Exhibition runs Saturday 7 June- Saturday 19 July
Explore Indigenous knowledge of astronomy and the night sky in alignment with the celebration of both Matariki (Māori New Year) and NAIDOC Week. Exhibiting artists include Benjamin Akuila, Jasmine Craciun, Morgan Hogg, Bria McCarthy, Lucy Simpson, M. Sunflower, Rangi Maika and Gerome Te Peeti.
Developed from a 2024 Matariki residency initiated by Outloud, Bankstown Arts Centre has curated and produced this exhibition with cultural consultation to invite sharing of star stories across First Nations cultures, including Aboriginal, Maori and Pasifika artists. The opening event is produced in collaboration with Outloud, with a performances segment curated by Gerome Te Peeti, featuring Dhinawan Yarn and Te Raranga Whanui with a DJ set by Jessica Paraha.
Under the Stars is supported by Create NSW through an annual grant for the exhibition and project grant for the performances.
Image Credits: Jessica Paraha
Benjamin Akuila (b.2000) is a multidisciplinary artist of Tongan and Irish descent living and working in Eora and Dharug country. Akuila’s work explores ideas of cultural authenticity, and identity performances within the Tongan-Australian diaspora through the material use of clay. Through investigating societal constructs of history, identity, and gender, Akuila utilises humour and heliaki (allusion) to subvert these preconceived notions. Akuila's work reinterprets traditional Tongan artmaking and applies these practices to contemporary materials to explore new narratives of identity.
Image Credit Jack Rockliffe
Jasmine Miikika Craciun is an emerging Aboriginal artist whose practice spans digital illustration, murals, textiles, sculpture, video, and installation. Rooted in her Barkindji and Malyangapa heritage, as well as her Romanian and Austrian ancestry, Jasmine’s work explores themes of identity, place, and displacement, offering a nuanced narrative of ancestral resilience. Her art reflects the complex interplay between personal and collective histories, often engaging with the connections between land, memory, and cultural preservation.
Morgan Hogg is an artist and creative producer of Cook Island Māori (Ngāti Tāne), Tahitian and English descent, living and working on unceded Wangal and Dharug lands. Through the perspective of her Kūki Airani heritage, Hogg utilises installation and performance as visual representations of her own exploration of cultural displacement and identity. Making space within her practice to rely on oral exchange between her familial relations and community, Hogg continues the story of her ancestry through maintaining traditional practices within a contemporary lens.
She has completed a BVA(Hons)/ BAS (Film studies) at Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney. Currently completing a Masters of Fine Arts at the University of Sydney. Hogg has exhibited and performed works at Firstdraft, Performance Space, Beirut Art Centre, Sculpture by the Sea, Bankstown Arts Centre, SCA Gallery, Casula Powerhouse, PICA, Carriageworks, Blacktown Arts Centre and the Art Gallery of NSW.
Bria McCarthy creates art for theatre, literature, film and education, specialising in experimental shadow puppetry. She created the ‘Shadow House’, a textile sculpture shown at the Art Gallery of NSW and Penrith Real Festival. Her solo show ‘Dragon Hearts’ won the 2023 Sydney Fringe Award for Best Emerging Artist. She was the 2022 ACE Indigenous Artist Resident, and her debut manuscript was shortlisted for the 2022 Text Prize. She is an autistic artist with Wiradjuri and Irish heritage. Her work is characterised by an emphasis on multispecies storytelling, neurodivergent imagination, and it is always a little magical.
Image Courtesy of the artist
Yuwaalaraay wirringgaa Lucy Simpson is Creative Director and Principal Designer / Maker behind Gaawaa Miyay; a First Nations process-led studio based practice inspired by country, relationships and notions of continuity and exchange.
Grounded in and guided by the timeless and sophisticated philosophies of Aboriginal design, Simpson’s Wangal / Sydney-based multi-disciplinary practice connects to narratives of country and continuity through function, materiality, and transfer. Her practice as a designer/maker and exhibiting artist encompasses a wide range of applications spanning commercial, conceptual, and community-based projects and collaborations, utilising a diverse range of materials and techniques including fibrework, textiles, jewellery, glass, graphic design, illustration, ceramics, sculpture, and public art.
A graduate of UNSW Art and Design and current PHD Candidate at the University of Technology Sydney, both Lucy’s creative practice and research focuses on the continuing role of First Nations design as tool and conduit to baayangalibiyaay / interconnected notions of wellbeing (people and place).
Chris Chen is a Gadigal / Sydney based photographer with a diverse folio of work encompassing food and lifestyle, interiors, portraits and travel. Lucy and Chris have worked together for fourteen years and exhibited collaborative works at the Australian Design Centre, Canberra Glassworks, the Powerhouse Museum, Granville Centre Art Gallery, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, and most recently at the Passage du Grand Serf with Galerie IDIA France.
M. Sunflower is a culturally diverse Australian artist with disabilities currently in residence at Parramatta Artist Studios on Dharug Land. A descendant of the Warmuli people of the Dharug Nation; Lebanese post-Palestinian-War migrants; Chinese gold-rush era immigrants and a UK convict, M. Sunflower embodies the diverse ancestral legacy of Australia’s painful and complex colonial past.
Her interdisciplinary practice includes drawing; painting; sculpture; photography; video; fashion; installation; workshops; and community care. A believer in art as activism, she fights for human rights for all, bringing visibility to concepts related to disability; ancestral and intergenerational trauma; and intersectional marginalisation.
Sovereignty Never Ceded.
Rangi Maika (Roki) is a passionate Māori artist dedicated to the revival and preservation of Tāmoko, the traditional art of Māori tattooing. Alongside his wife, he co-founded The Art Of Tattoo studio for over a decade. They created a creative space for artist from all over the world. Every piece Roki creates tells a deeply personal story.
His dedication to Tãmoko extends beyond the studio. He has shared his journey and insights through story telling on platforms like SBS's Inked Identify, as well as in documentary series and podcasts with Mark Fennel and Christina Anu.
For Rangi, Tãmoko is more than art-It's a scared connection to Whakapapa (genealogy) reclaiming cultural pride, and a tool for transformation. Through his work, he continues to inspire others to embrace their heritage and wear their identity with pride.
"I love what I do because it keeps me connected to home and to te ao Māori"
Gerome Te Peeti is a customary and contemporary Māori artist of Tainui (Ngāti Raukawa) and Te Arawa (Ngāti Rangiwewehi) descent, specialising in the carving of whale bone—particularly sperm whale teeth—traditional weaponry, and tā moko (Māori tattoo).
Raised in a culturally rich environment among knowledge holders from his whānau and wider iwi, Gerome’s passion for Māori art was sparked through his involvement in the Whakatupuranga Rua Mano movement.
He later deepened his practice through formal study in whakairo and mātauranga Māori at Te Wānanga o Raukawa in Ōtaki, alongside mentorship from master carvers and tā moko artists within his own whānau.
Gerome’s multidisciplinary work spans kapa haka, mau rākau, storytelling, and the transmission of Māori genealogies. Blending tradition with innovation, his art is a powerful expression of Māori identity, resilience, and cultural continuity.