Zena Zada Cumpston is an Australian Aboriginal (Barkandji) woman with Afghan, English, and Irish heritage. Zena works as an artist, writer, researcher and consultant. She is passionate about plants and seeks out projects that empower community and cultural landscapes. She holds an expert position on the Birrarung Council and is a widely published writer. In 2022 she co-authored the highly popular book ‘Plants; past, present, future’ as part of the First Knowledges series and was a co-author on the Australian Commonwealth State of the Environment Report in both 2021 and 2026.
Most recently, Zena has been focussed on growing her skills and reach as an emerging artist and has been invited to participate in various local and international artist residencies and collaborative opportunities. She is the proud recipient of the 2026 Bandalang Artist Residency at the Australian National University and the Ian Potter Emerging Artist Grant. In 2026 her art will be featured as part of the ‘Watch These Hands’ Exhibition at Heide Museum of Modern Art in Narrm/Melbourne, and can also be seen moving across Melbourne as part of the Rising Festival First Peoples Art Trams 2026
Visit Zena’s website here
Autumn 2026
Multidisciplinary Practice / Curatorial / Critical Writing / Print Making / Sculpture / Socially Engaged Practice / Visual Arts / Other
Research Focus
I am an artist, curator, writer, consultant and researcher. My work consistently articulates my passion for empowering and working together with many, in collaboration, finding ways to platform important stories not yet heard. I work multiple freelance jobs in order to finance my art-making. My commitment is paying off in a number of ways, the most important of which is that I am involved in so many exciting collaborations with like-minded artists and community members. I am currently working as part of four significant collaborations with artists and thinkers I greatly admire, including but not limited to Fayen d’Evie, Uncle William Badger Bates (Barkandji), Dr Jessyca Hutchens (Palyku) and Maddison Miller (Darug). My research background empowers every aspect of my artistic practice and I am deeply committed to utilising my platforms to illuminate the plight of cultural landscapes, and in particular waterways, so compromised by the ongoing harms of colonisation and industrialisation. My work embraces storytelling as its foundation but ripples out across my engagement in activism, the environment, public policy, best practice in the museums and galleries sector, education and decolonial practice. In recent years I have been fortunate to collaborate and build networks with international First Nations communities, scholars and artists, focussing on First Peoples land-based practices, custodial responsibility and climate justice.
More about the Dwell Here Residency
Dwell Here offers participants a simple proposition: to commit to this time and place while thinking deeply about its urgencies. Together we are curious to learn what can be activated or challenged through the process of dwelling. IMMA encourages reflection across the following themes to consider geographical, historical, political and cultural concepts of Ireland as a starting point to expand and connect international contexts through similarities and differences:
Technologies of Peace – to consider commemorative landscapes and memories of peace (as a dream, movement, or value) while generating perspectives on sustainable coexistence.
The Irish Paradigm – Welcomes artistic research that creates intimacy and connections, while celebrating the perceived agility and freedoms of operating on the periphery. As a small island on the edge of Europe, Ireland often has a challenging relationship with ‘the centre’.
The Museum as a Site of Vibration – consider how the museum and site can create new vibrations and rhythms within the built legacy of empire. How can museums make visible cultural shifts, including erased, censored or marginalised histories, as well as sustainability, planetary care, sharing and hospitality.