2020

Darwin Street Art Festival · Cullen Bay

In August 2020, I spent a week painting the pillars at Cullen Bay Marina for the Darwin Street Art Festival. It was my first public showing of my art.

Each pillar shares a different part of Darwin: people gathering around a campfire, the arrival of the wet season, markets, mangroves, sea life, bush foods and the movement of the tides.

Coolamons and baskets speak to gathering at the markets. The wet-season pillar follows rain soaking into dry ground before creeks and waterholes begin to flow. Another remembers the Billygoat plum, a familiar food from home.

The tides pillar acknowledges the sun and moon and the Larrakia people, the Traditional Custodians of the Darwin region.

Painting on the pier meant people could watch the work take shape. They stopped to ask questions and have a yarn, making the process as much about connection as the finished artwork.

It was an important step in nardurna’s first year, taking the work beyond the kitchen table and into a shared public place.