Mali Isabel (BEd(PrR-7), BA ’21) is a unique type of political artist, using rainbow colours and dazzling Indigenous dot designs to speak about better possibilities through shared love rather than anger.
“I want to see more colour in the world, because when I started painting, everything was so grey,” says Mali. “I want to force people to look at colourful, beautiful, cultural art. My art is something you really can’t look away from – and the more you look, the more you see.”
Mali, a proud Arabana and Kokatha woman who was born in Port Augusta but raised in Adelaide, had no immediate ambitions to be an artist. In fact, she disliked school and had no idea what she wanted to do upon completing high school at the age of 17 – so it was her mother who filled out university application forms for Mali and her brother to attend Flinders University.
“Mum was a teacher and had gone to university, so it was all her doing. I had no intention of going to uni, but it became the making of me,” Mali says. “I was so young and clueless when I arrived. I hadn’t worked hard at school, but being in that different environment and being treated like an adult gave me the reason to flourish. I was continuously out of my comfort zone, but these became my essential developmental years.”
She majored in visual arts, doing everything from printmaking, drawing and painting to sculpture, which was intertwined with a teaching degree, and in 2021, Mali graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Primary Education). “It made me try new things, so it was the best possible outcome,” she says. “It wasn’t just my techniques that were developing in these years, but also my ideas, my thoughts about how I was going to express myself. I took shape as an artist. I was making my art at home, trying different things, just giving my paintings away, because I was on a learning journey.”
After completing her degree, at the age of 20, Mali, didn’t feel ready to embrace the full-time commitment of teaching, and didn’t want to teach a forced curriculum in schools. “I gave myself one year off to focus on my art, to see what would happen – and a lot did,” says Mali. “It all took off in a rush.”
After earning high commendation for the 2021 Our Mob Trevor Nickolls Art Prize, she won the Adelaide Fringe Festival’s poster art competition in 2022 – becoming the first Aboriginal artist to achieve this success in the festival’s 62-year history. Mali’s winning design, A Whimsical World, was inspired by Adelaide’s festival landscape that includes the Torrens River and East End precinct aglow with vivid colours that represent positivity and diversity.
Simultaneously, she was awarded an art studio residency at Carclew, and started conducting workshops and doing murals in schools. “I was able to be myself through my art. I was able to teach culture through my art. It felt good.”
Through her combination of traditional dot painting, her hallmark use of colour and the flourish of contemporary design, Mali creates bright artworks that aim to spread joy and positivity, along with personal stories that carry strong Indigenous messages.
“The messages about culture and family and history came naturally to me. I have a really strong mum, and I’m just a mini version of her,” Mali explains.
Now, Mali is living in Darwin and is about to enter a new phase of her artistic life by commencing classroom teaching in schools. She sees it as coming full circle. “I’m 27 now, and I feel confident to be a formal teacher now. There are so many beautiful communities up here that need teachers. I feel ready.”
Mali Isabel was awarded a 2026 Early Career Alumni Award for her significant contribution to contemporary First Nations art and cultural expression, using bold, distinctive practice to celebrate identity, advance representation and foster connection across communities.