Our Stories
Cheryl Rose on Reconnecting with Cultural Storytelling
Photography
Natasha Mulhall
Shot on
palawa Country
Interview
Yatu Widders Hunt

This story is part of a series profiling artists and mentors involved in the Country Road + NGV First Nations Commissions: My Country. In their own words, artists and mentors share their personal stories, shine a light on their work and community and share the messages they have for the next generation of First Nations creatives.
Here, Cheryl Rose talks about the role that her art practice has played in her life and sharing diverse First Nations stories with broader Australia.
I was born and bred here in lutruwita (Tasmania). My clan comes from the north-eastern part of the state and I am a descendant of Chief Mannalargenna. I have grown up here on the north west coast and this is the place I call home. I have lots of family and am connected to communities from Cape Barren Island.
I am very lucky to live here as we’ve got the sea. I don’t think I can move away from it now. It has become more and more important to me, especially as I’ve gotten older.

When I was at school, art seemed to be the only thing I felt good at, or at least the only thing I really enjoyed. I did three years of art when I was in college in the mid 80s.
I was going to do a Fine Arts degree at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, but I was a very shy young person and it was all a bit much for me, so I dropped out. I guess life got in the way after that and you kind of become someone else.
From about 2014, I connected with the University of Tasmania Riawunna program and started doing drawing classes, some of which were with the Elders. We used to travel up to Launceston for the classes and my passion for art was ignited again.
I was in an exhibition around that time, but I didn’t take it any further. I think part of that was because I wasn’t putting myself and what I needed first.
But by 2019 I fell headfirst back into art practice. So, for the past five years, I have done a bunch of commissions and murals and community workshops. I think it’s what I really needed, especially the community workshops. That also supported my own healing as well.
The last few years have really been about me seeing what I’m capable of and what I can do. I was in an exhibition with other First Nations artists, and I sent in two submissions. One was very safe for me which was in 2D form, and the other was out of my comfort zone, and I used video. I played around with the video and was filming underwater and just exploring a different way of expressing what I wanted to say. Would you believe that’s the one that was accepted into the exhibition!



The Country Road + NGV commission project came along after that, and it has been huge. I can honestly say that I have given myself to it fully. I’ve done that not just for me, but for the community, my mentor and for the NGV who are hosting us in their space.
I have a really good working relationship with my mentor, Denise. She has created such a safe space for me. She knows me so well that if I’m coming undone, she knows the language to use to get me back on track. I can really trust her.
This process has helped me be accountable and I’ve also learnt a lot. Because I never did that degree at uni, I have learnt through my mentorship, all about the conceptual stage of making art and the importance of that.
This work started with the Cowrie Shell. I was thinking about how it holds memories and stories, including of my Country at Rocky Cape. Then I started evolving my thinking and exploring dreams.
My work uses a long piece of Kozo paper that forms the skin or base of me, I have stained it with tea and watercolour and created the lines of landscape and place.
Then I have projected something over the top, but that projection doesn’t come in straight away. I want people to have the time to see the intricacies and details first. That idea came about because I was on Country one day and I saw a Xanthorrhoea plant blustering in the wind and the fronds were moving in and out. It just captured perfectly what I was feeling mentally and spiritually. So, we went out on Country and captured it.
I have been apprehensive about showing my work but now that I have finished it, I can honestly say that I am really proud of it. And that doesn’t come easy to me.
We put so much of ourselves in the work and there is so much emotion that goes with it. I want people to get that feeling of just how deep the connections are to Country and to be intrigued by that.
We’re all similar but our stories are not the same and I want people to feel and see the differences between our Nations.
It’s great that Country Road is supporting this too, because it just gives everyone a much wider insight into what’s possible and brings more First Nations artwork to a much bigger part of Australia.
The Country Road + NGV First Nations Commissions: My Country is a national, biennial mentorship and exhibition program that pairs emerging Australian First Nations artists and designers with one of eight esteemed industry mentors. Working collaboratively, the mentors each support and guide an emerging artist to create new and ambitious works.
Responding to this year’s theme of ‘My Country’, these new works are displayed in a major exhibition that’s now open and free to visit at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia.