Aunty Lavern is a Gooreng Gooreng Senior Elder from the Bundaberg region, who is of Australian South Sea Islander heritage. Raised in Bundaberg and Brisbane, Aunty Lavern spent part of her childhood as a medical state ward and experienced systemic oppression. Art became her survival tool - one she playfully calls a 'bad habit' she can’t break.

Following a heart attack in 2009, Aunty Lavern began drawing animated characters and discovered that careful observation, rather than technique alone, lay at the heart of her practice. Each drawing carries her people’s intergenerational memory, ceremonies, and law, ensuring future generations are not lost between worlds. 

Aunty Lavern explains, “Every drawing is a pulse in our family’s living memory.”

This work honours one of the scarred trees that lives in what I call Rainbow Valley. Marked long ago, the tree holds stories of ceremony and survival. It’s a living message left by our ancestors - waiting to be discovered by us. I chose to bring colour into the piece because most scarred trees wouldn’t be black and white. Drawn with care and memory, this work helps keep cultural knowledge alive for my family.