ABOUT
Helen Fraser: Multidisciplinary Artist and Craftivist
Helen Fraser is a multidisciplinary artist and cultural practitioner whose work sits at the intersection of social justice, archival research and textile-based craftivism. Working on the traditional lands of the Wurndjeri Woi Wurrung, Taungurung and Dja Dja Wurrung peoples, her art is an interrogation of her own positionality as she critiques the white colonial apparatus. She facilitates collaborative projects that transform and creates infrastructure for community truth-telling.
Her practice is deeply informed by her three decades of clinical experience as a psychologist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist working in the area of complex relational trauma. This background provides the foundational framework for her craftivism; she approaches collaborative art-making as a 'holding environment' - a compassionate, structured space where complex historical narratives can be acknowledged, processed and integrated. By applying clinical insights to the social realm, she facilitates processes that allow participants to navigate the 'sticky' intersections of history, identity and healing.
Research-led and dialogical, her current work includes stitching the archival documents of the Australian nation to expose the 'Great Australian Silence'. She is also exploring the symbol of the mandorla - the generative space of intersection - as both a metaphorical and methodological lens, investigating the liminal spaces between personal history and systemic truth. Her work moves beyond the aesthetic, serving as an archival practice.
Helen is currently authoring a chapbook for the Craft for Social Change series (Rochester Institute of Technology University Press, USA), which codifies her decolonial methodology for cross-cultural collaboration. This work has grown from her ongoing collaboration with the Australian South Sea Islander and Ni-Vanuatu communities titled Yumi Olgeta: Crafting A More Inclusive Democracy. She is currently facilitating their second quilt about the history of Blackbirding in NSW, to be donated to the City of Sydney. Through carefully crafted embroidery and applique workshops, participants can digest the painful history of Australia's Blackbirding slave trade, transforming historical trauma into a collective act of remembrance, healing and recognition.
With six solo exhibitions and participation in numerous group shows, Helen's work is represented in private and public collections both in Australia and internationally. Overall her practice exemplifies the powerful intersection of art, social justice, and transformation.
Selected Professional Record
Major Collaborations
Yumi Olgeta: Crafting a More Inclusive Democracy (2018 - current)
#UDHR Quilt Project
Institutional Recognition
Museum of Australian Democracy
City of Sydney
Epworth Hospital, Melbourne
Centre for Adult Education Library, Melbourne
Public Impact
Hume Council Mural at Bridges Recreation Reserve, Craigieburn, Melbourne. (2025)
Hume City Council 22-23 Mural Program located at Tulsa Drive Reserve, Goonawarra, Sunbury. (2023)
Tassel Ink Drawing titled ‘Exuberance’ used in ‘Site Echoes’, Movenpick Hotel, Hobart, Julie Stoneman and Futago, Digital Print in Glass. (2020)
United Declaration of Human Rights Quilt Block (Article 4: Ban on Slavery) shown on the front of Old Parliament House in Canberra - Enliven Canberra Festival (2019)
Selected Solo & Group Exhibitions
2026-28 Yumi Olgeta Quilt 2, Changemakers, Museum of Australian Democracy
2023 Under One Sky, Town Hall Broadmeadows Gallery, Broadmeadows.
2020 The Jefferson Grid, Hume Global Learning Centre Public Gallery, Sunbury.
2018 Tassels and Fragments, Falkner Gallery, Castlemaine
2023 Connections, Falkner Gallery, Castlemaine includes Castlemaine Festival
2019 Six Moments in Kingston Public Bus tour (part of Tal Fitzpatrick’s exhibit)
2018-20 UDHR Quilt Project Exhibition, Old Parliament House, Canberra