A towering piece of new public art is turning heads in Maroochydore City Centre.
Standing stall at an impressive 14 metre x 10 metres, the digitised artwork ‘Walking Together’ by renowned Sunshine Coast artist Dr Jandamarra Cadd, features on the western wall of The Corso Residential Apartments, facing Sunshine Coast Council City Hall.
Dr Cadd, a descendent of the Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung, Boonwurrung, Wurundjeri and Palawa peoples, created the striking piece ‘Walking Together’ to share a powerful message about connection to place and our custodial responsibility to look after the environment, animals, community, our waterways, the land, and the sky.
“No matter who we are or where we are from, what we look like or the way we express our lives, we are connected through this place and all its elements. This is interwoven into the fabric of our individual and collective identity,” said Jandamarra.
Jandamarra has been a finalist in the Archibald art prize with a portrait of Uncle Archie Roach. He is the first and only Aboriginal artist in over 100 years commissioned to do a painting for Parliament house, of the First ever Aboriginal woman and senator Nova Perris to Parliament.
Jandamarra’s paintings and his words are emotive and insightful as they are an invitation towards healing and unity, bridging the story telling divide between Aboriginal and mainstream Australia.