Celebrating Aunty Dot — Public Art Commission
Aunty Dot Public Art Commission
Melbourne, Victoria
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Art Strategy
Curation
Project Management
Fabrication
Installation
Wayfinding Design and Fabrication
Documentation
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Public Art
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Simone Thomson
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WRAP
Aunty Dot weaves a legacy that continues to inspire
Celebrating the life and legacy of Elder Aunty Dorothy (Dot) Peters AM, Binak Ngarrgu invites visitors to slow down, listen, and connect with Country. Nestled amongst a ring of eucalyptus trees beside the nearby creek and waterways of Blind Creek Reserve, the artwork creates a place for reflection, storytelling, and shared knowledge.
Created by Simone Thomson (Wurundjeri / Yorta Yorta / Wiradjuri) in collaboration with WRAP, Binak Ngarrgu — meaning “basket of knowledge” — honours Aunty Dot’s enduring contributions as a Yarra Yarra Elder, First Nations activist, cultural custodian, educator, and author. Deeply committed to community and cultural continuity, Aunty Dot believed knowledge was carried through conversation, generosity, and collective care.
The sculptural installation brings these ideas into material form through embedded stone seating sourced from local quarries and figured concrete inlaid with brass motifs. Arranged as a circular meeting place within the landscape, each brass element signifies a different aspect of Aunty Dot’s life, stories, and enduring legacy. At the centre of the work rests a woven brass basket, drawing from Aunty Dot’s love of weaving and the cultural traditions connected to river reeds and grasses.
Aunty Dot was the driving force behind the Aboriginal Remembrance Service, now held annually at the Shrine of Remembrance. And she strongly believed that culture lives through community, conversation, and generosity.
Flowing engraved lines traverse the ground plane, evoking the waterways of Birrarung (Yarra River) on Wurundjeri Country and Dhungala (Murray River) on Yorta Yorta Country. These rivers speak to Aunty Dot’s two Clans and her profound relationship to Country, memory, and kinship.
Surrounded by rustling gums and the sounds of the nearby creek, Binak Ngarrgu offers a quiet space to pause — a place where stories, knowledge, and connection continue to be shared across generations.
The artwork is located in Blind Creek Reserve at 270 Scoresby Road in Boronia, City of Knox, on Wurundjeri Country.
Our role
As public art consultants, WRAP worked with First Nations artist Simone Thomson to develop and write the concept of the Public Art Expression of Interest and collaboratively develop the design. fabrication and installation of this important public artwork. From the development of the design to the delivery of technical drawings, engineering and multiple fabrication and installation elements, WRAP delivered the project from first meeting to the launch of the project.
The result
The artwork Binak Ngarrgu is a deeply personal and beautiful celebration of the life and enduring impact of Aunty Dot - her teachings, weaving practice and advocacy.
“It is a deep personal honour to celebrate Aunty Dot’s life through this work, ‘Binak Ngarrgu, Basket of Knowledge’. As a First Nations woman and artist, I feel a strong responsibility to honour her legacy, her wisdom, her resilience, and the pathways she created so that her story and commitment to reconciliation continues to resonate within the community.”
— Simone Thomson (Wurundjeri, Yorta Yorta, Wiraduri)
→ WATCH
The below video features artist Simone Thomson talking about the significance of Aunty Dot
→ About the Artist
I am a Melbourne based Aboriginal artist and Traditional Owner of Victoria’s Woi-Wurrung Wurundjeri and Yorta-Yorta language groups through my mother, and I am Irish and Scottish through my father.
I draw inspiration for my art from the abundant textures and colours of this beautiful land along with the ancestral bonds I have to the Birrarung (Yarra River) and Dhungala (the Murray River). My people are river people, so I find that waterways often interweave into my art along with dreaming and creation stories of the sky.
I pay my respects to my mother, my maternal grandmother Kooka Geraldine, and her mother, my great-grandmother – Kooka Yarmuk. It is through them in particular that I carry the language, stories and ancestral oral history and knowledge passed down to me from my mother.
I have been blessed with a strong cultural education that includes traditional song and dance as a young child. These cultural practices continued into my teenage years where I became the first graduating student of Victoria’s first Aboriginal school, Worawa Aboriginal College. It’s here that I picked up my first paint brush at fifteen and created my first dreaming story. Little did I know that I would continue this sacred art of storytelling well into my adult years and that I would still receive the same spiritual healing and strength I did back then from connecting to my culture.
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