Ultramarine Conversations: A Day with Artists

Join us for a day of programs in celebration of the exhibitions to come together as water and NORTHERN WATERS. Hear from exhibiting artists, collaborators and UQ academics, explore the exhibitions, and join us for a free lunch.  

In the morning  UQ Art Museum Curator Freja Carmichael will be joined by to come together as water artists Solomon Booth, Megan Cope, Lucy Simpson, Michelle Woody and Colin Puruntatameri (Jilamara Arts) for an exhibition tour interwoven with artist-led talks. 

After lunch artist Rachel O’Reilly will be joined by NORTHERN WATERS collaborators Sonya Takau and Jacob Cassady alongside Dr Coen Hird (School of Biological Sciences) to discuss contemporary conservation politics in North Queensland from situated First Nations perspectives. The conversation will continue with Professor Justine-Bell James (School of Law) joining the speakers for the final session of the day.

• 11:00am: Acknowledgement of Country by Ellen Van Neerven
• 11:15am: Tour of to come together as water with curator Freja Carmichael, with artist-led talks from Solomon Booth, Megan Cope, Lucy Simpson, Michelle Woody and Colin Puruntatameri (Jilamara Arts)
• 12:15pm: Lunch 
• 1:00pm: NORTHERN WATERS panel with Sonya Takau and Jacob Cassady, hosted by Dr Coen Hird and Rachel O’Reilly.  
• 1:45pm: Tea break 
• 2:00pm: Discussion with NORTHERN WATERS panellists and Professor Justine Bell-James  
• 2:45pm: Program ends
• 3:00pm: UQ Art Museum closes 

NORTHERN WATERS is a 105min video installation with set daily viewing times. Where possible audiences are encouraged to view the work ahead of this program.

JUSTINE BELL-JAMES is a Professor at the TC Beirne School of Law with expertise in environmental and climate change law. She holds a PhD from QUT (2010) and was a postdoctoral research fellow at UQ's Global Change Institute from 2011-2013. 

Justine’s main research interest is legal mechanisms for the protection, management and restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems. She has led projects funded by the Australian Research Council, CSIRO, and the National Environmental Science Program. Currently she is leading the legal component of two National Environmental Science Program projects related to upscaling coastal wetland restoration. 

Justine's work on legal mechanisms to facilitate blue carbon projects in Australia and internationally informed the development of the first 'blue carbon' methodology under Australia's Emissions Reduction Fund. This methodology has allowed for the carbon abatement generated by particular coastal restoration activities to receive Australian Carbon Credit Units. Much of her research now focuses on remaining legal barriers to upscaling coastal and marine restoration, including legal permitting processes and land tenure. She is also working on the second blue carbon methodology for abatement generated by feral ungulate control. 

SOLOMON BOOTH Aboriginal and Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait Island) peoples. Born 1981. Lives and works in Kubin Village, Moa Island, Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait). Solomon Booth is an artist with Moa Arts – Ngalmun Lagau Minaral Art Center. Recent exhibitions include Malu Bardthar Dapar: Sea Land Sky, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns (2023); Tarnanthi 2022, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2022); Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair (DAAF), Darwin Convention Centre, Darwin (2022); Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF), Cairns Convention Centre, Cairns (2022); Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF), Online exhibition (2021); Tarnanthi 2021, Online exhibition (2021); and Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair (DAAF), Online exhibition (2021). His work is held in collections including National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge University, United Kingdom; Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory, Darwin. 

FREJA CARMICHAEL Quandamooka people. Freja Carmichael is Curator, the University of Queensland (UQ) Art Museum and a PhD candidate in Art History with UQ. Over the past decade Freja has worked alongside First Peoples stories, artists and communities on exhibitions, programming, collection research, writing and documentation in curatorial roles with art centres, regional galleries, cultural gatherings, contemporary art spaces and national and international art institutions. Freja was an Australian delegate for the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture, Hawaiʻi (2024) and co-curator of the National 4: Australian Art Now, Carriageworks (2023). Other curatorial projects include national touring exhibition long water: fibre stories (2020-22), Institute of Modern Art, Weaving the Way (2019). Freja regularly contributes writing for exhibition catalogues and publication, and is a member of the Kluge Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection Advisory Council of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia US 

JACOB CASSADY is the Managing Director of Mungalla Station and a Nywaigi Traditional Owner. He oversees Mungalla’s integrated land-management, ecotourism and conservation enterprises, which centre Nywaigi cultural knowledge, wetland restoration, and Indigenous-led economic development. Under his stewardship Mungalla has developed the Silver Lining Indigenous School and expanded culturally grounded tourism offerings that provide training and employment pathways on Country. Mungalla Station is also involved in coastal restoration and blue-carbon initiatives, collaborating with restoration partners and national programs to reintroduce tidal flows, rehabilitate wetlands and create one of Australia’s pioneering Indigenous blue carbon projects—linking carbon sequestration with long-term stewardship and livelihoods. Mungalla Aboriginal Business Corporation’s community and conservation work has been recognised at a national level. Rooted in a family connection to both Nywaigi sea Country and Manbarra heritage from Palm Island, Jacob combines on-Country knowledge with experience in tourism, youth engagement and community education to generate culturally led regional development and restoration. 

MEGAN COPE is a Quandamooka artist from Moreton Bay/Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island). Her site-specific sculptural installations, paintings, and video works investigate issues relating to colonial histories, the environment and mapping practices.  

