Design and Art Australia Online

Bronwyn Razem is an Indigenous Australian basket weaver and painter. She is a Gunditjmara woman of the Kirrae Whurrong clan of western Warrnambool on the Victorian coastline. Bronwyn’s practice involves an exploration of her Indigenous heritage and identity, and she creates symbolic representations of places and events that are meaninful to her family. She integrates ochres, sand and other materials into her paintings, and her works also draw on the possum skin cloak traditions of her ancestors. Exhibitions include the solo show “Symbols of Identity” (2006/2007), “Ngathook mangnoorroo watanoo: I come from “ (2008) both at Bunjilaka Gallery, Melbourne Museum, and “Local story: local voices” at the National Wool Museum, Geelong. Bronwyn was highly commended for the Deadly Art Award at the 2005 Victorian Indigenous Arts Awards, and she was short-listed for the Victorian Indigenous Arts Awards in 2006. In 2008, Bronwyn was chosen by the Australia Council for the Arts to be part of a delegation of Indigenous artists to attend the 10th Pacific Arts Festival in Western Samoa.

Bronwyn’s mother, Aunty Zelda Couzens, was a well-respected basket weaver and elder who taught Bronwyn basket-making techniques. Bronwyn now regularly conducts basket weaving workshops with Victorian Indigenous communities in order to facilitate the revival of cultural traditions. She has a Bachelor of Arts with Honours at Deakin University, and in 2008 she was enrolled in a Master by Research degree at Deakin Institute of Koorie Education, Geelong, and was living in Ballarat.

Writers:

Fisher, Laura

Date written:

2008

Last updated:

2011