Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artwork at the Queensland Children’s Hospital
The Queensland Children’s Hospital is proudly home to more than 300 pieces of artwork from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from Queensland and across Australia.
The artwork collection includes paintings, photographs, weavings, sculpture and works on paper by some of the most acclaimed artists in the sector. There is also an emphasis on emerging artists and those working in remote communities. Artworks range in scale from major commissions to smaller, more intimate works.
The collection aims to help create a culturally safe and welcoming environment in hospital and to showcase the amazing diversity and richness of contemporary art production by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and communities.
Click or tap on the images below to find out more
Tony Albert - Language groups: Girramay, East Cape region, Kuku Yalanji, East Cape region
The Glad Tomorrow 2014-2018
This sculpture acts as a constellation of cross-boomerangs flowing around the columns on Raymond Terrace at the entrance to the Queensland Children’s Hospital. The cross-boomerang is a unique motif that comes from Tony’s Country in the rainforests of North Queensland. It is a symbol of protection. The artist designed the motif to welcome children, their families and friends into the hospital.Sculptural installation: hard wood, acrylic paint, stainless steel
Richard Bell - Language groups: Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman, Gurang Gurang
Me Me Dreaming 2014
This series of paintings and prints includes highly coloured panels in which many layers of the words ‘Me, Me, Me’ are repeated, like a chant of self-affirmation. The artist has altered the perspective of the paintings so that from some angles the words read ‘We, we, we’ as a reminder that individuals need communities and vice versa. The artwork depicts the cathartic experience of artistic self-expression and art’s positive function in the developing child, from childhood to adolescence and beyond.Acrylic paint and digital prints on panel
Megan Cope
Quandamooka 2014
Megan is a descendant of the Quandamooka people from Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island. She explores the impact of settlement on Aboriginal people by studying old records such as maps and planning documents. Each location she paints is an important site in local Indigenous history. Megan overlays the maps with her own painting (including in this case the beautiful blue waters of Moreton Bay) as a way of reclaiming the land and sea for her people. Many of the places she chooses to paint are familiar to families as favourite holiday destinations.Maps, Indian ink and acrylic on canvas
Shirley Macnamara - Language groups: Indjilanji/Alyewarre
Guutu (vessel) 2013
Born in North-west Queensland, Shirley Macnamara spent most of her childhood moving between remote cattle stations across Camooweal, the Alyewarre Lands, and surrounding Country. She draws inspiration from her beloved bush country and favours using natural materials to create woven objects working mostly with Spinifex, a native grass that grows in abundance throughout remote Australia. This material that embodies strength and utility; to Shirley, Spinifex signifies the resilience of her people, and the many uses this natural material has for them. Traditionally, Spinifex and its resin have medicinal and spiritual applications.Twined spinifex, natural ochre, resin and synthetic polymer fixative
Danie Mellor - Language groups: Mamu/Ngadjonji
Idealism 2014
Danie was born of Aboriginal and Anglo-Australian heritage and he maintains strong links with his mother’s Country on the Atherton Tablelands. His meticulous works on paper capture subjects which remind of a tropical paradise, but always with a sting in the tail. For instance, the artist depicts this scene as a literal ‘golden age’ in the rainforest. However, the butterflies perched on the trees, although they bear the colours of Aboriginal sovereignty, are in fact ‘Monarch’ butterflies, which arrived in Australia as recently as the 1870s.Mixed media on panel
Gary Namponan - Language groups: Wik-Alkan/Wik-Ngathan
Ku 2016
Aurukun is situated on the western side of Cape York Peninsula. It is one of the larger communities, established as a Presbyterian mission in 1904. The Wik and Kugu Arts and Crafts Centre is an important community hub. Artists of Aurukun are famous for their sculptures, the most popular among them being camp dogs. This series of prints immortalises the famous Aurukun dogs in a new medium, printmaking. In almost all Aboriginal communities throughout Australia, dogs dominate the landscape. They roam the streets in packs and lie in the shade; in the evening, they seek out an ‘owner’ to feed them leftovers. Collectively they are known as ‘camp dogs’ and in the case of Aurukun, have the name ‘Ku’.Etching on paper with added colour
Eric Norman - Language group: Thaayorre
Pambe 2020
Eric Norman is an artist and traditional owner from Pormpuraaw, an Aboriginal Community located 700 kms northwest of Cairns on the Cape York Peninsula. Eric was born in Pormpuraaw and went to school there. He paints the wetlands (Pambe) around his homeland and shows how the rainy season brings the country alive with flowers, grasses and birds.Acrylic on canvas
Tari Sagigi
All ya come small one 2010
Tari Sagigi, who has Torres Strait Islander heritage, was a founding member of the Wei’num Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts and Crafts Corporation. She learned printmaking as part of a program to equip remote area artists with a range of techniques to breathe new life into stories about land, language and culture. At the time Tari was a young mother of two and her main inspiration came from the strength, calmness and love her mother passed on to her.Etching on hanemuhle paper
Wayne Williams
Mornington Island Birri (Sea Eagle Markings) 2014
Wayne was born at Lardil and is a senior cultural custodian and a member of a big extended family. He has travelled widely as a traditional dancer and his artworks always depict the stories he is entitled to depict, passed down from the teachings of his grandparents and his knowledge of Birri country, the home of the sea eagle. In many ways for men of Wayne’s generation, painting has become a way to sing and dance again. Designs he carried on his body to countries and audiences around the world are now put on canvas as a symbol of cultural identity.Acrylic on canvas
Elisa Jane Carmichael
Healing Rock Vessel #3 2019
Leecee is a Ngugi woman from Quandamooka Country (Moreton Island/Moorgumpin and Stradbroke Island/Minjerribah, Queensland). Her practice honours her cultural heritage by incorporating materials collected from Country, utilising traditional techniques and expressing contemporary adaptations, through the mediums of painting, weaving, photography and textiles. Leecee comes from a family of artists and curators, and works closely with her female kin to revive, nurture and preserve knowledge and cultural practices.Synthetic polymer on canvas
Marlene Holroyd - Language groups: Kugu and Thaayorre
Qantas 2017
This whimsical sculpture is made from ‘Ghost nets’ – nets that are discarded by commercial fishing boats and then wash up on reefs and beaches, often with a detrimental impact on marine life and ecosystems. People from many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in the region collect and repurpose the nets, for both artworks and utilitarian purposes. Aside from the fun and interesting items such as this sculpture, there is a serious environmental message in these works.Ghost nets, found materials, acrylic paint
Elizabeth Queenie Giblet - Language group: Umpila
My home my people 2014
Elizabeth Giblet, known as “Queenie” by all at her Lockhart River community, is one of the respected Old Girls, a senior Umpila woman who was born at the original mission station at Lockhart before WWII. Her paintings often depict her stories of weaving and body painting associated with ceremony. However in this artwork she paints the distinctive grid-like pattern of the streets and homes in her community, and its proximity to sea, sand and tropical forests.Acrylic on canvas
