Yarrabah Arts shines at Arts Ablaze

This year the Yarrabah Arts & Cultural Precinct, in partnership with the State Library of Queensland and the Flying Arts Alliance, opened the Jabu Birriny [land + sea] touring exhibition at the Yarrabah Menmuny Museum Gallery.

The exhibition showcases the work of eight Yarrabah artists - Philomena Yeatman, Michelle Yeatman, Valmai Pollard, Edna Ambrym, Ruben Ambrym, Elverina Johnson and Eric Orcher. The exhibition will continue to tour venues around Queensland in 2020.

The exhibition then toured and opened in October at the Arts Ablaze Regional Arts Conference in the Kooralbyn Valley near Brisbane, and featured two Yarrabah artists, Philomena Yeatman and Eric Orcher. Flying Arts Alliance said they were delighted to host the pair and Flying Arts Exhibition Program’s Lisa Beilby said, “Yarrabah Art Centre Manager Darrell Harris was also our guest as part of the residency of the Jabu Birriny (land + sea) exhibition at the Conference”.

Held on Mununjali country, Arts Ablaze was a state-wide festival showcasing creative practice across regional Queensland. The week-long event bought together key creatives from diverse locations including Yarrabah, the Moa Islands, Longreach, Woorabinda, Brisbane, Bundjalung and Quandamooka countries.

The week began with a wonderful Welcome to Country and afternoon tea for the Yarrabah touring exhibition artists, hosted by Mununjali Elders and community members. The greetings were warm and young people from community performed a welcome dance.

During the conference, IACA Manager Pam Bigelow was invited by the Mununjali Elders to present on a panel with IACA board members Darrell Harris and Eric Orcher to speak about how to set up an art centre.

As always, there were great opportunities to network, particularly for Indigenous artists who had travelled from many different parts of Queensland and who would greatly benefit from access to IACA as a peak body.