Dja Dja Wurrung artist Tashara Roberts premieres latest exhibition, A Deeper Connection

Developed over three months, Roberts, who dabbles in several mediums including photography, jewellery and sculpture, decided for this installation she would bring her own interpretation to the popular trend of eco dyeing.

However, her version, instead of using commercial colourants like most who take up the artform, would make use of native botanicals.

"I prefer the term botanical dye because I don't use any of those harsh chemicals and the way that I work is the gentlest possible way on the environment," Roberts said.

Combining a mixture of rust, vinegar and plant materials to make her dye, Roberts then used this dye to decorate three four metre silk drapes with each silk material representing a different section of Australia's history.

The first silk piece Roberts has adorned with introduced plants that were either on the resort or in close proximity of the resort including blackberries, pines and weeds.

She said it was important for her to use pines to highlight the nation's colonial past while blackberries were vital in demonstrating the ongoing noxious weed problem on the site.

The second silk material, dotted with native plants such as eucalyptus, the blackwattle, the silver wattle and cherry ballart, symbolises Indigenous Australia.

"These are the plants that Dja Dja Wurrung people used to cleanse to conduct a smoking ceremony," Roberts said.

The third silk material encompassed both plants from the non-Indigenous and Indigenous silk drapings to depict multicultural Australia.

"It's (the third silk) a representation of Australia today. It represents a merging of cultures, Indigenous culture merged with non Indigenous culture, that's the colonisers, the English, the United Kingdom, and every wave of migration we've had that's made up the country," Roberts said.

"There are some beautiful things that we should be celebrating about the country today and that's what that silk represents."

She said, while she wanted to focus on exploring her Dja Dja Wurrung traditions through this exhibition, it was also a priority for her to also use it as a way to emphasise the strength in collective togetherness.

"I realised that the work was actually going to be about more than just my connection to country, but your connection to country and our connection to each other," Roberts said.

"In today's landscape, it's too easy to be seen as the individual and not a community and so this was about the whole community coming together and bringing each other closer, and loving each other and loving country."

A Deeper Connection will be held at the RACV Goldfields Resort's ArtHouse until May 21.

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