Flora and fauna, 2008
Hobart
kangaroo skin, river reed (Schoenoplectus pungens), resin

‘It’s made of the thoughts of the person as they sat there and in the old days, the old fellows were sitting around, all the women laughing, joking—so all that conversation has gone into the basket and it doesn’t matter whether it’s the grass one or the kelp one.’

Verna Nichols is a Tasmanian Aboriginal artist who is also a descendant of the Bunurong people of Victoria. She works in the media of painting, silkscreen, printmaking, ceramics, drawing, weaving and kelp work. Verna was born in 1947 on Flinders Island before moving, aged seven, with her family to Hobart, where, apart from periods in Melbourne and Strahan she continues to live.

In 1994 her cousin and well-respected basket weaver, Lennah Newson, began tutoring Verna in kelp work and basketry. Verna has exhibited kelp water carriers and woven baskets widely including Tactility, National Gallery of Australia (2003) and We’re Here, National Museum of Australia (2004). In 2008 Brest Maritime Heritage Centre in France received a kelp water carrier commissioned from Verna.

Whilst Verna has achieved national and international recognition in the arts she has worked in the Aboriginal sector for most of her life. She co-ordinated the Women’s Karadi Aboriginal Corporation and Palawa Aboriginal Corporation, worked in the anthropology department of TMAG, was a deckhand on a fishing boat and a mother craft nurse. She has taught arts and crafts at schools, Aboriginal school camps and festivals. Verna participated in the Moonah Arts Centre NAIDOC exhibitions from 1996 to 1999. In 2001 she was presented with a Local Hero Award from the City of Glenorchy Council.

Edited from a biography by Tess Allas for the Dictionary of Australian Artists Online.

Reproduced with permission of the artist, author and publisher.

last of the line, 2009
Hobart
bull kelp (Durvillaea potatorum), cumbungi (Typha sp.), tea tree

Dilly – dilly, 2008
Marrawah
unknown fibre, found pigment

Bruny Island, 2008
Bruny island
bull kelp (Durvillaea potatorum), river reed (Schoenoplectus pungens),
tea tree (Melaleuca sp.)

Get to the point, 2007–08
Hobart
bull kelp (Durvillaea potatorum), river reed (Schoenoplectus pungens),
echidna quills, cotton

Captured thoughts, 2008
East coast, Tasmania
unknown fibre

unsure outcome, 2007
Hobart
bull kelp (Durvillaea potatorum), river reed (Schoenoplectus pungens)

untitled, 2007
East coast, Tasmania

4 Sisters, 2008
Bruny island
stringybark (Eucalyptus obliqua), unknown fibre

Auntie Lennah, 2008
Hobart
river reed (Schoenoplectus pungens)

basket, 2007
East coast, Tasmania

water carrier, 2008
Marrawah
bull kelp (Durvillaea potatorum), river reed (Schoenoplectus pungens), wood

Small traditions, 2008
Hobart

Tied together, 2008
Hobart
stringybark (Eucalyptus obliqua)