Bindi Cole

• Name — Bindi Cole Chocka • Born — 1975 • Birthplace — Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Occupation — Artist, curator and writer

Born in Melbourne in 1975, she holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Federation University (2010) and a Diploma in Applied Photography from the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE, which she completed in 2004. She is currently undertaking a PhD at Deakin University.

Cole’s work often references her life story and experiences, such as her Wadawurrung heritage, the importance of Christianity in her life, and the impact of politics, the law and other power structures on her lived experience and that of her family and community. Her artistic practice questions the way people circumscribe and misconstrue contemporary identity and experience.

Cole's first major work which came to public attention was Heart Strong (2007), an exhibition at the Koorie Heritage Trust, Melbourne. This work focused on the media's portrayal of Indigenous communities. Cole also photographed elite Indigenous sportsman for the calendar Men in Black. Cole's portrait of boxer Anthony Mundine, Do you like what you see, won the Boscia Galleries Award for Photography at the Victorian Indigenous Art Awards. Cole's approach to art includes the use of video, text and installation as well as photography.

• Illustration — Wathaurung Mob, 2008. Cole's Not Really Aboriginal is a series of photographs including portraits and group photographs in which the faces of the subjects are blackened with paint. Not Really Aboriginal explores Cole's Indigenous identity and heritage, and the ways in which they are questioned by mainstream society due to her fair complexion. The series was a result of being named by Andrew Bolt, in a series of blog posts, as an Aboriginal person who 'exploited their Aboriginality'. These statements by Bolt resulted in the Australian Federal Court case Eatock v Bolt in which Cole became a witness.

Sista Girls is a 2010 photographic series which focuses on the Yimpininni, a community of transgender women in the Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory. Cole travelled there to shoot the Sista Girls after previously photographing Tiwi Island drag performer Foxy Empire (Jason De Santis) in 2008. This work on the islands was shortlisted for the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards and, a portrait from the series, Ajay, won the 2009 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards Deadly Award. In this work, Cole explores aspects of Indigenous identity and culture, and how that is reconciled with transgender identity with the influence of colonisation.

Her works have been exhibited in the Museum of Contemporary Art (Taiwan), MOCADA (New York), National Gallery of Australia, Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shepparton Art Museum, Benalla Art Gallery and Horsham Regional Art Gallery, Victoria. In 2010, Cole was named one of Melbourne’s Top 100 Most Influential People by The Age.

Bindi Cole is recorded with the occupation photographer. Recorded as painter and photographer.