White adapts cultural practices through contemporary artmaking, creating the Teebeluck Kormtenner Timmarere (White Devil Spirit Basket) which gives this exhibition its title. The function of these 'grief vessels' is twofold: they enable one to listen to Country and help their bearers hold and process trauma. These objects also fulfil obligations and responsibilities to Country, contributing to the healing of Tebrakunna Country and the other Countries on which we live.
The exhibition brings together cultural forms inspired by funerary bags, amulets and kelp-woven pots, constructed from metal, wood, paper and found objects. Some works incorporate wearable elements, reflecting cultural understandings of grief as something physically carried.
Attaching a resonator stick to these vessels completes the works. These sounding devices are activated through participation, inviting users to engage more intimately with their surroundings as they resonate with and amplify the voice of Country. Through sound, story and object, the exhibition reflects on care and invites audiences into a thoughtful encounter with Country, community and remembrance.
At the conclusion of the exhibition, the works will travel to the Melaythenner Teeackanna Warrana Aboriginal Corporation (MTWAC) on Tebrakunna Country for community yarning and engagement.
The artist acknowledges Elders Aunty Netty Shaw and Aunty Patsy Cameron, whose knowledge has guided this exhibition and provided its cultural foundation. White also acknowledges the broader Melaythenner Teeackanna Warrana Aboriginal Corporation (MTWAC) community; the Palawa peoples; and First Nations artists past and present.
Please join us to celebrate the opening of this exhibition at First Site Gallery, 5–7pm,
Wednesday 2 September.
Image: Dominic White, 'Teebeluck Kormtenner Timmarere' 2026. Photograph by Dominic White. Image courtesy of the artist.
Dominic White is a Palawa, Trawoolway man and a descendant of the Tyereelore through his birth mother’s family. He is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores connection, observation, responsibility and obligation. His practice is informed by an ongoing process of reclaiming his heritage and reconnecting with Tebrakunna Country.
White is a PhD candidate at the RMIT School of Art. His research engages with Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being, yarning, decolonisation, praxis and socially engaged art practice. Trained as a printmaker, his practice spans contemporary printmaking, sculpture, photography, performance and contemporary jewellery and design.
His work is represented in the collection of McClelland Sculpture Park, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery and Devonport Regional Gallery.
He is based on Bununerong/Boonwurung Country on the Mornington Peninsula.
Banner image: Dominic White, Teebeluck Kormtenner Timmarere attached to a resonator stick, 2026 (detail). Photograph by Dominic White. Image courtesy of the artist.
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RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.
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