Melbourne’s Trams Become Moving Canvases in Celebration of First Peoples Art

Stories in motion: First Peoples art transforms Melbourne’s trams into living canvases

Today, Melbourne’s trams take on a new life, gliding through the city as moving works of art. The First Peoples Melbourne Art Trams return, launching as part of this year’s RISING festival, and over the coming weeks, six freshly wrapped trams will enter service—each a vivid testament to the creativity, resilience, and imagination of Aboriginal artists connected to Victoria.

Curated by Taungurung woman Kate ten Buuren, the 2026 edition of the Art Trams celebrates the boundless reach of Blak imagination. Across the city, these trams will carry stories of Country, memory, resistance, futurity, and cultural continuity, offering Melburnians a daily encounter with narratives that have long shaped this land.

Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around the region here.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by RISING (@rising.melbourne)

Leading this year’s launch is the 2026 Legacy Tram, a tribute to Wadawurrung Elder and senior artist Marlene Gilson OAM. Her work, Happy Families – time when we all lived together, reclaims and reinterprets historical events, offering a vision of community thriving along the riverbanks—dancing, fishing, caring for one another, and practising culture together.

“Today we unveil the first of six First Peoples Melbourne Art Trams for 2026,” says curator Kate ten Buuren. “Aunty Marlene has made profound contributions to our community through her art, reframing dominant historical narratives. Happy Families transports us through time and space, and the five trams yet to launch will similarly explore memory, time, and First Peoples’ relationships to Country and beyond. Together, they reveal the limitless possibilities of our imagination.”

Marlene Gilson’s work is deeply rooted in her ancestral lands, spanning Ballarat, Werribee, Geelong, Skipton, and the Otway Ranges. Her richly detailed paintings often feature her two totems, Bunjil the Eagle and Waa the Crow, overturning colonial perspectives to assert First Peoples’ histories and spiritual connections to Country. Her practice has garnered international recognition, including solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, and Ballarat, participation in group shows abroad, and a place in the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024. That same year, she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for her contributions to the visual arts, while previous highlights include the 21st Biennale of Sydney (2018) and the Badu Gili: Wonder Women projection on the Sydney Opera House sails (2021).

Now, her work moves through the streets of Melbourne, bringing First Peoples art into everyday life and transforming public spaces into galleries on wheels.

Alongside Marlene Gilson, the 2026 Art Trams feature artworks by Natasha Carter (Dja Dja Wurrung, Yorta Yorta, Jaru), Mitch Mahoney (Boonwurrung, Barkindji), Jenna Mayilema Lee (Larrakia, KarraJarri, Wardaman), Zena Zada Cumpston (Barkandji/Kurnu), and Sonja Hodge (Lardil). Together, these artists celebrate expansive ways of seeing, remembering, and imagining, asserting the ongoing creative force of First Peoples across Victoria.

To complement the launch, audiences are invited to a curator- and artist-led public program exploring First Peoples art histories across Naarm. The hop-on, hop-off tour along the Yarra Trams network begins at City Square with native jam-topped scones and Indigenous teas from catering company PAWA, and features conversations with Kate ten Buuren and artist Zena Zada Cumpston about public art, place, memory, and creativity. Participants also receive a customisable cup adorned with First Peoples Melbourne Art Tram stickers.

For those seeking hands-on engagement, Lardil artist Sonja Hodge will lead three-hour Introduction to Relief Printing workshops at Australian Print Workshop. With her artwork soon to feature on one of the city’s trams, participants will learn printmaking techniques, explore Sonja’s creative process, and translate their own stories into original prints.

Over the next 12 months, these six trams will traverse Melbourne’s network, a collaboration between the Department of Transport and Planning, Yarra Trams, and Creative Victoria. They celebrate the world’s oldest living culture, bringing First Peoples stories, art, and imagination to every corner of the city.

Minister for Creative Industries Vicki Ward reflects, “Not every city gets mobile art galleries moving through its streets. With this year’s RISING festival, Melbourne Art Trams brighten winter days, sharing the extraordinary talent of First Peoples artists with countless communities.”

Melinda Button, Chief Customer and Community Officer at Yarra Trams, adds, “First Peoples Art Trams transform our network into a moving gallery, celebrating deep connections to Country and the proud heritage of the world’s oldest living culture.”

The six trams are part of wider activations across Melbourne for RISING, running until 8 June. You can view the full program here.