Kevin Gilbert: A Life of Art and Resistance
Kevin Gilbert was no ordinary artist. Born on the banks of the Lachlan River in New South Wales in 1933, Gilbert emerged from profound personal tragedy to become one of the most influential Aboriginal voices of the 20th century. He was the first Aboriginal playwright and the first Aboriginal fine art printmaker, blazing a trail for Indigenous storytelling on the stage and in the gallery.
He was also a man marked by contradiction. In 1957, he was convicted of murdering his wife, Goma Scott, and sentenced to life in prison. But within prison walls, Gilbert experienced a remarkable transformation. He educated himself, taught himself to write and make art, and emerged 14 years later a powerful new voice for his people.
Christmas Eve in the land of the dispossessed, 1968
Christmas Eve in the land of the dispossessed, 1968, Kevin Gilbert – “It was the Aboriginal family sitting out under a tree, the river underneath and the hills, and in the night time, of course, the Southern Cross in the sky. But, within that, there is stillness and isolation so, to me, I can feel the isolation within that,” Kevin Gilbert said during an interview for Tradition Today: Indigenous Art in Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2014, p 48
The Power of the Pen and the Press
Gilbert’s art is not polite. It does not ask for permission. It demands recognition, treaty, and justice. Kevin was released from prison in 1971. He was a founding figure of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in 1972 and led the Treaty ’88 campaign during Australia’s Bicentenary. His poetry is both lyrical and searing, filled with spiritual lament and biting political satire.
In 1977, Gilbert published Living Black: Blacks Talk to Kevin Gilbert, a raw and revealing collection of interviews with Aboriginal Australians. It won the National Book Council Award the following year and remains a landmark text in First Nations literature. As he wrote in his poem Tree, “We are the river, the redgum, the wilga, the warrior, the law. We are older than your blue-eyed God.”
‘Wahlo: Tribal Law’, 1967, Kevin Gilbert printed this linocut while still in prison.
Kevin Gilbert’s Art and Writing Celebrated and Collected
Kevin Gilbert’s art and writing live on in major institutions across the country. He is respected and remembered by:
- Australian National University (ANU) – which documents his life and significance
- Art Gallery of NSW – which houses his bold, politically-charged lino prints
- Museum of Contemporary Art – which recognises his legacy in their contemporary collection
- National Portrait Gallery – where his image is enshrined among Australia’s cultural figures
- University of Queensland’s Manuscripts Library – which archives his writings and correspondence
TRUE: The Life, Art and Legacy of Kevin Gilbert (1933–1993)
An exhibition honouring the Wiradjuri poet, printmaker, and provocateur
From June 13 to August 9, 2025, the Tuggeranong Arts Centre hosts a timely and powerful exhibition titled TRUE: Kevin Gilbert (1933–1993) — a reverent and defiant celebration of the Wiradjuri artist, activist, and wordsmith who used ink, lino, and language as weapons in the fight for justice.
Launched on what would have been his 92nd year, TRUE brings together over 15 of Gilbert’s fine art lino prints, striking in their starkness and profound in their message. The exhibition also includes black and white photographs and poetry displayed on delicate silk banners — a juxtaposition of visual softness and political grit that echoes the paradox of Gilbert himself: a man shaped by violence, but who sought healing through art and truth.
The Exhibition
The works explore the core themes that defined Gilbert’s life and career — spiritual connection to Country, cultural endurance in the face of oppression, and the urgent call for justice and sovereignty for Aboriginal people. Many of these prints were created during Gilbert’s lifetime, with some editioned for the first time in this exhibition, underscoring his enduring creative spirit.
The exhibition is free to attend and includes two public programs:
- Poetry Reading: 5 July 2025
- Film Screening: 10 July 2025
More details: tuggeranongarts.com/true-kevin-gilbert
The Man Behind the Prints
Gilbert was never interested in fame. He was interested in truth. His legacy is not just artistic; it’s political, spiritual, and personal. He was a man who did not ask for forgiveness from a system that never asked his people for theirs. He was not always easy to understand, but he was impossible to ignore.
This exhibition is not just a retrospective — it’s a reawakening. It reminds us that Kevin Gilbert’s work is still urgent, still raw, still painfully relevant in 2025.
As Gilbert once wrote: “Because I am not silent / the wheels of justice turn / I am / not silent / though my mouth be still.”
This winter in Tuggeranong, those words are anything but still.
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