Destiny Deacon who was a groundbreaking Indigenous Australian artist and activist passed away at the age of 67.
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Deacon was born in 1957 in Maryborough, Queensland. She grew up in various Melbourne inner suburbs, including commission housing, with her mother, Eleanor Harding, and siblings after her parents separated.
Deacon studied politics at the University of Melbourne, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree. She later earned a Diploma of Education from La Trobe University. She was descended from the Kuku (Cape York) and Erub/Mer (Torres Strait) peoples.
Deacon worked as a history teacher and later became a tutor and lecturer in Australian writing, culture, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural production at Melbourne University.
She was involved with Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins, working as a staff trainer in Canberra.
Her artistic career began in the 1990s, using her collection of kitsch objects depicting Aboriginal people. She is credited with introducing the term “Blak” to refer to Indigenous Australian art, culture, and history.
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Deacon’s work, which included photography, video, sculpture, and installation, centered around dolls and explored themes of identity, racism, and cultural resilience.
Deacon’s work was featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including major retrospectives at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney (2004) and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne (2020). She participated in several international biennials, such as documenta 11 in Kassel, Germany (2002), the Sharjah Biennial (2023), and the Biennale of Sydney (2000, 2008, 2023).
Deacon received several awards, including the Centenary medal and an honorary fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society in 2022. She was named Visual Artist of the Year by The Deadlys in 2009.
However, the cause of her death is unknown. She was unmarried and did not have any children as of the available information. The ABTC team wish that her Soul rests in Perfect Peace.
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