Abundant Harvest

Aunty Lavern Johnson-Gosling is a Gooreng Gooreng Senior Elder and proud Australian South Sea Islander woman, raised in Bundaberg and Brisbane. Aunty Lavern carries deep cultural knowledge, lived experience, and intergenerational memory.

After a heart attack in 2009, Aunty Lavern began drawing animated characters, discovering that careful observation (not technique) was at the heart of her practice. Aunty Lavern believes every one of her artworks speak for themselves, with each piece holds something essential - truth, survival, and connection. Through bold line work, vivid colour, and instinct, she documents what might otherwise be lost and breathes life into it. Aunty Lavern's creations feel alive; each with its own pulse.

Everything is fenced off, chopped up, and held in lines. That is how food is grown these days, and it hurts me to see Country treated that way. Back in the day, we understood the rhythms of the land and worked with it, not against it. The knowledge of how to grow an abundant harvest was passed down to me, and I passed it on. My art keeps that knowledge alive.