Visitors at The Drum theatre are now greeted with a spectacular display of Welcome Flags.
Four local Bunurong and Aboriginal artists have uniquely conveyed a ‘welcome’ message in each of the banners outside the theatre, which were unveilled on Thursday 21 March.
Uncle Mark Brown, Kylie Armstrong, Adam Magennis and Lakeisha Clayton are the commissioned artists for the Wominjeka project.
Wominjeka means ‘Welcome’ in languages of the Boonwurrung Bunurong peoples and Woi Wurrung Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation.
Armstrong, who descends from the Arrente people in the Central Desert, says she uses art and deep listening to “heal, learn, trust, love and connect with my culture on a deeper level”.
Her flag artwork Art and Sound features clapsticks as a means of community coming together and connecting in a shared experience.
Modern-day theatre was an important accessible place to enable more people to share and experience Aboriginal culture from across Australia, Armstrong said.
Living on the Mornington Peninsula, she creates contemporary paintings based on her personal journal and connection to Nature.
Meanwhile, Magennis – a Bunurong visual artist for 30-plus years – regularly creates public art murals and sculptures.
His design was about the Barraemal (emu) ceremonial dance and Barraemal footprints across Bunurong Biik (Country).
It features the unique colours of Magennis’s self-created Kaptify art style.
The style dating back to the early 1990s is influenced by surrealist Salvador Dali, contemporary landscape art, geology and ecology as well as archaeology, anthropology, graffiti style, caricature illustration and cultural symbols.
Based in Shoreham, Magennis is director of Kaptify Art Services and Victorian Indigenous Business.
The four flags will be displayed each day, as well as taken to Drum Theatre excursion events.
