Yuinart and Yuin Galleries

Photo of Artist Raquel Jackson

Raquel Lee Jackson (b. 1972) is a Koori (descendent of the New South Wales Aboriginal Yuin people). Raquel’s creative talents were evident from a very early age and have spent much of her life exploring art and storytelling.

Raquel Lee Jackson is a Koori (descendent of the New South Wales Aboriginal Yuin people). Raquel’s creative talents were evident from a very early age and has spent much of her life exploring art and
storytelling.

Raquel studied a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Queensland where she completed majors in communications and Aboriginal culture and history. Upon leaving formal studies, Raquel worked in a variety of fields and presently works in a senior marketing role for a Queensland based company.
Working with her father Lloyd Hornsby, Raquel is on a journey of discovery, creating her own connection to her Indigenous heritage – whilst carrying out the age-old tradition of telling Dreamtime and historical stories through her expressive canvasses.

Through her art Raquel seeks to show respect to the past 200 years of cultural integration and celebrate the previous 50,000 years of Indigenous culture and history. Her canvasses explore the pure beauty of Aboriginal teachings and traditions and aims to share the complexity of Aboriginal spirituality through the universal language of artistic expression.

A love of strong colours in authentic but contemporary works, and an eye for mixing every bold hue of the rainbow on a palette is certainly in her genes. While the desert artists focus on the more sombre ochres and browns of the barren centre, Raquel and her father produce explosive images, using dot painting to dazzling effect.
My traditional lands – Wallaga Lake On the eastern shore of Wallaga Lake is Wallaga Lake National Park, a beautiful open forest. Camel Rock, on the shoreline, is an unusual rock formation.

The 8 kilometre walk up the coast to the lake will take you through wetland flora and fauna reserves. It is essentially fishing, swimming and boating location. There are few beaches but there are a number of shallow bays and sheltered inlets. The fauna in the area includes potoroos, koalas, bandicoots and swamp wallabies.

Wallaga Lake was formed when two river valleys were flooded at the end of the Great Ice Age and a large sandbar blocked the river mouths.
My people, the Yuin people, have lived there for thousands of years and there are many ancient human relics, including a number of middens on the lakes fore shores. All of which are protected by law.

Access to Merriman Island, in the middle of the lake, is not accessible due to its great significance for indigenous communities. It was the first place to be gazetted as an Aboriginal site. A focus of tribal culture, the island is associated with the story of King Merriman, widely known amongst the Aborigines of the south coast. According to legend King Merriman lived on the island while his people lived on the shores of the lake. His power derived from his ability to understand a black duck, his Monolingual, which warned him of forthcoming dangers.