Competitions
Julie-Anne Marker
Artwork Title: Te Ora Hou (The New Life)
Artwork Medium: Australian wool
Year Created: 2025
Artwork Description:
As a teacher who moved from Aotearoa to Kalgoorlie, I’ve enjoyed watching our Māori and Pasifika students connect with their cultural identity through our school kapa haka rōpū. Several of my own adult children (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa and Aitutaki, Cook Islands) have also been exploring their heritage. One of the things I love about Kalgoorlie is the strong Māori and Pasifika community, and I wanted this work to pay tribute to them.
Traditionally, Polynesian travellers navigated by the stars. In this piece, the guiding star is the “Northern Star”—the main gold mining company here—which has drawn many people to this place. I’ve chosen to depict women rather than men, reflecting the mining industry’s recent push to be more supportive of women in its workforce. This piece is part two of a two-portrait series: The Two Sisters, although more may be in the making.
Artist Statement:
My work tends to run on a few levels—cultural identity, family and social connections, and how we fit into our community and the wider world. Some themes are obvious, others not. I like using knitting to highlight social issues and to challenge the old idea that it’s somehow an “inferior” art form. Yarn is beautiful to work with and has a way of creating calm—except when I’m losing a fight with my knitting machine. I want to encourage others to develop the beauty and skills of the intricate art form of knitting.
Artist Bio:
Julie-Anne Marker is an Aotearoa–raised textile artist and language/EALD teacher who began knitting at sixteen after spotting an intarsia jersey in Ponsonby, Auckland, that she couldn’t afford—but realised she could make with the help of her mum. That first project sparked a lifelong love of wool, leading her to spin, dye, and work with a vintage knitting machine to create textures and designs beyond hand-knitting. Her style inspirations range from Chinese revolutionary romanticism and ligne claire to artists such as Shepard Fairey, Ten 100, Emil Salmans, and Bruneian screen-print artist Jeff JD, as well as fibre artists including Sue Brown, Polly Randall and Faith Humphrey Hill.
She has learned from women in machine-knitting, spinning, and hand-weaving guilds in Aotearoa, where there are famously more sheep than people. Her work often centres on everyday people in ordinary moments—quiet heroes who go unnoticed—though she has also explored themes such as the experiences of child refugees. Since moving to Australia in January 2023, Julie-Anne has been based in Western Australia and is now relocating to Queensland. With her knitting machine currently only cooperating when she uses two colours, she has been experimenting with embellishing with embroidery and sashiko, as well as combining intarsia hand-knitting and crochet in her pieces.
This year marks the first for exhibiting in Australia, with two pieces previously exhibited in a small town exhibition in Aotearoa.
