'Mawambul'- Together

Follow

Born a Wiradjuri girl and coming from a rugged part of Sydney west, Angel is apart of a vast and expansive mob of NSW. 



At a very early age Angel’s love for art & creativity shone through in everything she did. Angel communicated through the arts and always found a way to express herself through performance or design.

Her greatest motivation has always been her mother, who raised her solo after her father passed away at the age of two. Her mother played many roles in the upbringing of Angel, she guided her through life & encouraged her creativity and passions, she ensured Angel was close to her culture & encouraged a pathway for Aboriginal & human rights activism.



In 2009 Angel had her first of 5 children, Honey. This proved to be a pivotal moment in her career as she could no longer commit to the unpredictable role of a makeup artist, she decided to pursue a career in Photography & spent the next 11 years taking photos all around the world, appearing in hundreds of international publications & securing a reputation as one of Gold Coast’s leading photographers. 


Soon after her grandfather passed away, Angel felt an urgency to be closer to him, her love of painting which was idle suddenly came to life!
 She needed an outlet to keep her grounded & healthy so she decided to complete a cultural art class and start painting as a way to communicate her disturbance and loss.

It didn’t take long before Angel jumped straight into painting full time, turning her way of coping into a process of story telling & celebration for her beautiful culture & land. ”There’s something very special about painting cultural art. It connects you to the country & to your ancestors in a way that gives you more respect and curiosity for the history of our land. It is the way our people have passed on information for thousands of years, It preserves our culture.” - Angel Riley