Bronwyn Bancroft is a Bundjalung artist whose work is embedded in personal experiences based on connection to Country, family, community, historical milestones and maintaining and defining her family’s cultural heritage. Bancroft’s highly personal creations assert and advocate for the acceptance and diversity of Aboriginal identity in Australia.

Bancroft has been painting and creating since a small child and has consistently interwoven family and historical contexts in a distinctive visual language of figuration combined with delicate layers and intricate patterning. She moved to Sydney in 1981 after completing her Diploma of Visual Arts and established her shop ‘Designer Aboriginals’ in 1985 in Rozelle.

In 1987 Bancroft was part of a group of Sydney-based Aboriginal artists including Euphemia Bostock, Brenda L. Croft, Fiona Foley, Fernanda Martins, Arone Raymond Meeks, Tracey Moffatt, Avril Quaill, Michael Riley and Jeffrey Samuels who collectively founded Boomalli which means ‘to strike’ or ‘make a mark’ in the languages of the Gomileroi, Wiradjuri and Bundjalung Nations.

The UNSW Art Collection holds two prints by Bancroft: Cloud over past generations and Coming home, both produced in 1991. Cloud over past generations is full of sinuous lines and patterning that generate a sense of energy and vitality. It features two rows of figures across the middle of the work. Above and below them, Bancroft has depicted the ecological foundations which support all life: at the bottom are five trunk-like forms, each gently connected by soft lines at their base, while above, Bancroft has rendered an open sky with a single fluffy cloud. Her titling of the work emphasises intergenerational connectedness and shared memory, one which is to be personally treasured and collectively celebrated. She further conveys this idea with flowing lines which symbolically connect all elements across time and place.

Bancroft is a Djanbun clan member of the Bundjalung Nation.  She was born in 1958 in the northern New South Wales town of Tenterfield. She completed a Diploma of Visual Arts at the Canberra School of Arts in 1980, and a Master of Studio Practice in 2003 and Master of Visual Arts at the University of Sydney in 2006. In 2018 Bancroft was awarded a PhD from the University of Sydney. She has exhibited extensively including solo exhibitions at Carriageworks, Sydney (2012), Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne (2006), Koori Heritage Trust, Melbourne (2005) and has participated in group exhibitions across Australia, USA, Greece, and Scotland.

An important aspect of Bancroft’s artistic practice is her extensive work as an author and illustrator of children’s books. In 2013, she wrote and illustrated Remembering Lionsville, which was based on her childhood memories and oral history of her family. In 2009 Bancroft received the Dromkeen Medal, State Library of Victoria, for her contribution to Australian Literature and in 2016 was the Australian Finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Award (Illustrator). In 2020 Bronwyn was awarded the Sister Alison Bush Medal from the University of Sydney. Her work is held in major Australian public collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, as well as in collections in Germany and USA.

RESOURCES 

Bronwyn Bancroft | artist website
Bronwyn Bancroft: Indigenous Role Models, Their Impact on Younger Generations | video interview