Weaving with Steven Russell and Phyllis Stewart

Steven Russell, a Bidjigal, Dharawal and Wadi Wadi drawer, painter and weaver, was born at La Perouse Mission on the shores of Kamay (Botany Bay), Sydney. Russell’s mother, Esme Timbery, is an award-winning shellworker, and his maternal family has long been associated with visual arts in the Sydney region. His great-great-grandmother ‘Queen’ Emma Timbery had her shellworks displayed in London in 1910 and his uncle, Joe Timbery, was a champion boomerang thrower who once threw boomerangs as a display for the young Queen Elizabeth II during the Royal Tour of 1954. Russell’s grandfather Hubert Timbery was born at a culturally significant figtree at Figtree in Wollongong, NSW. This particular tree is a Timbery family birthing tree.

In 2002, Wollongong Art Gallery purchased two of Russell’s weavings, Hip bag and Bait trap, for its permanent collection. Russell’s drawings are intricately rendered memories of La Perouse in the 1960s and 70s. In 2007, he described his paintings as ‘landscape and abstract paintings that depict my country of Botany Bay’. Russell participated in the exhibitions South Coast Weavers at the University of Wollongong in 2003, and Pallingjang II and III in 2000 and 2002 at the Wollongong Art Gallery, and in 2006 and 2007 he was a finalist in the Parliament of  NSW Indigenous Art Prize at NSW Parliament House in Sydney. More recently, Russell has shown his work at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bundanon and Wollongong Art Gallery and is currently working on a number of public art commissions in Sydney.

Text adapted from Design & Art Australia Online.

Phyllis Stewart is a Dharawal/Yuin painter, drawer, shellworker and weaver. She was born in Berry, NSW, in 1954 and has lived her whole life on the NSW South Coast. As with many south coast Aboriginal women, Stewart was taught the art of shellworking objects as a child, in particular miniature shoes and slippers.

Stewart has said the main influences in her art practice are ‘reflections on my life, my family, land and culture’, and that she hopes her work will be a ‘legacy for my grandchildren and future generations to value Aboriginal culture’.

Stewart has participated in many exhibitions – including South Coast Weavers at the University of Wollongong and Pallingjang II at Wollongong Art Gallery. In 2006, she was a finalist in the Parliament of NSW Indigenous Art Prize with a shellworked ‘painting’. Stewart has three shellworks and an octopus sculptured weaving in the permanent collection of the Wollongong Art Gallery that were purchased in 2002. In 2015, her shellwork was curated into Shimmer, - an exhibition that investigated the shellworking practices of Indigenous communities around Australia, and in 2023 Stewart’s shellwork was included in the exhibition Thinking Through Pink – both exhibitions were held at Wollongong Art Gallery. Stewart’s 2023 public artwork, Interwoven stories, is a 3-D printed woven work depicting traditional and contemporary life of First Nations people and migrating communities of Sydney and is now part of the Meriton apartment complex in Zetland.

Text adapted from Design & Art Australia Online.