Posted 6 May, 2020
by Grace Wallington
The Importance of Hope Vale Art
and Cultural Centre
HopeVale is a coastal community located 46km from Cooktown in Far North Queensland. It has a population of approximately 1500 and is home of Guugu Yimithirr.
Image: Welcome to Hope Vale
“The Guugu Yimithirr first came to prominence in 1770 when they engaged with Captain James Cook and his crew on the good ship Endeavour.”
2020 is particularly significant for Guugu Yimithirr and the Hope Vale community as it marks 250 years since the Endeavour voyage. This year’s collaboration between Hope Vale and QUT has a sea-life focus, that aims to provoke thought and education about the Endeavour encounter.
Image: The Hope Vale Art and Cultural Centre
The artists we are collaborating with work out of the HopeVale Art and Cultural Centre which first opened in 2009. The centre serves as an accessible community workshop for local artists to peruse their art passion and maintain their unique culture. It is also a space for visitors to meet the artists in the community and be immersed in a traditional Indigenous experience. Many of the art works are also sold at the onsite gallery which directly supports the artist and helps to cover the costs of the centre.
Image: Members of the Gamba Gamba group – Grace Rosendale, Wanda Gibson, Madge Bowen
Many of the artists in the Hope Vale community use their art to immortalise cultural stories for future generations. The Gamba Gamba group (senior women) at the art centre hold deep cultural knowledge of family kinship systems, sacred sites, esoteric characters and totems. Their art draws on traditional Guugu Yimmithirr Warra culture and contemporary and mission time histories. Artist Grace Rosendale takes her artwork very seriously to ensure inter-generational sharing takes place between community Elders and Youth.
Their art work serves as tangible form to share traditional stories and cultural responsibilities.
Images: Art by Phyllis Gibson, Shane Bowen
The QUT and HopeVale collaboration seeks to share the beautiful artwork and cultural histories of the Hope Vale artists. Supporting these artists to continue their passion and creating visual documentations of their cultural stories is an important part of our collaboration.
You will be able to see the amazing works as part of our digital runway for the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair. To see our progress and meet all of the wonderful art works follow our project on Instagram @guuliilfashion and Facebook @guuliilfashion.