New wall mural at Innisfail Bowls Club

Story And Photos By Maria Girgenti

THIS year, the Innisfail Bowls Club celebrates its centenary, and a new wall mural completed in 2022 has marked this significant milestone.

This project took shape after discussions between Club President Alf Strano, Michelle Masina and Moira Cunningham.

Strano asked if they could produce ‘100 years of Innisfail’ history for the club’s centenary and involve the Innisfail State College art students.

Innisfail State College successfully obtained a Cassowary Coast Regional Council RADF Grant to enable the Year 11/12 Visual Art in Practice students to complete the community project, which formed part of their subject assessment.

ISC art teachers Blaire Thomson, Adrienne Shaw, Jane Frost and 29 students collaborated with Innisfail

Bowls Club members.

ISC engaged award-winning fulltime visual artist Lavinia Letheby from Mission Beach to bring the project to fruition.

Banana trees, local flora and fauna and a cartoon-styled wallaby and frog, were among the specific requests for inclusion in the mural.

A film roll related to '100 years of Innisfail' features vintage photos of prominent Innisfail architecture (Shire Hall and Catholic Church), Art Deco, cane cutters and the Bowls Club founder Joe Skeen.

With permission from Mamu artists, elders, parents and friends, a group of Indigenous students included a rainbow serpent in the mural, featuring local colour schemes inspired by the local environment and flora/fauna in their design.

After research, these students produced seven different serpent designs using earthy tones, cream, black, brown, red ochre and yellow colours, and patterns inspired by traditional Aboriginal symbols such as emu/kangaroo tracks, water holes and river/stream.

Students used weatherproof and UV-resistant exterior house paint, sometimes applying one or more layers, and an anti-graffiti coating applied on the completed mural.

For five years, Letheby travelled around Australia and painted murals/ artworks on a range of surfaces.

Letheby spent two years living in the remote West Kimberley town of Fitzroy Crossing whilst working as a regional supervisor for the local Aboriginal Corporation.

Here she used her artistic skills and creativity, collaborating with Aboriginal elders and teaching them technical painting skills, tie dying, as well as lino and silk screen printing.

Letheby’s local art projects include stunning murals at Murray Upper Rural Fire Brigade, Halifax Meats, Lower Tully, El Arish, Kennedy, Cardwell and Bartle Frere State Schools, Borello Park, Lucinda, Cardwell, Mission Beach, Taylors Beach and South Mission Beach.

In 2021, Letheby collaborated with the Van Gogh Art Gallery in Madrid with an exhibition of her artwork in their gallery and at the Luxembourg International Contemporary Art Fair.

This project is supported by a Regional Arts Development Fund, a Queensland Government and Cassowary Coast Regional Council partnership to support local arts and culture.

THE theme for Harmony Day 2023 is Living in Harmony. For 2023 the Tully Support Centre (TSC) is excited to announce we are going bigger than ever to include even more young people and their families. For 2023, in addition to local early education and care providers, we have worked to include upper Primary and Junior High school students and their families throughout the region.

The TSC has worked with young people to develop teen-friendly booklets focusing on Self-Care, Overcoming differences, Engaging in Community and Positive Communication. These booklets will be distributed to young people through local schools, the Tully Youth Centre and the TSC.

For 2023 our younger people will work with our early education providers and their families to develop personalised flipbooks about how we, individually and as a community, can 'Live in Harmony'.

Harmony day is held annually on the 21st of March to celebrate our cultural diversity and highlight the valuable contributions made by people from all cultures who call Australia home. After all, our diversity is one of the reasons Australia is such a great place to live.

It is a time to celebrate Australian multiculturalism. Australia is one of the world's most successful multicultural countries, and we should celebrate this and work to maintain it. Harmony Day is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural or linguistic background, united by a set of core Australian values.

The message of Harmony Day is ‘Living in Harmony'. Let's come together through family, friends, schools, workplaces and our wider communities to celebrate our diversity. Annually, the TSC partners with schools and early education providers across the region raise awareness of the fact although we are all unique, we are part of the larger multicultural Australia. Collectively we all contribute to a vibrant, inclusive Australian society, which is to be celebrated.

For more information, please contact Maxine on 40681004 or email maxine@ tullysupportcentre.com.au

The Tully Support Centre is funded by the Queensland Government and services communities throughout the Cassowary Coast.

The Tully Support Centre is located at 54 Bryant Street in Tully, opening hours Monday to Friday from 9 am to 1 pm and 2 pm to 4 pm; and open until 6 pm on Wednesdays.

To register your interest or more info about groups and other services, please call 40 681 004, check the Tully Support Centre online at www.tullysupportcentre. com.au, or follow us on Facebook "Tully Support Centre Inc.".

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