AELA's Earth Arts Program is pleased to invite you to join our next 'creative conversation'.
On July 22nd we're excited to be joined by Jude Taggart Roberts, Vernessa Fien and Renata Buziak, members of the Yimbaya Maranoa Arts Collective, to discuss their current exhibition, Terra-rara. Hear about the local inspiration for the art works, and the ongoing connection the art collective has with the people and places of the Maranoa River.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
Jude Taggart Roberts (co-Facilitator of the Collective)
Instagram: jude_taggart_roberts
Jude is a visual artist and facilitator of arts related projects. Through researching, drawing, painting and print methods as well as connecting with river communities, her practice addresses issues on Land and Water scapes within the Murray Darling and sub-terranean basins. From 1984 to 2005 she lived and worked within the Maranoa region, tutoring drawing, creating public art and facilitating the Mitchell Fire and Water Festival in 2000 before moving to Brisbane. Jude has tutored across the mediums of drawing and print media at Qld College of Arts, Southbank TAFE, and privately run classes Draw4all beginning in 2008. Since moving to Brisbane, the artist has continued to make direct encounters with the land and people of Western Queensland through various arts programs which include One River arts project, staged as a part of the Centenary of Canberra in 2013, and currently with the Yimbaya Maranoa Arts Collective. The artist’s work has been shown at BLINDSIDE, Redland Art Gallery, Springhill Reservoir, Alexandra Lawson Gallery Toowoomba, The Crane Arts Centre, Philadelphia, Qld College Art Design Galleries and Woolloongabba Art Gallery. She is the winner of the 2025 Libris Book Awards, The Australian Artists Book Prize, Artspace Mackay.
Vernessa Fien (co-Facilitator of the Collective)
Instagram: Fien_ness
Vernessa is a creative artist based in the Maranoa and descendant of both Gunggari and Bidjara from the Maranoa District in Southwest Queensland.
The artist has been involved in the facilitation of many community events and curatorship of exhibitions at the Injune Arts Assoc Inc., Injune Creek Gallery, and Maranoa on Mitchell Gallery. She was coordinator and curator for the NAIDOC Art Exhibition at the Roma Bungil Walk of Art Gallery and Bamba Gii Festival. Vernessa worked with artists and artworkers at GOMA for the Internship program Design Tracks. Vernessa facilitates a women’s cultural group, ‘Wandering Spirits’. Art is a significant part of the Aboriginal culture, and she is passionate about using this to help promote the importance of understanding and acknowledging First Nations people, and custodians of cultural heritage of the area.
Dr Renata Buziak http://www.renatabuziak.com
Instagram: @renatabuziak
Dr Renata Buziak is a biochrome photo-media artist, researcher, educator and ECO Harmony Guide working at the intersection of art and science. Her PhD research explored medicinal plants of Minjerribah / North Stradbroke Island in consultation with members of the Quandamooka community. By allowing photographic materials to interact with organic matter over time, Renata developed the biochrome process, creating images shaped through natural processes of transformation and decay.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including recent exhibitions Gondwanan Biochromes at Binna Burra and A Thread Through Time at COMA Gallery, Sydney. Renata’s artworks are held in public and private collections, and have featured on ABC TV’s Gardening Australia and in the recent documentary EARTH PRINTS. She also facilitates cyanotype workshops that encourage creativity and deeper connection with nature.
MICHELLE MALONEY
Dr Michelle Maloney (PhD) is an Earth lawyer and advocate for ecocentric and bioregional governance. She is recognised internationally and in Australia for her work advocating for Earth centred law and governance, including First Laws and the Rights of Nature. Michelle is Co-Founder and Director of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), and Co-Founder and Director of Future Dreaming, an Indigenous led organisation that works to share Indigenous ecological and governance knowledge with non-Indigenous people and organisations in Australia. In her role as Convenor of AELA, Michelle created and works in partnership with many wonderful artists and creatives, to host Earth Arts activities every two years or so. For information about Michelle's work, publications and affiliations, please visit: www.michellemaloney.au
ABOUT AELA'S EARTH ARTS PROGRAM, 'KINSHIP' 2026
This webinar is part of AELA's Earth Arts Program for 2026, themed "Kinship". Kinship is an invitation for all creatives to celebrate, create works and events, and learn more about our deep interconnection and entanglement with all of life on earth. You can find out more about the program, and submit your ideas to get involved, on this webpage: https://eartharts.org.au/events/kinship-2026/
Why Kinship?
Human beings are just one member of the wider Earth community, and we are all connected and interdependent with all other species and ecosystems. ‘Kinship’ invites us to reflect, celebrate and be inspired by the creative, cultural, bioregional, spiritual and practical ways that humans relate to, and are part of, nature. ‘Kinship’ aims to enable us to enrich our understanding of what it means to be part of the Earth community.
Our 2026 Kinship Earth Arts Program will see AELA host arts projects, workshops, creative exhibitions, writing programs and more – to stimulate reflection, conversations and cultural shifts that acknowledge the wonder, beauty and our reliance on, the more-than-human world.
ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN EARTH LAWS ALLIANCE (AELA)
AELA is a not-for-profit organisation working to increase the understanding and practical implementation of Earth-centred (ecocentric) governance, with a focus on systems change across law, economics, education, ethics and community participation in Australia. AELA's vision is an Australian society that embraces an ecocentric or ‘life-centred’ culture, with governance systems that enable human communities to thrive within ecological boundaries, while nurturing biodiversity and ecosystem health. AELA's work includes education programs and project support for people, communities and organisations working to create ecocentric systems change.
For more information, visit our website: www.earthlaws.org.au
or email us anytime: aela@earthlaws.org.au