Bana Yirriji Art Centre’s artists are busily creating a series of new artworks. They are experimenting with concepts and mediums. The artworks will be showcased in this year’s Cairns Indigenous Art Fair Exhibition.

This year, the Art Fair’s exhibition theme is Masters of Country- An artistic celebration of Queensland First Peoples’ knowledge and resourcefulness of Indigenous plants and trees.

Queensland has the most diverse Indigenous species of any State or Territory, with 14,000
known species. It is not a coincidence that Queensland First Peoples’ have an innate
connection with Indigenous plants and trees. We were born into the oldest living culture in
the world. Is it any wonder that we have a distinct knowledge regarding the use of plants and
trees from our homeland. We have always had and always will have experts on plant
knowledge so that in today’s terms, our people are botanists, doctors, nurses, chefs,
nutritionists, gardeners, architects, builders, pharmacists, arborists, physicists, and
horticulturists.

Queensland First Peoples also have oral stories and lived experiences derived from the
many trees on Country. We have birthing trees for childbirth, scarred trees for watercraft,
shields and utensils, tree markers for significant or sacred sites, sight or message trees for
directional signposts on Country, and carving to tell our cultural stories. Trees are our
history books and a testament to our resourcefulness. Text courtesy CIAF

CIAF 2022

Dates 6-10 July

For more information about this year’s program: https://ciaf.com.au/