Girringun artists Eileen Tep and Charlotte Beeron ready to present at The IACA Kinship Symposium.
The art of north Queensland is distinctive for its tropical aesthetic and for its unique ghost net art, work using disused fishing nets created by Erub Arts of Darnley Island in the Torres Strait.
Essential to supporting and promoting this work is the Indigenous Art Centre Alliance (IACA), the peak body that supports and advocates for the community-based Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and cultural centres of Far North Queensland.
Manager of IACA Pamela Bigelow said the artists in the area were highly influenced by the environment.
‘The art reflects the vibrant colours, the vision of the country and the stories. The environment is absolutely unique in terms of the Australian landscape. We have a huge variation across the lushest tropical rainforest in the country, the rugged country of Cape York, to the tropical islands in the Torres Strait.
‘The environment is reflected in the art, the animals are in many cases unique to the wet tropics and we have the cape as well which is another distinctive environment. Very different to the desert which is represented all across central Australia and the top end which is much more dry arid zones,’ said Bigelow.
Bigelow said that Indigenous people work as the driving force behind the art centres.
‘IACA is there to advocate and support the remote Indigenous -owned and run art centres in far North Queensland. They own the organisation. They are incorporated organisations run by an Indigenous board made up of local community people,’ said Bigelow.
IACA supports Indigenous-owned art centres across remote far north Queensland, including Badu Art Centre, Bana Yirriji Art and Cultural Centre, Erub Arts, Girringun Aboriginal Art Centre, HopeVale Arts and Culture Centre, Lockhart River Art Centre, Mornington Island Arts, Ngalmun Lagau Minaral Art Centre, Moa Arts, Pormpuraaw Art and Culture Centre Inc, Wik and Kugu Art Centre, Yalanji Arts, Yarrabah Arts and Cultural Precinct and Wei’num Arts and Crafts in Western Cape York.
Bigelow said that the art centres for these communities are intrinsic not just to their culture but as an important form of income.
‘They are the life and soul of the community in some cases and often the only place where there is any economic development. It’s where the community gets together, where there is cultural retention passing on to the younger generation,’ said Bigelow.
‘In many cases they are the only place that people go and do work in some form or another. Whether they are employed by the art centre or are artists. At a couple of art centres there are Indigenous managers and we support them in every way we can,’ said Bigelow. ‘That is something we are working on constantly and proud of.’
For more information visit the Indigenous Art Centre Alliance website or Facebook.
