Last waterhole
1996
Medium
hand-coloured etching
Measurements
61.3 × 30.2 cm irreg. (image and plate) 78.7 × 64.3 cm (sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Violet Sheno through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2017
© Treahna Hamm
Gallery location
Gallery 6
Level 2, NGV Australia
About this work
For over three decades Yorta Yorta artist Dr Treahna Hamm has created layered, symbolic works grounded in her connection to Country along the Murray River. In these egg-shaped etchings, her intricate linework maps spirit figures, totems, river paths and ancestral sites. The prints reveal stories of change, disruption and deep connection with the natural world, asserting a living, continuous Yorta Yorta presence on land long misrepresented in Australian art history. Created on the same Country where Tom Roberts painted Shearing the rams, 1890, Hamm’s works quietly confront the nineteenth-century myth of terra nullius, affirming an ongoing cultural presence that is both physical and spiritual.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Yarrawonga, Victoria
Edition
ed. 5/60
Inscription
inscribed in pencil l.l.: 5/50
inscribed in pencil l.c.: “Last Waterhole”
inscribed in pencil l.r.: Treahna Hamm ‘96
chopmark l.r.: (Studio one)
Accession Number
2016.1106
Department
First Nations Australia