Her recent solo exhibitions include Whispers, Sydney Opera House (2023) and Fractures and Frequencies, UNSW Galleries, Gadigal/Sydney (2021). Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including Five Acts of Love, ACCA, Naarm/Melbourne; Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry, Sharjah; Hawai’i Triennial 25: Aloha Nō, Honolulu (2025); Transformative Currents: Art and Action in the Pacific Ocean, Oceanside Museum of Art, California; Soils, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2024); We Are Electric, UQ Art Museum, Meanjin/Brisbane; proppaNOW: There Goes the Neighbourhood!, Vera List Center, New York City (2023); Busan Biennale 2022: We, On The Rising Wave, Busan; and Reclaim the Earth, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2022). 

DR COEN HIRD is an interdisciplinary biologist researching and teaching in anticolonial scientific praxis. Coen has scientific expertise in ecological and evolutionary biology, molecular biology and animal physiology and has published academic works across disciplines. Coen has broad interests in centering Indigenous priorities and Indigenous rights in scientific research, emphasising respectful engagement with Indigenous communities. Coen's work bridges cultural and scientific gaps, fostering a deeper understanding of Indigenous ways of coming into knowledge as a valid scientific endeavour.  

Coen is a trawlwoolway pakana related to northeast lutruwita (Hearps, Briggs family) and accountable to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community. Coen grew up as a visitor to many lands in so-called Australia and currently is associated with Yuggera and Turrbal lands around Magandjin. 

RACHEL O’REILLY is a settler Australian artist/writer/researcher. She was film, video, new media curator at GoMA/Australian Cinematheque, has an MA (Cum Laude) in Media and Culture from the University of Amsterdam (2012) and is a Phd student in Research Architecture at Goldsmiths University London. From 2014-21 Rachel taught ‘How to Do Things with Theory’ at the Dutch Art Institute, NL and was an editor of Theory on Demand for the Institute for Network Cultures. Her artistic work has been presented at HKW, Berlin, E-Flux New York, Tate Liverpool; Museum of Yugloslav History, Belgrade; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Jakarta Biennale; Qalandiya International, Jerusalem; and Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil. Curatorial collaborations include The Leisure Class (GoMA), Moving Images of Speculation (NL), ‘Planetary Records’, Contour Biennale (BE), and EX-EMBASSY.com (DE). She writes with Jelena Vesic on Non-Aligned Movement legacies, Danny Butt on artistic autonomy in settler colonial conditions and edits with Richard Bell. From 2013-21 her project, The Gas Imaginary, used poetry, drawing, installation and moving images to explore the difference of unconventional gas (fracking) from modern mining regimes, culminating in the feature installation INFRACTIONS 2019. 

LUCY SIMPSON. Yuwaalaraay people. Born 1981. Lives and works Gadigal/Wangal Country (Sydney). Lucy Simpson is Artist / Designer / Maker, and Creative Director behind Gaawaa Miyay First Nations Design studio. Recent solo exhibitions and commissions include HOLDING GROUND, Jackson Bella Room Commission, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2023-25); Baayangalibiyaay, Canberra Glassworks, Canberra (2023). Recent group exhibitions include The Ecologies Project, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington (2024), Alchemy, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (2024), Mother/Daughter, Galerie IDAIA,Paris (2024), Bankstown Biennale, Bankstown Art Centre, Sydney (2024); Handmade Universe, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (2022-2023); Eucalyptusdom, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (2022); long water: fibre stories, Institute of Modern Art and national tour, Brisbane (2020-2022); Siteworks 2022: From a deep valley, Art Museum at Bundanon (2022); Measured Response, National Art School, Sydney (2018); Four Thousand Fish, Sydney Festival (2018); and Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art (2015). 

SONYA TAKAU is a Jirrbal woman currently serving as Communications Officer with Girringun Aboriginal Corporation, and is the founder and director of Dingo Culture, a national digital advocacy platform that amplifies First Nations perspectives on the cultural significance and protection of dingoes. Sonya’s work spans community advocacy, media, and legislative engagement. She is active in campaigns to ensure Queensland wildlife management and related legislation recognise Native Title rights and Aboriginal cultural obligations toward dingoes, and is on the board of Defend the Wild. She has a public profile in national Indigenous media explaining the ecological and cultural connections between rainforest, rivers and reef systems. She played a central role in organising the inaugural sovereign National Dingo Forum—an event driven by community fundraising and designed to recentre First Nations leadership in dingo management.  She has a BA in Digital Media from the University of South Australia and is currently working on a film. 

ELLEN VAN NEERVEN is an award-winning writer of Mununjali Yugambeh and Dutch heritage. Ellen’s first book, Heat and Light, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers’ Prize. They are the author of two poetry collections: Comfort Food, which was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize; and Throat, which won the Kenneth Slessor Prize, the Multicultural NSW Award and Book of the Year in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Their memoir, Personal Score, won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Non-fiction in 2023.

MICHELLE WOODY and COLIN PURUNTATAMERI, JILAMARA ARTS AND CRAFTS ASSOCIATION (JILAMARA ARTS) is owned and governed by Tiwi artists from the community of Milikapiti on Melville Island. Established in 1989, Jilamara fosters and promotes Tiwi art making, cultural projects and collaborative processes. Its artists are nationally and internationally renowned for their contemporary works based on ceremonial body painting designs, clan totems and Tiwi creation stories. Their multidisciplinary practices include painting with locally sourced earth pigments on stringybark, linen and canvas, ironwood carving, weaving, printmaking, screen printed textiles, photography and film. Recent exhibitions include YOYI (dance), Gropius Bau, Berlin (2022); TIWI, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2021); 22nd Biennale of Sydney: NIRIN, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2020); Tarnanthi, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, (2019); and 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial: Defying Empire, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2017). Jilamara Arts artists’ works are held in collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; the British Museum, United Kingdom; the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.