The ELDERHOOD Project
The Elderhood Project is a creative uprising! A bold act of seeing and being seen. It asks Australia to rethink what power, beauty, and wisdom look like in a woman’s later years. Through towering portraits, intimate storytelling, and public rituals of honour, the project transforms invisibility into reverence.
Here, older women are not “elderly,” but Elders.
Vibrant, grounded, radiant with experience. Each work stands as both portrait and protest, calling audiences to look up, to listen, and to recognise the women who have quietly held our communities together.
More than an exhibition, The Elderhood Project is a movement — a call to shift perception, to change behaviour, and to celebrate the women who have already changed the world. It seeks nothing less than a cultural realignment: one that restores respect, visibility, and agency to women in their later years.
Born from my own lived experience, and from deep conversations with other women navigating midlife and beyond, this work responds to the silence that often follows menopause; a silence too easily mistaken for disappearance. The project asks: What is the role of women after motherhood, after menopause, after retirement?
Drawing inspiration from pre-industrial societies that revered their elders, The Elderhood Project reclaims that respect for contemporary life. Through portraits, head-dresses, gatherings, and public programming, it honours women’s strength, intellect, humour, and grace; and reframes ageing as an expansion! One that is vital for our younger people.
Artwork Concept
At its core are larger-than-life portraits of women, each adorned with symbolic head-dresses representing knowledge, resilience, and lived experience. These portraits will be accompanied by sculpture, neon works, and participatory installations.
The visual language draws from mythic figures such as the Cailleach (the ancient Scottish embodiment of feminine wisdom) as well as global archetypes of power, transformation, and renewal. The works position these contemporary Elders as modern inheritors of that lineage, reclaiming visibility and reverence.
Intergenerational Connection
The Elderhood Project bridges generations through conversation and collaboration. On Adorning Day, young people and community members are invited to guild and jewel the portraits - a literal act of looking up to and honouring the Elders. Workshops and public programs, including screen-printing and interactive sculpture, invite participants to question and reshape the language of ageing.
Through these shared acts of creation and respect, the project builds empathy, pride, and connection. It reminds us that honouring our Elders is not a nostalgic gesture, but a necessary evolution in how we see each other.
