Under the bunggu: The inspiration of sea country, by indigenous artist Melanie Hava

Under the bunggu: The inspiration of sea country

by Melanie Hava Mamu Aboriginal artist

Melanie Hava is a Mamu Aboriginal artist living in Cairns. Her mother is from the Dugul-barra and Warii-barra family groups who are traditional custodians of the Johnstone River catchment, her father is Austrian. As a deaf mother of three children, she finds time in her very busy life to take artistic inspiration from the Great Barrier Reef.

Iwas born in Mount Isa, Queensland, to a father from the oldest city Austria, Enns (Upper Austria) and a mother who is from one of the oldest cultures in the world, Aboriginal people of Australia, in particular from the Mamu People on North Queensland’s tropical coast. I identify through my mother’s line as a Mamu Aboriginal woman, from the Dryribal speaking Dugul-barra and Wariibarra family groups of the Johnstone River catchment in the Wet Tropics of Far North Queensland. This area sits in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef, an hour south of Cairns with fifty kilometre stretch of adjoining sea country. Reef and Rainforest country are important source of inspiration for me.

Mamu people are one of about 70 Aboriginal groups on the east Australian coast and one of 20 Rainforest Aboriginal groups whose freshwater country immediately adjoins the Reef sea country. For Rainforest Aboriginal people, our traditional estates are now internationally recognised through the Wet Tropics of Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef both being listed as World Heritage Areas for their universal values. The Aboriginal cultural stories of this country are an important part of the World Heritage value of this area and have been recognised as part of its outstanding universal value.

While the more recent generations of our family associate more with the Millaa Millaa and the Palmerstone Highway along the North Johnstone River catchment, the family stories that have been passed from generation to generation show that our ancestors travelled much around Mamu country, down to the coast and sea and according to the changes in the seasons for food. Our freshwaters flow out to the sea waters and come back to the land as it rains, so we are all connected. Under the Traditional Use of Marine Resources Agreement (TUMRA), one clan of the Mamu people, work together to manage our sea country that stretches to the outer edges of the Great Barrier Reef and covers many reefs between the land and the open ocean. Here, they are focussing on increasing the numbers of turtle and dugongs for a sustainable future.

Growing up in Tully we used to go down to Mission Beach every Saturday for fish and chips. Here I discovered a love for the mysteries of the reef through books and of course, when Finding Nemo came out, I was instantly inspired and fell in love with the beautiful visuals of the reef. The first time I realised that I could paint the reef was when I moved to Cairns and took my first trip out to Green Island and saw firsthand the beautiful reef and fishes from the glass bottom boat. On the surface the Great Barrier Reef sea country looks like beautiful plain water, but underneath the “bunggu“ (waves), a flurry of activity and sea life abounds. The rest was left to my imagination and my paintbrush.

Given this history, as an Aboriginal woman, all my initiatives and targets are related to highlighting our culture and heritage. My work portrays my environmental values and I appreciate that without our beautiful reef and rainforest, we will not exist. My sustainability concepts are to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle, use my voice to promote actions, consume less and use as much environmentally friendly product as possible in my art. I am here for the long haul. I now live in the beautiful and inspiring city of Cairns in Far North Queensland, where I feel close to the spirit of rainforest and reef animals of my mother's country.