Rachel Bywaters is a multidisciplinary artist with cultural connections to Gamilaroi Country, currently living and working on Kabi Kabi Country. Working across printmaking, jewellery, sculpture and installation, her practice engages themes of resistance, resilience and cultural reclamation. A recent graduate of the Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art at Griffith University’s Queensland College of Art and Design, she was awarded the CAIA Art Award for outstanding commitment to her studies.

Grounded in ancestral lineage and lived experience, Bywaters incorporates native Gamilaroi grains as materials carrying cultural and symbolic significance, challenging colonial narratives and foregrounding First Nations knowledge systems. She has exhibited in group exhibitions including Beneath This Skin (Queensland State Archives), Undergrowth (Griffith University Art Museum) and Bonyi: Living Culture (Munimba-ja), and is preparing for forthcoming presentations including her ProppaNOW residency exhibition baluwaa at Whichway, and Fresh Eyes at Redcliffe Art Gallery. In 2024, she contributed to the Next Generation Art Prize on Bribie Island as a guest judge.