YAMAJIY/Ngarluma woman Nicole Dickerson continues her exploration of family, cultural inheritance and memory in her solo exhibition My Time, My Connection, presented in the East Gallery at Midland Junction Arts Centre (MJAC).

The artist has family connections to the Pilbara, and to the Amangu, Nagujja, and Wilunyu people in Geraldton, WA, where she lives with her husband and son.

Having achieved a Certificate II in Aboriginal Visual Arts and Arts Administration from TAFE (2000 & 2001), she worked with the Deadly Sista Girlz program in a local high school.

Recently Dickerson has concentrated on her arts and design practice full time, whilst caring for her son with autism.

She has participated in 14 group exhibitions, and received numerous commissions for murals, nine public artworks, signage and logo designs for businesses, educational groups and local government, including the entry statements of the Central Regional TAFE in Geraldton.

In 2023, she won the Morawa Aboriginal Art Award and for more than a decade, Dickerson has also partnered with a manufacturing company to create a unique range of products under the name Nikki Dee Designs.

My Time, My Connection follows on from her first solo exhibition in 2024, Memories – My Connection, presented at Yamaji Art in Geraldton, in which she explored the places and stories shared with her through childhood.

With this new body of work, Dickerson takes the next steps forward in a generational story, passing down to her son places and cultural experiences known through her family and art.

“I learnt so much from my parents and I am now teaching my son our connection to Country. Now I have become a sharer of memories, with my own son,” she said.

“We visit the same places I walked at his age – he is jumping off the same rocks I jumped from as a kid, and he is walking on the same reef I walked, creating his own memories of culture and shared Country.”

Through painting, sculptural installation and video works, Dickerson refers to the country and coastline of WA’s Midwest – Yamaji Country – sharing places which hold personal memories and cultural significance whilst also considering her son’s own relationship to family, the land and water.

Painted scallop shells, representative of her family and their connection to the ocean, form an installation which moves as people pass by, and paintings reveal time shared under the stars unchanging, but which hold myths, memories and generations of stories.

Aside from the works themselves, the process also carries familial connections and many of Dickerson’s works are created around her kitchen table, inherited from her mother, and often with her son close by.

The table serves as a site of everyday rituals – of sharing and collective connection through time, and as a family heirloom which has seen, and continues to see, generations of stories.

“My art is my story. When I cannot find the words to express myself, these works will be a reflection of my time, now showing my son a glimpse of my childhood, through places, seasons and memories, to make new memories,” she said.

My Time, My Connection will be open and free to the public at MJAC located at 276 Great Eastern Highway, Midland from Sunday, July 12 to Sunday, August 9, Tuesday to Friday from 10am to 5pm, Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 3pm, and closed Monday and public holidays.

For more information, please visit the MJAC website.