Artist Coree Thorpe has created about 20 artworks inspired by the stories of his maternal grandparents and others who lived through the historic 1939 walk-off and subsequent settlement at "the flats” on the banks of the Goulburn River at Mooroopna.
Mr Thorpe is a Melbourne-based emerging artist with Gunnai, Yorta Yorta and Gunditjmara heritage whose great-grandfather was a brother of iconic Aboriginal rights campaigner William Cooper.
His mother is Echuca-born artist Lyn Thorpe whose work has been exhibited at Shepparton Art Museum.
Mr Thorpe said he had spent the past year gathering stories from indigenous elders with connections to Cummeragunja and the flats at Mooroopna.
“I was privileged to have strong story tellers in my family, and this is about handing on these stories to the younger people who are coming up,” he said.
“I also wanted to create an opportunity for older people to come and talk and keep their stories alive, and the best way I know is through art,” he said.
The exhibition will also include podcasts of stories told in the interviews conducted by Mr Thorpe.
A father of two young daughters and a former plumber, Mr Thorpe took up painting two years ago after winning the Lendlease Reconciliation Award for his portrait of his cousin, Adam Briggs.
Works shown in this, his first exhibition, consist of acrylic paint etched into metal.
Yenbenal Mawa Murrangurang Ancestors Blood Always opens tonight from 6.30pm with dinner provided by Yurri Catering at The Connection off the Peter Ross-Edwards causeway.
The exhibition will continue until September 22 at The Connection.
Opening hours are Saturdays and Sundays, 9am to 4pm.
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