Glennys Briggs

Glennys is a Yorta Yorta/ Taungurung/ Wiradjuri and Palawa artist. The cultural influences in her work reflect the strong connection to her people and country. Like a time-lapse photograph, her work is ever-changing to reveal a long history. Each scene lays upon the other like the layers in a midden. each revealing more of the story. Her art practice consists of possum skin cloak making, basket making, sculpture and assemblages, painting and her main practice of Printmaking.

“I was born in Mooroopna to May and Hartley Briggs and I lived on Cummeragunja Mission which is on the banks of the Murray River, across from Barmah township. I lived there with my parents until I was about 14. And then we moved to Nathalia. To mum and dad to take up the positions of custodians and managers of a secondary school, Aboriginal hostel for children who had the opportunity to attend Nathalia high school and be away from home to learn. So, I grew up on an Aboriginal mission, from the time I was a month old. Before that my mother grew up on that same mission.This was under the control of the Aboriginal protectorate. Thank goodness by the time I arrived those restrictions had been lifted. But it gave me the opportunity to grow up on country to grow up surrounded by family to grow surrounded by my own country. The be nurtured by that Country and the family. My aunts, my uncles, grandparents. I think I was very fortunate as child. We might have run barefoot and had not a lot to do. We went to school on Cummeragunja. But they were happy times. Children don’t see the struggles the parents go through, to bring up children. To raise children in difficult situations. It never really dawned on me that we were struggling because we had all we needed – wonderful parents, a home, good roof over our head, three meals a day, and we were happy. So, a lot of my stories come out of living in that space, living with my culture, my history my family stories.”