Aboriginal art of Tropical Australia earns international acclaim!

The best of Australian Aboriginal art is much sought after internationally.

Indigenous art from the Central Desert, the Kimberleys, Arnhem Land and the Torres Strait regions is well known, but the art from Far North Queensland is only recently finding its place on the world stage.

Of particular interest is the work from the “Lockhart River Gang” a group of young, energetic painters. Named a “gang” from their origins as a “work for the dole” group, these aboriginal artists have received much encouragement, training and public funding.

Well promoted and provided with brilliant exhibition opportunities, the dozen or so young people have developed a well-deserved reputation for excellence.

Rosella Namok, Fiona Omeenyo, Samantha Hobson and Silas Hobson are amongst the best known of the artists, who live in a very isolated area, about eight hundred kilometres north of Cairns.

They mostly paint on canvas with acrylic but are also competent printmakers, producing either screenprints or linoprints at the art centre at Lockhart River. Amongst their North Queensland teachers have been Anne and Ron Edwards and Arone Meeks.

Women tribal elders from the community still produce baskets made from lawyer cane, palm, paper bark, pandanus or grass as well as necklaces from shells and seeds.

Living at Mossman, close to Port Douglas, is the well respected elder, weaver, Wilma Walker. Hers is one of the most traditional types of aboriginal art still being kept alive.

Although Wilma teaches the weaving of beautifully shaped baskets, made from the rare black palm, she regrets that few of the younger generation is interested in such a labour intensive pastime.

Born at Mossman Gorge, Wilma remembers the men of her family making fish traps and bi-cornal baskets from lawyer cane. Carried by a vine strap across the forehead, the baskets were used for carrying yams, fish and fruit. The Deeral community still makes these on occasions but the art seems to have died out in other centres.

In Cairns, Arone Meeks works as a sculptor, painter and printmaker, making commentary on social issues pertaining to aboriginality. Along with other graduates from the Cairns Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visual arts course, he is active in Cairns art circles and exhibits regularly.

One such TAFE graduate is Norman Miller (Munganbana) who comes from the mountainous, rainforest region inland from Cairns (his name “mountain water” derives from the many lakes and waterfalls in the green and fertile Tablelands area of his homeland).

Norman is a painter (he won the Sheraton Mirage Open Prize in 2006), who tells ancestral stories in paint, but who also produces charming lino prints of animals of the region – the shy platypus, fresh-water turtles, lizards and pythons which inhabit the fringes of deep volcanic lakes.

A potter/sculptor of great note is Thancoupie. Originally from an area near Weipa, Thancoupie is highly respected as an artist and teacher of her people. Her work is in many prestigious collections.