MELBOURNE.- The dreaming of comics and cosplay is no mere fantasy play for Indigenous artists.

Creating Aboriginal superheroes or reimagining oneself in the image of a powerful crusader can be an important form of finding a personal identity.

That why the new exhibition of Koori comics at Bunjilaka Aboriginal Culture Centre at Melbourne Museum has the name Marramb-ik, a Kulin phrase meaning “I am”.

Marramb-ik explores the past, present and future of Aboriginal comics, from the pioneering Kaptn Koori, created in 1985 by the late Lin Onus, to the imaginative drawings of eight-year-old artist Oscar Edwards.

It comes at a time when Aboriginal comic culture is thriving, with Australia’s the first Indigenous Comicon to be held in Melbourne next year. Workshops and cosplay activities are planned while the exhibition is on show.

The exhibition focuses on two key artists at either ends of the development of Victorian Indigenous comic art: Onus and contemporary comic artist Jade Kennedy.

Lin Onus (1948 - 1996) was a well-known Yorta Yorta artist whose paintings are held in major collections. He created Kaptn Koori for his sun Tiriki in order to give him a super-hero to identify with his own culture.

Kennedy is an emerging artist who has held two solo exhibitions and uses his art to explore his cultural learnings.

The exhibition also showcases Aboriginal cosplayers, Cienan Muir (@ceejayandthecosplay) and Heidi Brooks (@heidzdeecosplay). Both Heidi and Cienan have used cosplay as a way to tell their own story and journey.

The focus of the exhibition is on the work of Indigenous artists for whom comics and cosplay are a means of declaring and describing their place in the world.

Museums Victoria CEO Lynley Marshall said, “This celebration of Indigenous popular culture is a reminder that Aboriginal culture is contemporary, colourful and diverse. The people who create it are superheroes in their own way.”