Kununurra businesses have come up with a creative way to tackle vandalism, by handing over their walls and spray paint to young people to create public art that brings pride to their town.
Artopia Gallery owner, Cally Bugg is the brains behind the Kununurra Community Mural Project which brought artists George Domahidy and Jerome Davenport to Kununurra to help youths add colour and culture to the town.
The walls of Kununurra Shopping Centre, Commonwealth Bank, Horizon Power and the Ewin Centre are being transformed into murals of iconic local scenes such as the swimming tree and the rodeo.
Miriwoong Gajerrong elders both past and present have been memorialised as well with moving portraits.
Ms Bugg said the idea for the art project began when she was approached by representatives from the Commonwealth Bank and leaseholders of the shopping centre to beautify their walls to discourage vandalism.
Commonwealth Bank in particular has been a target for vandalism this year with the ATMs smashed three times in two months.
Ms Bugg has a reputation for engaging youth in creating powerful public murals throughout the Kimberley and is responsible for the public art on the Betta Home Living building on Messmate Drive.
“Town was starting to look very tired and the kids have been graffitiing everywhere. CommBank came to me and asked if I could help out.”
Ms Bugg said she decided to turn it into a big community project and complete it over the Ord Valley Muster — Kununurra’s cultural event of the year.
She raised more than $100,000 from local businesses, Horizon Power, the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley and Coles and flew the artists into Kununurra to begin work on Friday, May 10.
“We flew them in last Friday so they could start all the easy stuff with the youth. The whole project is youth-focused.
“Every agency and service provider that deals with youth is on board to set calendar times when all the youth can come down.
“We work late into the night to make sure as many youth as possible are engaged.”
Ms Bugg said each image was chosen to make the kids feel “on country” and “at peace”.
“We’ve chosen iconic places that all the kids know and they’ve helped put all the base colours down, but even when it comes to the finer detail, just watching the artists is a privilege,” she said.
“The artists have worked with kids before and know how to engage well with them”.
Ms Bugg said the “super special” part of the project for her was to gain permission to paint local elders.
That included the late Mr Jones, a local law and culture man, and one of the few remaining speakers of the Miriwoong language.
Elders Ben Ward, David Newry and Agnes Armstrong were all very happy to have their portraits painted as well.
“I wanted to honour the elders, the traditional owners that are still living,” Ms Bugg said.
“I want to memorialise them and recognise them while they’re still alive.
“I want the youth to see their faces and remember their culture.
“These are extremely important people that need to be remembered.”