Artwork: Yiramir Mayiny (River People) 2024
Artist: Aidan Hartshorn
Medium: printed vinyl on aluminium
Dimensions: 200 x 100cm
Acquisition: An acquisition of the ACT Legislative Assembly Art Advisory Committee, 2025
Asset no: OLA003002
About the Work
Aidan Hartshorn’s (Walgalu/Wiradjuri) practice examines the environmental and cultural impacts of industrialisation in Australia’s high country. Raised in Tumut, where the Murrumbidgee and Tumut Rivers meet, Hartshorn’s connection to his ancestral land is shaped by the disruptions of the Snowy Hydro-Electric Scheme, which submerged much of Walgalu Country, erasing sacred sites. The ongoing flooding and diversion of the Snowy River continue to affect Hartshorn’s community, limiting access to cultural practices and ancestral lands… His visual inquiries explore the complex relationship between industry, culture, and land.
About the Artist
Aidan Harthshorn graduated from the ANU School of Art and Design in 2019, the same year he was selected for the National Gallery of Australia's Indigenous Arts Leadership Program.
Aidan Hartshorn is a Walgalu (Wolgal, Wolgalu) Wiradjuri man whose Ancestral land resides in the High Country of Australia, parts of the Snowy Mountains in the Kosciusko National Park, and Riverina region of NSW. His cross-disciplinary practice challenges settler-colonial histories tied to his Aboriginal and European ancestry and identity. Using both natural and industrial materials, his works address the impacts of industrialisation on Walgalu and Wiradjuri Country and culture.