Insights Exhibition extended until 8th September at the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library!

Due to popular demand, JCU Library’s 2024 Eddie Koiki Mabo Art Exhibition - Insights - featuring artworks by Australian First Nations’ artists will remain open until Sunday 8th September 2024.
This year’s exhibition was curated by the Library Special Collections team to shine a light on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks in the James Cook University (JCU) Art Collection.  

View to Jeannie Mills Pwerle and Murris In Ink artworks on display on Level 1.

The exhibition features 28 diverse artworks by 24 artists and includes associated displays with publications and materials drawn from the Library Special Collections. The physical exhibition is supported throughout with artist biographies and didactic texts, and a growing digital presence for the artworks featured in the JCU Art Collection, through NQHeritage@JCU – the online repository for the Library Special Collections.

Artwork styles and mediums on display include graphic, representational, and abstract landscape, with forms from nature and culture in paintings, prints, photography and sculpture. Connections and reconnections with Culture are explored and shared through the imagery and stories contained and depicted in the artworks. 

View of Thanakupi’s works and didactics in one of the Level 1 display cases.

JCU Library recognises and acknowledges the artists’ Indigenous custodianship of Country and Culture, and aim to draw attention to their cultural and artistic knowledge and practices, as well as to the interdisciplinarity of the works and themes explored. Indigenous cultures are “living and evolving entities, not historical phenomena”i and this is demonstrated in the way that Indigenous art spans from “ceremonial, land-based orientation to encompassing the external interest and demand embodied in the art market”. ii

View to artworks on display in the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library, July 2024.

Featured Artists: Alick Tipoti, Gail Mabo, Thanakupi, Jeannie Mills Pwerle, Billy Missi, Arone Meeks, Brian Robinson, Rosella Namok, Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey, Judy Watson, James Billy, Michael Cook, Narritjin Maymuru, Larrtjanga Ganambarr, Joel Sam, Tommy Pau, Teho Ropeyarn, Aicey Zaro, Karen Doolan, James Doyle, Susan Peters Nampitjin, Clare Jaque Vasquez, and Bai Tapau.

Be sure to check the Library opening hours to plan your visit.

View to artworks and displays in the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library, August 2024.

The JCU Collection is recognised as a University Collection managed by the JCU Library Services. It comprises over 1000 individual works located in public spaces across JCU’s campuses in Townsville - Bebegu Yumba, Cairns - Nguma-bada, Mount Isa - Murtupuni, Thursday Island - Ngulaigau Mudh and Mackay - Ngudya Yamba throughout Queensland. Explore the Collection further through its growing digital presence being established here in NQHeritage@JCU. 

Enquiries about the JCU Art Collection or the Library Special Collections can be submitted via the Special Collections online form or by emailing specialcollections@jcu.edu.au.

i Valuing Art, Respecting Culture: Protocols for Working with the Australian Indigenous Visual Arts and Craft Sector, Doreen Mellor and Terri Janke, National Association for the Visual Arts, 2001.

ii ibid