Sonja and Elisa Jane Carmichael are Ngugi women of the Quandamoooka people from Mulgimpin/Moreton Island and Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island, Queensland. Their collaboration stems from the intergenerational creative conversation between artists, Ancestors, Elders, and family that is a hallmark of the Quandamooka community. It is also about Quandamooka people working with, and as part of, the wider community.
As a mother-daughter duo, Sonja and Elisa have been at the forefront of gathering knowledge, learning, and experimenting, in regenerating Quandamooka weaving and exploring creative applications to contemporary fibre art. They achieved this through engaging widely with the Quandamooka community, other First Nations weavers and communities, and non-Indigenous creative practitioners. Their collaborative art practice has also entailed formal creative research through Sonja’s Master of Philosophy (Art History) at the University of Queensland, and Elisa’s Bachelor of Fine Arts at Griffith University and Master of Fine Arts at QUT. These academic engagements are significant vehicles for the transmission of cultural knowledge in both directions. Both artists visited museum collections holding Quandamooka weaving across Australia and internationally as part of their research. While doing so, they learnt about past traditions and inherently shared with others about Quandamooka culture today.
Sonja and Elisa have been part of several major art events such as the ninth Tarrawarra Biennial for Australian Art (2023), Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (multiple years), Perth Festival at the Fremantle Arts Centre (2022), Nuit Blanche in Toronto (2022) and Tarnanthi at the Art Gallery of South Australia (2020). The artists have been included in major group exhibitions including How We Remember Tomorrow at The University of Queensland (2024), Perspectives of Brisbane at the Museum of Brisbane (2023) and Nuit Blanche in Toronto (2022). Most recently, both artists made a number of collaborative woven and print works for a substantial survey exhibition at Redland Art Gallery, CREATE EXCHANGE: Ngumpi (2024). The collaborative works of the Carmichael duo is also held in several significant private and public collections, including the Australian Embassy, Washington DC, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Museum of Brisbane, Art Gallery of South Australia, and Art Gallery of Western Australia.
