Melanie Hava / The Healing Waters (Pay Attention Series) (MH621)

Melanie Hava ~ Aboriginal name: “Winden” – green pigeon 

In Melanie’s own words……..

I am blessed to have been born into interesting and diverse cultures: my father comes from the oldest city in Austria, Enns (Upper Austria) and my mother is from the oldest cultures in the world, Aboriginal people of Australia.

While celebrating my Austrian heritage, I also identify through my Mum’s line as a Mamu Aboriginal woman, Dulgu-barra and Wari-barra family groups, from the Johnstone River catchment of the Wet Tropics of Far North Queensland and the adjoining Great Barrier Reef sea country. Reef and rainforest country are important sources for my inspirations.

I have known from a very young age that I was going to be an artist. While also being a bookworm and a piano player, art was a world that I frequently retreated into as I grew up. I reckon this is because I was deaf and felt I couldn’t join in with groups of people. As a teen and along with my sister Joelene, we created art on didgeridoos and canvas.

This art sold very quickly in the little, opal mining outback town of Yowah way out back of western Queensland. This red soil country still influences my works.

When I was in my late teens/early twenties, I started playing around with the idea of combining my Aboriginal and Austrian inspirations. I had already tried my style in Aboriginal, Folk and Abstract arts and I had had a successful first exhibition at Outback at Isa Gallery.

So at 23 I travelled to Austria to live with my father’s family and absorb as much as I could of the Folk and European culture. More than anything I loved the architecture, inside and out. The patterns, gold leaf and occasional Swarovski crystal in my works are some things that I’ve gleaned from the European side to my heritage.

I have now settled down in Far North Queensland’s Cairns – close at hand to my mother’s country where I feel close to the spirit of rainforest and reef. My life now revolves around my three children and running the house whilst keeping up with my gallery and commissioned artworks.

Solo Exhibitions

• 2023/24 – Bugan Mungan, Cairns Art Gallery, Cairns
• 2016 – Reflections at Umi Arts, Cairns
• 2016 – Reef and Rainforest at Aboriginal Art Gallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands
• 2015 – Mirages to Rainbows at Outback at Isa’s Outback Gallery in August
• 2014 – Fusion at Tosari Galleries
• 2013 – UnderArt Gallery, Cairns
• 2011 – Feature artist at Tosari Galleries
• 2010 – “From Dust To Thunder,” Tosari Galleries, Toowoomba
• 2009 – “Indigenously Austr(al)ian,” Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Toowoomba
• 2005 – “Migaloo Murri,” Outback at Isa, Mount Isa

Group Exhibitions

• 2023 – WAMA Art Prize, finalist, Ararat Art Gallery, Ararat
• 2021 – Me and Uoouoo, (painted on a sculpture designed by Alexander Knox) Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne Art Trail
• 2020 – Destination North, Works on Paper, Cairns Art Gallery, Cairns
• 2019 – Dream Big – A Small Artwork Collection, Aboriginal Art Gallery, Rotterdam
• 2019 – Stall @ Art Markets, Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, Cairns
• 2019 – Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Umi Arts, Darwin
• 2019 – ARTNOW FNQ 2019 Exhibition, Cairns Art Gallery, Cairns
• 2019 – Member’s Exhibition, Umi Arts, Cairns
• 2018 – Member’s Exhibition, Umi Arts, Cairns
• 2018 – Mount Isa Regional Art Gallery Opening, Mount Isa
• 2018 – Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Umi Arts, Darwin
• 2018 – Stall @ Art Markets, Cairns Indigenous Art Fair
• 2017 – Member’s Exhibition, Umi Arts, Cairns
• 2017 – Manyung Gallery, Mount Eliza
• 2017 – Hong Kong Affordable Art Fair, Manyung Gallery, Hong Kong
• 2017 – Stall @ Art Markets, Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, Cairns
• 2016 – Member’s Exhibition, Umi Arts, Cairns
• 2016 – Umi Arts Curated Section, Cairns Indigenous Art Far, Cairns
• 2016 – Stall with Indij Designs @ Art Markets, Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, Cairns
• 2015 – Manyung Gallery, Mt Eliza
• 2015 – Tali Gallery,Rozelle
• 2015 – Umi Arts Curated Section, Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, Cairns
• 2015 – Umi Arts Curated Section, Darwin Art Fair, Darwin
• 2014 – Manyung gallery, Mt Eliza
• 2014 – Tali Gallery, Rozelle
• 2014 – Outback Gallery at Mount Isa
• 2014 – The Quilpie Museum, Gallery and Visitor Information Centre
• 2013 – Manyung Gallery, Mt Eliza
• 2013 – The Quilpie Museum, Gallery and Visitor Information Centre
• 2012 – Earths Elements, Manyung Gallery, Mt Eliza
• 2012 – The Quilpie Museum, Gallery and Visitor Information Centre
• 2008 – Brisbane Women’s Club, Brisbane
• 2007 – Gulf of Carpentaria and Savannah Indigenous Dreaming’s and Lifestyle exhibition

