Entertainment
12 July, 2024
Art showcases waterways
Fourteen of the best FNQ First Nations artists will showcase Country, memories and stories through art in UMI Arts’ 11th annual Freshwater Saltwater exhibition opening today.
The 11th Freshwater Saltwater exhibition will officially launch today from 6pm featuring 36 artworks in mediums like canvas, paper, artefacts and jewellery by 14 mid-career to established First Nations artists from Yarrabah, Cape York, the Torres Straits, Cairns, and the Tablelands.
The exhibition at Manoora opens an opportunity for artists to reflect on their land, culture, memories and the waterways that make FNQ’s two cultures, the saltwater peoples and the freshwater peoples.
UMI Arts artistic director Lisa Michl said the exhibition’s title reflected on the two distinct cultures.
“Our First Nations people from Cape York and the Torres Strait are mainly for two peoples, and while we all have individual clan groups and languages, we’re often born to freshwater or saltwater peoples,” she said.
“The exhibition’s title captures the essence of that cultural knowledge that’s been handed down throughout millennia.
“This year’s beautiful and thought-provoking collection of artwork and jewellery represents the flowing together of our people’s cultures and stories, from rainforest to desert to island,”
For artist from the Wik Iyanh tribe of Cape York, Marilyn Kepple, who’s exhibiting two acrylic on canvas paintings, the exhibition was an opportunity to revisit childhood memories.
“My work is called ‘Water Lilies’, and it basically tells the story of me growing up on Country. After the rains there’s an abundance of flora and fauna so water lilies are in full bloom,” she said. “You get the different colours, the greens, the purples and pink and it brings memories of growing up on Country.
“Water lilies have cultural significance. Families used to collect the stems and the bulbs and personal significance because I grew up around water, fishing all the time, and in my later years, because I have grandchildren showing them Country so they can see it in their childhood, so they have those memories as they get older.
“This exhibition is significant because we’re trying to bridge the gap between our cultural space and the western world as a learning tool for our modern Indigenous brothers and sisters from other countries if they want to know about our culture.”
The free exhibition will be open until September 13
