Celestial Emu

Alinta Koehrer is an emerging First Nations Fine Art Artist based in Melbourne and is a Woi-Wurrung   Wurundjeri and Yorta-Yorta Traditional Owner through her mother and grandmother. 

She has worked with mixed media including watercolour, acrylic, inks, sketching and feathers, and has experience with large-scale canvas design. Alinta is developing her own unique style in Aboriginal art consisting of portraiture, landscape and sky country artworks. She creates thought provoking pieces of cultural story telling through visionary and innovative design and enjoys the creative process and challenge of new works

Celestial emu
Alinta wanted to tell the Dreaming story of the Emu constellation and explore how do this with minimal line work by using  brush techniques and blending to give the illusion of the Milky Way

Alinta's work is intrinsically connected to her Culture and bloodlines, linking stories from her childhood to who she is today.

Alinta gravitates to stories of Sky Country, and find her work often reflects this. Depending on the orientation of the Emu in the sky, his position tells Clans across Country when seasonal events occur such as animals in mating season, mapping and weather patterns. The Emu’s footprints represent his journey tracks within the seasonal calendar and the importance of his position in the sky to all Clans. The stars symbolize light and dreams and signify our relationship to our own journey tracks in life. Celestial Emu connects to Little Rocket’s ‘Big Dreaming’ theme by the connection he has to all Clans and Tribes across the country as he is visible to us all across Australia. 

Alinta  hopes the audience feels swept away in their own dreams and are mesmerized by the cloudy colours of our own night sky, and perhaps they can reflect on their own connections to Country and Culture.