Write-ups

• Exhibition Review: Melanie Hava: Bugan Mungan Cairns Art Gallery, Jack Wilkie-Jans, Arts Hub, 2023
• Symbols of Australia Imagining a Nation, Image 45, Book published 2021
• Reef in Review: The Magazine of the Australian Coral Reef Society: Under the Bunggu: The Inspiration of Sea Country – 2021
• Reforest Now: Feature Story Artwork from Melanie Hava Feel Joy, Issue 1, pages 34-36, May/June 2020
• 6 Homewares and Fashion Brands Showcasing Indigenous Artists, Better Homes & Gardens, 30/10/20
• About the Cover Masthead, The Kuranda Paper, 30/10/20
• Feature Story, Reforest Now, Issue #1, May & June 2020
• Liz Rogers, Colour Me Hava, Mornington Peninsula Magazine, 03/19
• Valerie Shooter, Vignette: Modern Indigenous Art, ADFAS Gold Coast Inc Newsletter, Summer 2019
• Reflecting with Melanie Hava Mamu Aboriginal Artist, Whats On & Where To Go, 09/18
• Millaa Millaa’s New Look Mainstreet, The Cairns Post, 01/06/15
• Ally Martel, Christmas at My Place, Ruth, Summer Issue 9, 2014
• Exhibition Review: Melanie Hava: Bugan Mungan Cairns Art Gallery, Jack Wilkie-Jans, Arts Hub, 2023
• Symbols of Australia Imagining a Nation, Image 45, Book published 2021
• Reef in Review: The Magazine of the Australian Coral Reef Society: Under the Bunggu: The Inspiration of Sea Country – 2021
• Reforest Now: Feature Story Artwork from Melanie Hava Feel Joy, Issue 1, pages 34-36, May/June 2020
• 6 Homewares and Fashion Brands Showcasing Indigenous Artists, Better Homes & Gardens, 30/10/20
• About the Cover Masthead, The Kuranda Paper, 30/10/20
• Feature Story, Reforest Now, Issue #1, May & June 2020
• Liz Rogers, Colour Me Hava, Mornington Peninsula Magazine, 03/19
• Valerie Shooter, Vignette: Modern Indigenous Art, ADFAS Gold Coast Inc Newsletter, Summer 2019
• Reflecting with Melanie Hava Mamu Aboriginal Artist, Whats On & Where To Go, 09/18
• Millaa Millaa’s New Look Mainstreet, The Cairns Post, 01/06/15
• Ally Martel, Christmas at My Place, Ruth, Summer Issue 9, 2014

This artwork forms part of Melanie’s series that is a quiet call to pay attention — not to the loudest voices, but to the ones too often ignored. To the voices of Indigenous women — the mothers, the daughters, the women who survive. Those who live with the aftermath of domestic violence. The ones who keep going, even with bruised hearts and empty hands.

Set deep in rainforest scenes of mist and memory, each work holds space for women’s stories — stories of pain, of motherhood, of survival and soft resistance. Here, trees become shelter. Water becomes witness. Country becomes refuge.

These are not portraits of suffering, but of strength.

Through these paintings, I’ve created a space for Indigenous women — our mob, those we come from, our mothers, our daughters, our sisters — to be seen, to rest, and to begin healing; to honour the women and children who have walked through violence and silence and still carried each other forward.

Each title in this series has been chosen with care — not to define, but to gently guide. They offer quiet signposts, inviting reflection without limiting interpretation. My hope is that people will find something personal within these works: a story, a memory, a feeling — and in that moment, feel seen too.