A small indigenous art centre in north Queensland is making an impact on the national and global art market. The Girringun Art Centre’s contemporary take on traditional crafts is also empowering elders and strengthening community.
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00:00At an art centre in a north Queensland rainforest, artists are reinventing skills of their ancestors.
00:11Many are elders, coming to the craft later in life.
00:16When I had the bypass then, ah, I'd better slow up, you know what I mean?
00:20One of the centre's specialties, the bargoo, is an undeniably adorable take on a traditional
00:26fire-starting tool.
00:28The children come up and say, oh look at these little dolls, and you go, you kind of have
00:32a little laugh and you go, no.
00:34Originally wood, it's now ceramic, and painted with striking colours and patterns.
00:40The boggle is traditionally made in the form of a man, so they've kind of still maintained
00:44that same structure of the traditional tool.
00:48One of those reviving lost art is Abe Moriarty.
00:51He says weaving skills had declined in his community.
00:55And I was really disappointed.
00:57The traditional basket that came from here is such an exquisite artefact.
01:07He studied surviving baskets, visually deconstructing them to build technique.
01:12This is what we've got to get back to.
01:14It's been my thing, what drives me to sort of go back and get the best.
01:21It's taken him to some special places, and inspired others with the global art scene
01:26in their sights.
01:28Get up there and out there and tell the world we are also indigenous artists, but we are
01:33from the rainforest.
01:35All the while, keeping stories alive.