Amethyst Downing-McLeod is a Wandi Wandian woman. Her kinship and ancestral ties are woven throughout the East Coast in so called Australia. Born and raised on Kulin Nation, now living on country in the lands of Dharawal.

She is a multidisciplinary artist, cultural practitioner, mother, carer and scientist in training at the University of Wollongong.

Amethyst uses a wide variety of traditional and contemporary mediums, methods, knowledges, practices and techniques taught by her Elders and knowledge holders within her kin.

She has a diverse variety of partnerships offering many workshops including creative conservation adapting to both country and urban settings. Amethyst is skilled in delivering workshops teaching many First Nations globally, elderly, youth, genders, deaf communities and non-english speaking communities.

Amethyst is passionate about the environment, she spreads awareness, while capturing images building a digital archive of many species both native and pest. One of her target species is a dingo which is red listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN) as critically endangered. Sadly the dingo is being hunted to extinction like the thylacine, if the last largest land Apex predator is removed from the environment it will have irreversible impacts to the environment. Amethyst often tracks dingos throughout the South Coast, collects DNA specimens which have contributed to Dr Kylie Cairns research who recently shattered the wild dog myth in so called Australia.