Hanging central in the State Library of Queensland’s 2025 Brisbane Portrait Prize Finalists’ Exhibition, is the beautiful portrait of proud Yamatji-Noongar woman and Elder, Aunty Rhonda Collard-Spratt. Printed on translucent fabric with the large dimensions of 1800mm x 1450mm, the portrait allows gallery and nearby portico lighting to provide life to a traditional two dimensional art form.
This stunning portrait is a part of the project Shared Words – Lives Lived which captures the stories of eight local Elders and complemented by these beautiful large scale portraits. This project has now been the seed to a number of other similar projects where communities have identified the need to capture the lives, stories and histories of local Elders before the details are lost to time.
