Back in 2013, Uncle Ted Laxton, a Gunditjmara Elder, stated that he “knew nothing about art” and that he “didn’t have an artistic bone” in his body. All that changed however the day he walked into the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative in Victoria, where he joined a group who wanted to learn art. “This guy walks in and gets out this big piece of board, some paints, some brushes,” Laxton recalled. “Then this guy says: ‘We are going to make some stamps.’ We all looked at one another and said: ‘Stamps? We’re not here to make stamps, we are here to learn about art!’” And on that day the group of seven made a huge painting and that was the start of the arts collective, the Pitcha Makin Fellas.
From that moment, the Ballarat-based group started collaborating on bold paintings using vibrant-coloured acrylic paint, large cut outs, and handmade stamps to tell stories about the environment, culture, community, friendship, food, family, football, Aboriginal history, and politics – all with their trademark tongue-in-cheek humour. As the Pitcha Makin Fellas have said: “We’ve never set out to make art just to hang on walls. We make work because we’ve got stories to tell, things to say, and because being together matters. The studio is where we yarn, argue, remember, and support each other. That’s where the work begins.”
Pitcha Makin Fellas, Why Don’t Whitefellas Like Trees? (detail), 2022, synthetic polymer paint on foamboard, three parts, 260 × 156cm each / Monash University Collection, purchased 2022 / Courtesy the artists and Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
One of the Pitcha Makin Fellas’s paintings, Why Don’t Whitefellas Like Trees?, from 2022, is in the Monash University Collection in Melbourne and is on display at the Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), in the group’s first major survey exhibition, Pitcha Makin Fellas: Long time coming, not finished yet. A triptych, Why Don’t Whitefellas Like Trees? was made by Ted Laxton, Alison McRae, and Trudy Edgeley. The work pays homage to the Djab Wurrung Heritage Protection Embassy (2018–21) where Elders and community fought to stop the destruction of 800-year-old sacred birthing trees for a road-widening project in western Victoria. Each panel of the artwork depicts a threatened tree, surrounded by chainsaws and broken hearts.
Pitcha Makin Fellas (Alison McRae, Ted Laxton, and Trudy Edgeley) in their studio with Why Don’t Whitefellas Like Trees?, 2022
At MUMA, Amanda Haskard, Curator, Indigenous, says that Why Don’t Whitefellas Like Trees? is a powerful act of resistance that refuses to let the destruction of sacred birthing trees be ignored and normalised, instead demanding attention, accountability, and change. “These trees are not just landscapes – they are living sacred sites, central to women’s knowledge and ceremony,” Haskard says. “And the work is not just about trees – it is about the continued attack on Country, on cultural practices, and on the survival of First Nations knowledge systems. It confronts systems of harm, while amplifying the strength, resilience, and sovereignty of Aboriginal communities who continue to protect Country.”
Haskard says that the Pitcha Makin Fellas show, through their storytelling, humour, and collective strength, that they help preserve culture. “For them, artmaking is deeply communal, fostering connection, healing, and advocacy. Why Don’t Whitefellas Like Trees? is both a tribute to Country and community, and a powerful protest against ongoing injustice.”
Bronwyn Watson has been writing about visual arts for leading newspapers and magazines for over thirty-five years.
Monash University Museum of Art
On display in Pitcha Makin Fellas: Long time coming, not finished yet
10 October to 5 December 2026
Originally published in print – Art Almanac, November 2026 issue, pp. 28–30
