Melissa Stannard is a proud Yuwaalaraay Gamilaraay, and Koama artist, researcher and poet, living on Kabi Kabi land on the Sunshine Coast.

The first in her family to go to university, Melissa completed a Bachelor of Contemporary Australia Indigenous Art, majoring in (JSO) jewellery and small objects in 2019, and undertook the Kungullanji Program under the supervision of the esteemed Dr Michelle Langley, during the summer of 2018-2019.

The Kungullanji Scholarship programme allowed Melissa to learn invaluable new research skills, and to increase her confidence in writing and presenting which resulted in her co-authoring a peer reviewed journal article in the Cambridge Journal of Archaeology.

Melissa uses her narrative skills and deep passion to bring hidden stories and experiences to light, often fighting for the underdog, the voiceless, the lost and forgotten, neglected and overlooked. Through the use of reparative aesthetics Melissa works to raise awareness and aims to help the healing processes of Aboriginal /Indigenous community, create pathways of understanding and reconciliation for the community as a whole, while embracing caring for country .

Melissa’s artwork, exhibitions and community projects have included subjects close to her heart, Traces of place, Back to Country, Dadirri, Stolen Generations, Ethnographic Branding, Notions of Home and Identity and Belonging. As well as deeper personal stories of survival, domestic violence, abuse and, childhood trauma as a pass the parcel child. Melissa has keen interest in nature and the environment, archival research, history, art therapy, printmaking, jewellery, sculpture, textile and installation art, as well as teaching children’s art classes.  She is proud to be a Kungullanji mentor again this year, to help and support fellow scholars on their pathway to success and growth.