The Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) will highlight two satellite exhibitions at Tanks Arts Centre and Courthouse Gallery ahead of this year's event, which runs from Thursday 13 to Sunday 16 July 2023.
Delivering a visual feast of First Nations artworks, cultural exchange and storytelling, Lugger Bort, curated by Nerelle Nicol is dedicated to the seafaring lives of Aboriginal, Torres Strait and South Sea Islanders.
The first nation who lived aboard pearl luggers worked the pearling, beche-de-mer and trochus industries from the 1840s to the mid-1900s, an experience that has been described as a treacherous existence.
Jeffrey (Jeff) Bob and George Mosby from the central Torres Strait Islands both started work in the pearling and trochus industries as teenagers aboard lugger vessels, of which there were around 100, during the late fifties and sixties.
Mr Bob was a diver's lifeline who operated from a tender and signalled to the divers using a rope – a job he did for around 10 years. While Mr Mosby on the other hand started work as a cook on his father's vessel at the age of 15 before becoming a deckhand and engineer.
Mr Mosby stayed in the industry until its demise in the early seventies when plastic was used in favour of pearl shells used to make buttons. Mr Bob went on to work on prawn trawlers while Mr Mosby opted for dry land and the railways.
The second exhibition, Past, Present, Future at CourtHouse Gallery is a celebration of the vibrant south-east Queensland creative arts community that came out of the Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art (CAIA) program at the Queensland College of Art (QCA), Griffith University.
The CIAF's Lugger Bort exhibition provides insight into the magnitude of the pearling, beche-de-mer and trochus industry's operations and the perilous conditions under which these intrepid seafarers faced the watery abyss.
This timeless zone fed fears and apprehension into the minds of naive teenagers, as recalled by some of the few remaining Elders with first-hand knowledge of working in this industry.
Lugger Bort verifies the valuable economic contributions these seafarers made to Far North Queensland. It provides glimpses of the roles they played in helping to shape the character of the region, revealing achievement hereto unrecognised.
Lugger Bort is open from 24 June to 23 July from 9am to 4.30pm on weekdays and 10am to 2pm on weekends with the official opening event during CIAF 2023 on Friday 14 July at 4 pm.
Past, Present, Future at Court House Gallery focuses on the Indigenous community of artists, lecturers, and mentors that have developed around the CAIA program and is integral to CAIA's success.
The exhibition aims to highlight this extraordinary community and the excellence developed in their practices, leadership, and cultural understandings.
The CAIA degree program has a reputation for cultivating the careers of some of Australia's most successful contemporary artists who have exemplified the highest standards of achievement nationally and internationally.
From Documenta and the Venice Biennale to every major gallery and museum in Australia, these artists and scholars are fundamentally transforming the Australian cultural landscape.