As festival goers enter the Shine on Gimuy (Cairns) artstory light walk, the artistic visions of three local First Nations artists come alive, transformed into light sculptures.
Shine on Gimuy will illuminate the esplanade in a display of light installations, art sculptures, animations, and soundscapes with the main program of events running from October 3-6 and the artstory light walk remaining in place until October 13.
Led by artistic director Rhoda Roberts and guided by a dedicated committee of cultural guides, Shine on Gimuy includes an immersive line-up of music performances, cultural dance, comedy, and conversations in a celebration of First Nations peoples, arts, and cultures.
“This year’s 'entwined' theme reflects the interconnectedness all First Nations peoples share and our intrinsic and inseparable connection to our Country," Ms Roberts said.
"This sensory spectacle will entrance visitors.”
Light installations showcase the artworks of Marun Carl Fourmile, Merindi Schrieber and Doreen Collins.
Marun Carl Fourmile, from the Gimuy Wallaburra Yidinji nation, pays homage to the warriors and custodians with his light sculptures; his grandfather, Yie-Nie, was the King of Gimuy.
His four large-scale, cylindrical installation pieces feature King Yie-Nie’s shield design and the ‘blurry’, a sacred, curved woomera associated with the ancestral creation story of the Great Barrier Reef, from just after the last Ice Age.
“My Elders used the curved woomera and would put it at the bow of the boat, as a blessing for the vessel and to calm the waters,” Marun Carl Fourmile said.
The cassowary – known in the Kuku Yalanji language as ‘kurranji’ – is of great cultural importance to the region.
Doreen Collins has reimagined the cassowary as an 8 metre tall light sculpture.
“Kurranji could once fly, having great wings," she said.
"It would travel all over across Sky Country but, as it travelled from the rainforest areas to the coast, those wings got stuck in the mud flats.
"Unable to free itself for a long time it slowly began to lose its wing feathers, then they were gone.
"Kurranji had to use its feet to get out and walk and now their remaining feathers are black from the mud and this bird had to navigate a new world on land.”
At the Salt House Festival Hub, First Nations voices will serenade attendees into the evenings in conjunction with a daily Deep Wisdom Conversations series, an opportunity to hear from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices leaders on Country, truth-telling, sovereignty and other issues.
Shine On Gimuy’s comedy night on Saturday, will feature showmen Sean Choolburra and Andy Saunders.
Baker Boy and King Stingray - who are in the running for an ARIA for best Australian live act - are performing in a Dream Aloud concert on Saturday at Munro Martin Parklands, MCed by comedian Steph Tisdell.
The Shine On Gimuy festival is the cornerstone First Nations element of the Tropics Trail, presented by Queensland Music Festivals as part of the Queensland Music Trails initiative.
The Music Makers program includes artists the Briscoe Sisters, Mau Power, Victor Steffensen, Yirgjhilya Lawrie, Kee’ahn, Broden Tyrrell, Jessie Grainer Chong, and DJ Bala Will.
