Collective Movements - Ash Thomas, The Hunters

Ash Thomas is a Yorta Yorta/Wiradjuri artist who creates detail-oriented paintings that interconnect culture, spirituality and realism.

The artist says that 'The Hunters' ’‘represents the stories and knowledge passed down through the years about hunting and tracking food and about skins for trade and warmth in the colder months. Learning how to only take what you need and about the different ways of tracking and hunting were necessities of life for as long as our beautiful culture has been around. They were our shield of strength and knowledge."

'The Hunters', Ash Thomas is a NETS Victoria touring project, with support from The Torch. This project emerges from the touring exhibition Collective Movements, initiated by the Monash University Museum of Art and co-curated by Taungurung artist and curator Kate ten Buuren; Lardil and Yangkaal artist and curator Maya Hodge; and N’Arweet Professor Carolyn Briggs AM PhD; with support from Bundjalung, Muruwari and Kamilaroi artist and senior academic, Professor Brian Martin, Director of the Wominjeka Djeembana Indigenous Research Lab, Monash University.

This project has been supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, as well as receiving development assistance from NETS Victoria’s Exhibition Development Fund, supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.

NETS Victoria
NETS Victoria is the peak body for visual art, craft and design touring in Victoria, and the state’s only full-service visual arts touring organisation. NETS Victoria take a hands-on approach to supporting and showcasing the work of Australian curators, artists, arts workers and arts organisations, connecting them with one another and fostering collaboration through the provision of curatorial, financial and capacity building support. Their targeted exhibition and professional development programs reflect and celebrate the diversity of the sector, with a focus on public galleries, regional audiences and removing barriers so more people can take part in the arts.

Collective Movements
Collective Movements is a wide-ranging project focusing on the work of historic and contemporary First Nations creative practitioners and community groups from across Victoria that recognises collectivity as integral to Indigenous knowledges and ways of being. An exhibition, publishing project, conversation and workshop platform, the project begins with the desire to make more visible a language and terminology beyond Western art concepts of ‘collaboration’ and ‘collectivism’—one that better describes and acknowledges the way Indigenous creatives work within a broader community and its inheritances. Collective Movements is co-curated by Taungurung artist and curator Kate ten Buuren; Lardil and Yangkaal artist and curator Maya Hodge; and N'Arweet Professor Carolyn Briggs AM PhD; with support from Bundjalung, Muruwari and Kamilaroi artist and senior academic, Professor Brian Martin, Director of the Wominjeka Djeembana Indigenous Research Lab.