The Alcove

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.”

‘The Alcove’ reflects my time living along the Logan River at Edens Landing - a place that felt both peaceful and deeply charged. I call it 'where all the shit happened'. Set on the low-lying land known as the grotto, this piece recalls makeshift shelters and the 14 people who camped along the riverbank. Part documentary, part personal expression, this artwork questions why land is withheld when people are in desperate need of a place to live. Created for my family, it holds memory, truth, and a call for dignity.