Design and Art Australia Online

John Cummins holds a degree in Comeercial Art and Industry from Townsville TAFE. He has received many commissions over the years include reproducing his work into posters for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, designing the book cover of one of historian Henry Reynolds’ books as well as the logo for the Fifth Festival of Pacific Arts in Townsville, 1988.

He is a Gu Gu (Ku Ku) Yalaji elder and fluent Indigenous language speaker. As well as poster and other design work, John has been engaged in bark painting, using natural ochres and brushes made from the hair of his wife and daughters. From 2000 he began painting large commissions for Hans Sip on linen, following the lead of his brother Luke who had already been painting for Hans for some years.

John’s interest in art and his heritage was influenced by his father and uncle who encouraged him to look at his culture for inspiration. He began to appreciate the beauty of his traditional Quinkan art when visiting the many rock art galleries at Laura and the surrounds. He has accumulated
many stories which were mainly gathered by anthropologists from the South Australian Museum in field trips conducted in the 1920’s and again in the 1960’s. They were taken from senior informants at the time who were born in the 19th century. There are over 50 stories in the archive and over the last 10 years or so John and his brother have documented many of them in their paintings.

Writers:

Allas, Tess Note:

Date written:

2007

Last updated:

2011