Making Their Mark at Caloundra Regional Gallery
NAIDOC Week is a celebration of the world’s oldest living culture. Jodie Cameron explores two exhibitions sharing the stories that matter…
Two exhibitions on the Sunshine Coast speak to a shared conversation, one that honours a living culture that has never ceased to communicate.
At the Maroochydore Library Artspace, Old Ways, New Marks runs until 11 July, featuring a collective of First Nations emerging artists sharing bold, vibrant screenprinted works that pulse with stories of culture, identity, resilience, and resistance.
A few kilometres south, at the Caloundra Regional Gallery, LORE and LAND runs from 3 July to 16 August – asking audiences to sit with a deeper question: what does it really mean to belong to Country?
The two exhibitions stand alone, each complete and compelling in their own right, but for a handful of weeks in July, they exist side by side.
In that overlap, there’s a dialogue between generations, between collection and creation, between what has always been known and what is still being made.
Old Ways, New Marks came together following a Mob Only session during last year’s From the Sea, the Land and the Mountains exhibition at the Caloundra Regional Gallery. The session brought First Nations creatives together in the same room including Jinibara artist Jennifer Kent, who gave an artist talk about her screenprinted works printed onto tea towels – and something sparked.
Cholena Hughes, Sunshine Coast Council’s, First Nations Creative Development Officer, said a number of creatives present expressed their desire to learn screen printing, which led to a three-day workshop with Jennifer at Light Industry in Kunda Park, and supported funding from the Sunshine Coast Council Arts and Heritage Levy.
“The collective formed naturally through the artists who kept showing up and working together,” Cholena says.
After those three days, the artists kept showing up at the First Nations Studio at Lantana Space in Moffat Beach, working alongside one another, developing their prints and their practice. The Old Ways, New Marks Screenprinting Collective was born.
In the art world, screenprinting is one of the most accessible and versatile art forms and its appeal for First Nations artists is practical as much as it is creative. It allows work to be replicated multiple times, in multiple ways, keeping the cost and making the artworks affordable to more people.
“Artists can vary colour, surface, and layering to tell different stories from the same original design,” Caloundra Regional Gallery Director, Jo Duke explained. “The work can travel further, reach more people, and generate sustainable income.”
But beyond the practical, there’s something in the act of pressing culture into a surface and making a mark that can be made again, that speaks to First Nations ways of passing knowledge forward. The works in Old Ways, New Marks are an invitation to connect with living culture, engage in meaningful conversation, and witness the strength and vision of creatives working right now, right here, on Kabi Kabi and Jinibara Country.
Cholena has worked with the collective from its earliest workshops through to her role on the curatorial team for LORE and LAND giving her a clear view of how these two exhibitions speak to each other.
“Through Creation stories, cultural knowledge, and the ongoing transmission of stories about place, food, and medicine, both exhibitions explore the enduring connection First Nations people have to Country,” she says. “They also acknowledge the impacts of colonisation, including loss and disconnection, while highlighting resilience and the emergence of contemporary cultural voices.”
Where Old Ways, New Marks centres local, emerging voices, LORE and LAND expands that dialogue nationally, drawing together both traditional and contemporary perspectives from across Country.
“Both exhibitions are in strong conversation through cultural sharing.” Cholena says, “Which is vital for passing on knowledge within communities and educating broader audiences about the world’s oldest living cultures.”
LORE and LAND draws on artworks from the Sunshine Coast Art Collection to something that goes well beyond storytelling. Lore is an enduring system of knowledge, responsibility, kinship, and custodianship – one that has bound people to Country across generations, and that continues to shape the work of contemporary artists, storytellers, and Elders today.
“Country remains central to First Nations peoples and holding deep, ongoing connections and experiences of loss,” Cholena says, “This living relationship continues to shape the work being made today. Walking through this exhibition is an enriching and powerful experience – offering insight into First Nations perspectives on Country as something cared for rather than owned.”
The Maroochydore Library and the Caloundra Regional Gallery are everyday community spaces that are free to visit, open and familiar. Cholena believes that’s precisely why they matter as homes for this kind of work.
“Regional galleries play a vital role in holding and sharing these stories, connecting local and national voices through education and dialogue,” she says. “First Nations creatives value these spaces as platforms to share cultural expression, enabling their work to connect with audiences in layered and meaningful ways.”
For the emerging artists of Old Ways, New Marks – Kelly Garrett, Jennifer Kent, Therese Murphy, Fran Little, Lynda Page-Bickley and Dimitie Smith – the opportunity represents a meaningful step, and at the launch at Maroochydore Library Artspace, that feeling was clear.
Each artist spoke of their gratitude for coming together to learn, share, and create. The connections made in the workshops, and that continued in the studio, were valued as much as the chance to share their work publicly. That, perhaps, says everything about what this collective has become.
This winter, retreat inside, go on a journey and soak up the thriving energy in these two spaces. The works are here – made on and off this Country, by First Nations artists for all of us who are lucky enough to share in it.
CHECK IT OUT!
Old Ways, New Marks
Until 11 July. Free entry.
Mon–Sat, 9am–5pm.
Maroochydore Library Artspace
44 Sixth Avenue, Cotton Tree
Phone: 5475 8989
LORE and LAND
3 July to 16 August. Free entry
Opening launch: Thursday 2 July, 6-8pm $15 per person
Caloundra Regional Gallery
22 Omrah Avenue, Caloundra
For upcoming exhibitions and tickets to the opening launch, visit www.gallery.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au
