General News
21 August, 2023
New Indigenous show
DETAILS of a new Indigenous arts, cultural and music festival have emerged. Stunning art and music displays on Cairns Esplanade in October.
Shine On Gimuy (Cairns) – first revealed by Cairns Local News in April – is a 10-day event led by Indigenous creative and cultural guides who will bring a stunning art display to the Cairns waterfront on October 5-15.
Some of the highlights are:
The Gimuy Art Story Walk (including installations of shields and swords, fever of stingrays, saltwater, Blaktivation, country ceremony opening ceremony and The Blak Markets).
Salt House will host music makers live music performances from some of Australia’s best known First Nations talent and the ‘Deep Wisdom’ talk series featuring cultural knowledge holders who will explore a range of topics including sea migration, story of origin/creation, land, sea and sky stories, songlines across country, fire management, and First Nations inventors.
Shine On Gimuy creative director Rhoda Roberts said the journey of immersion, exploration and connection to the world’s oldest culture would be a multi-artform event illuminating the streets with light shows, soundscapes, art installations, programmed talks and music performances that capture 60,000 years of history, science, tradition and stories untold.
“The Yidindji of Cairns host ‘Shine on Gimuy,’ a new festival that is the illumination of ideas, knowledge, and country, staged on the Cairns Esplanade, highlighting the magnificent tree canopies with artworks by celebrated local artists Paul Bong and Michelle Yeatman leading to the events space on Cairns Waterfront where music, dance, stories reflect the philosophy of land, waterways and sky country,” she said.
Arts Minister Leeanne Enoch said the inaugural festival was “an exciting addition to Queensland’s cultural calendar that will strengthen the region’s reputation as a destination for exceptional live music and visual arts events.”
“The Queensland Government is proud to invest in the Shine on Gimuy Festival with support of more than $460,000 over three years through Arts Queensland’s Strategic Partnerships Fund, and $80,000 from the First Nations Commissioning Fund for the event’s opening ceremony. We are also supporting arts sector employment and capacity building through the festival with an investment of $125,000 over two years enabling two industry placements that will grow marketing and partnerships expertise and production coordination.”
Shine On Productions producers Merryn Hughes and Julie Brooks said the festival would create “a new opportunity to build sustainable economic development in Tropical North Queensland”, including work for 70 artists and art workers.
Deputy Mayor Cr Terry James said the artworks, elevated by the evocative soundscapes, would feature the language, stories, chants, and songs that have culminated from the rich Indigenous oral history of the region, offering a unique and poignant experience of the First Nations people of Gimuy/Cairns.”
Visit: www.shineonproductions.au/gimuy
