Bruce Shillingsworth is a Muruwari and Budjiti man, a talented artist and water for the rivers activist.
His country is the north-west NSW river lands that hug the Namoi, Barwon, Darling Rivers; Brewarrina, Bourke, Enngonia, Wilcannia and Walgett.
Bruce’s family are painters, dancers and rainmakers. Bruce is a cultural educator in Sydney and leads a cultural revival dance group in the north-west. The north-west river communities have been devastated by water stealing by big cotton farmers and irrigators. Successive governments have failed to preserve the integrity of the rivers on which First Nations people depend for their life and livelihood.
In October 2019, Bruce brought together communities along the river in a Corroboree to unite people to solve this unprecedented crisis.