Entertainment
27 June, 2025
UMI Arts mark 20 years
UMI Arts is marking two decades of cultural leadership with a landmark exhibition opening this Saturday, June 28 at the newly refurbished Mulgrave Gallery on the Cairns Esplanade.
Running concurrently with UMI’s annual Freshwater Saltwater members’ exhibition, this invitation-only, curated showcase features more than 120 works by 20 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from across Far North Queensland. The collection captures the depth and diversity of the region, from the rainforests and reefs of the east coast to the remote communities of Cape York and Mornington Island.
Timed to coincide with Cairns Festival, NAIDOC Week, and CIAF, the exhibition goes beyond aesthetics. It is, as UMI artistic director Lisa Michl Ko-manggén OAM explains, a vessel of ancestral knowledge.
“These works transcend generations,” she said.
“They are how we pass on our stories, our teachings, our spirit. Through them, we remember who we are and how we connect to Country.”
Her own works, ‘Middens and Ma-rrambéliny Sugarbag’, reflect family stories passed down through six generations.
“The sugar bag dreaming is about where our honey and wax come from, it binds our artefacts, our jewellery, our way of life. Sharing that story through art is how we keep culture strong,” she said.
Kel Williams, a boat builder turned sculptor, honours his grandfather’s pearl diving legacy through an intricate model Seratoga lugger, using hand-sourced rainforest timber.
“I used to build real boats. Now I make ones I can carry, still telling the same stories, just in a different way.”
Dr David Hudson, whose work speaks deeply to connection, tradition and transformation, uses repurposed stringybark and grey box trees from his father’s Country near Mt Surprise, to create “didgeridon’ts”. Once intended as didgeridoos, he reimagines them as spiritual posts symbolising ancestral warriors and cockatoos.
“Rather than discarding the cracked timber, I give it new life,” he said.
The official opening and community celebration takes place this Saturday from 10am to 2pm.
