work, Birrarung Wilam (camp by the river of mist), with fellow artists Lee Darroch and Vicki Couzens, as part of the 'Birrarung Marr’ precinct on the eastern banks of the Yarra River in Melbourne.
Hamm’s work is held in a number of international, national, state and university collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Museum of Australia, Koorie Heritage Trust, Print Council of Australia, National Museum of Ethnology in Japan, and Queensland University of Technology.
- Writers:
- Allas, TessNote:
- Date written:
- 2007
- Last updated:
- 2010
- Status:
- peer-reviewed
