SELECTED WORK
2020 - 2026
Karla Bidi
Sound Sculpture, 2025 & 2026
This is Karla Bidi (meaning Fire Trail), a beacon of light, a campfire, an invitation. Karla Bidi is our way of letting you know that we are here, that you are welcome and that this festival is for you. We invite you to explore the trail of eleven beacons lining the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River)– from the hills in Guildford all the way to the sea in Walyalup (Perth to Fremantle, Western Australia)
In collaboration with Ian Moopa Wilkes, Jacob Nash, Chloe Oglvie for Perth Festival
Sound Design by Envelope Audio
Sonic Earth
Live Performance, 2025
Sonic Earth is a coast-to-coast saltwater song between women across generations from Whadjuk Country (WA), Kuku Yalanji Country (QLD) and Samoa. An on-going project by musician and harpist Natalia Mann, Sonic Earth explores the ancient and living language of resonance: how sound, story, and landscape speak to each other — and to us.
In collaboration with Natalia Mann (Samoa), Merindi Schrieber (Kuku Yalanji), alongside Nikki Doll (Tolai, Papua New Guinea) and Wawumun (Yalanji, Gungganji, Zenadth Kez)
Ngunmi-Pudji (Put Down Language)
Paper sculpture | 2025
Ngunmi-Pudji (putting down language), was a response to the 2025 exhibition Relic at Goolugatup Heathcote Gallery, responding to a prompt reflection for passed family members. This paper sculpture was made in collaboration with fellow Kungarakan artist and my Kurrung (mother), Meg McGuire, to reflect the body of work both literally and figuratively of her mother (my Wetji or Grandmother) after a life of hard work reviving the Kungarakan language. The sculpture is made of fragile paper strips taken from her notes, reflections, research, sketching and various documentation that told us more about her than she ever could given the little time she had to accumulate such things before she was overcome by dementia in later years. Her life’s work resulted in the published Kungarakan language book called Ngun Koongurukun (Speak Kungarakan). This resource is now a source of much lost information for our Mob in the south of Darwin, Northern Territory.
Exhibited at Goolugatup Heathcote Gallery, 2025
Kwejuk Nyitting (Trailer)
Animation Short Film, 2025
An ancient Noongar Dreamtime story that follows a cheeky young boy as he disrupts the sacred balance of traditional Aboriginal law systems. Full film coming out in 2026!
Executive Production and Direction by Ilona McGuire, Co-Screenwriting by Brooke Collard
Commissioned by the Law Society for the Old Courthouse Museum
Animation by Tracey Kim
Blak Dingo Club
Annual events program, 2024 - current
Blak Dingo Club is a wholesome response to Australia’s 2023 national referendum. An act of resistance to colonial anguish, this club’s events invite people from all walks of life to come together and have fun.
Hosting quiz nights, heritage walks, movie nights and more, BDC is a pop-up style event holder that carries fellowship and joy wherever it goes. It serves as a reclamation of space to re-energise, relax, laugh - because we deserve it!
In partnership with City of Melville
Kooranup Wadjemup
Drone light show, 2023
As a part of the Fremantle Biennale’s fourth festival SIGNALS 23, First Lights: Kooranup was presented; a sequel to the stories shared through First Lights: Moombaki in 2021. This epic spectacle of light, movement and sound will again transform the night sky with 160 drones taking flight over the stage of the bilya (river) and wardan (ocean). The last chapter unfolded across the ocean, on Wadjemup (Rottnest Island), with a collective offering, led by Ilona McGuire and writer Cass Lynch. This closing chapter offers a space for deep contemplation across land and water, weaving together the many stories across time, both beautiful and heartbreaking, that are held by the island.
Sound Design by Envelope Audio
King Wally 1947
Screenprint on paper 150cm x 90cm, 2021
My grandfather, Walter (pictured, 1947), was working on a farm in regional Western Australia in the 40’s and 50’s. He was expelled from school around age 11 because he had no shoes. This was a reality for Aboriginal people who were mostly living on government-sanctioned settlements called reserves. Many were only allowed to leave the reserve to work amongst many other oppressive laws. My grandfather worked the farm throughout his childhood until he was a young man. The farm owner offered rations and to sleep in the horse stables in the warmth of the hay as compensation for his work. The owner claimed to pay my grandfather by safekeeping his earnings in a “trust fund”. This fund was his own pocket and my grandfather never saw a cent from it. The wealth of Australia was built on the back of this common occurrence now known as the Stolen Wages, a historical exploitation of Aboriginal workers through intentional withholding and mismanagement of their earnings by government and private employers.
Acquired by the John Curtin Gallery, WA
Moombaki
Drone light show, 2021
Moombaki is the Nyoongar word for ‘where the river meets the sky’. Moombaki was a choreographed drone light show re-imagining the first stories of Whadjuk Nyoongar Country for all to experience. A three-part series of drone shows, sharing the Whadjuk Dreaming stories of the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River, Western Australia). Over three weekends and three locations, I shared the stories of Djoondal (The Giant Spirit Woman), Danakaat (The Seven Sisters) and finally the Kaanya Bidi (Journey of The Spirit). Each experience offered an insight to local Dreaming stories that had never been told in an immersive setting such as this.
Sound Design by Envelope Audio
Lok Poortjetpudgen (Our Place)
Gallery Installation with found objects and ochre pigment, 2022
National Emblem Stew
Collage on woodblock 30x30cm, 2020
NARBINY NGULUK NIDJA DOORNTJ BAARNINY, MOORDITJ DOOYTJDOORNT RAKYAT BERSATU TAK BISA DIKALAHKAN (CARE TOGETHER, STRONG TOGETHER)
Acrylic on canvas, 2025
In an act of translocal solidarity, the Indonesian art workers collective Taring Padi collaborated with artists Sharyn Egan (Noongar), Yabini Kickett (Ballardong, Whadjuk), Ilona McGuire (Whadjuk, Ballardong, Yuat, Kungarakan) and Tyrown Waigana (Wardandi Noongar, Ait Koedhal) to create a new banner. At its core, the banner’s imagery celebrates solidarity within and beyond its creators’ communities. Central to the composition are two circles of people gathered around a campfire in harmonious defiance of the ongoing tensions created by colonisation. These symbols of equality and mutual recognition embody the saying: Duduk sama rendah berdiri sama tinggi (Sitting down same low, standing up same high), and provide a positive counter to the polarising politics of resentment and exclusion.
Commissioned and exhibited at the Art Gallery of Western Australia
Melaut: Sea to See
Song and Dance Performance, 2024
Through Perth Institute of Contemporary Art’s inaugural Makassar x Perth residency program, Breeze, Ilona embarked on a social adventure to collaborate with local musicians, dancers and storytellers. Through long and late night yarns, we envisioned and jammed out a cultural storytelling about the 600+ year pre-colonial relationship between Australia’s First People and that of Makassar.
This fluid and exciting 10 minute cultural dance/music piece brought an experimental group of collaborators together for a short yet sweet time to tell a story about the ocean, our people and ancestral trade routes between us.
Vocals & Choreography by Ilona McGuire, Azimah Fada, Hirah Sanada, Aghi Fahri, Arif Rahman, Muh Mahar