Lisa Michl Ko-manggén’s painting Kedervent (jelly fish story) is an artwork in the Parliament House Art Collections.  

Lisa Michl Ko-manggén is a member of the Kokoberrin people, a community that lives along the Nassau and Staaten Rivers in Cape York. Kokoberrin people are known for their deep cultural connection to the surrounding waterways and landscape.¹  

Kedervent is a place in the mangroves of Cape York, on the artist’s Country. It is a place where the jellyfish breed before they travel back out to sea. This work represents the traditional stories of First Nations life in Far North Queensland and Ko-manggén has used her art to connect with her Kokoberrin heritage.  

Of her practice, she says,

It is a privilege for me to document and share the stories, language, lore and culture of our Kokoberrin people with a national audience, amplifying the efforts of our First Nations community in preserving and passing down our heritage for future generations.²

Lisa Michl Ko-manggén OAM
Lisa Michl Ko-manggén OAM (born 1977) is a Kokoberrin artist from central Western Cape York Peninsula. She completed a Diploma in Visual Arts and an Advanced Diploma in Visual Arts from TAFE Cairns in the late 1990s. She has been exhibiting regularly in both solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. She has been the Artistic Director of UMI Arts since 2021. In 2025, she won the First Nations category of the prestigious Blacktown City Art Prize, was a finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, and in 2019 was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her service to Indigenous visual arts. Her work is held in numerous collections throughout Australia including Queensland Art Gallery, Artbank and the National Gallery of Victoria. 

References
1. Kokoberrin Tribal Aboriginal Corporation, “Our right to thrive”, accessed August 26, 2025. https://www.kokoberrin.com/corporation 
2. Quoted in Chisa Hasegawa, “Cape York artist claims prestigious Sydney prize”, Cape York Weekly, 21 February, 2025, accessed August 26, 2025. https://capeyorkweekly.com.au/cape-york-artist-claims-prestigious-sydney-prize/14014/