Who we are
Director Libby Harward has strong connections to her ancestral country and is extremely focused on delivering work through cultural protocol and integrity. Through Munimba-ja she aims to foster a safe space for local Aboriginal artists to create work that will challenge the status quo and platform authentic First Nations story telling and cultural expression,.
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// Director and Founder
Libby Harward is an accomplished contemporary conceptual Aboriginal artist from Australia. A descendant of the Ngugi people of Quandamooka, Harward’s work is grounded in the deep cultural narratives and connections of her ancestors' land, sea, and skies, which now intersect with and conflict with the realities of colonised urban spaces.
Libby describes her work as a performative installation. Her multidisciplinary practice spans performative installation, video, sound, performance, and public art, often exposing the ironies of colonization, cultural reclamation, and caring for country grounded in Aboriginal ways of knowing and being. Harward's work challenges colonial narratives, reasserting Indigenous perspectives and sovereignty through powerful visual language and storytelling.
In addition to her art practice, Harward is the Director and founder of Munimba-ja Art Centre. She is an active cultural and arts advocate, contributing to community projects and educational initiatives that support the revitalisation and continuation of Indigenous knowledge and practices. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, Her work to date has been influential within the contemporary Urban Aboriginal Art community.
At the heart of our ever growing team is authentic relationship building and respect for country
OUR BOARD
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// Creative Associate
Nadine McDonald Dowd was the Artistic Director of Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts Company from 2001 to 2004.
She first joined Kooemba in 1996 facilitating workshops in youth detention centres and schools on theatre, music, reconciliation and performance.
Nadine has been on boards such as the Queensland Theatre Company, Queensland Government’s Premier’s Indigenous Advisory Board and Q150 Advisory Committee and the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts. Nadine was a Senior Producer with Major Brisbane Festivals in 2010, Manager of the kuril dhagun, State Library of Queensland, Creative Producer for Festival 2018 Commonwealth Games Gold Coast, Executive Producer at Queensland Performing Arts Centre 2018-2021 and Creative Development First Nations Sunshine Coast Council 2021-2022.
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// Director
Lyndon is an internationally acclaimed artist, educator and cultural performer. Born and raised on the Sunshine Coast, Davis' arts practice represents his deep connection to Country. Most recently, Davis has been making work that visualises the calls of different species on Kabi Kabi Country using cymatics, the science of visualising acoustic energy or sound.
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// Director
Proud Mandandanji woman, with a broad outlook, big ideas and the actions to deliver results with integrity.
Highly skilled and demonstrated experience in:
-Leadership of strategy, action and people.
- Development, design and delivery of engagement focussed programs and activities.
- Building and maintaining effective stakeholder relationships and brand awareness.
- Development of integrated marketing communication tools and collateral.
- Change management and growth strategy implementation.
- Diversity practice through cultural literacy, inclusion, connectivity and collaboration.
- Public speaking, presenting and workshop facilitation.
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// Director
Deline Briscoe is a strong Yalanji woman of song from the Daintree Region of Far North Queensland. Her roots planted deep in Yalanji culture and Gospel vocals Deline combines the two worlds in her 2018 Album "Wawu".
Deline’s Career spans over 2 decades with some of Australia’s most celebrated vocalists including Archie Roach, Lou Bennett, Paul Kelly, Shane Howard, Emma Donovan, Airileke, Andrea Keller, Iain Grandage and has toured the world with two vocally exquisite ensembles, Black Arm Band and Mission Songs Project.
Wawu is a stunning solo album which collaborates with Producer Airileke (Yothu Yindi), Pianist Stephen Maxwell (Jimmy Cliff) and 5 time ARIA Award winning composer Andrea Keller recording an exquisite piece of art in the track “Sonrise”. While the ethereal Tree (co-written with Bart Willoughby, based on a poem by Kevin Gilbert), is a Hymn to creation and nature. Reinventing the Tiddas track “Ignorance is Bliss” in a hip-hop, jazz infused version that moves your soul featuring their Harmonies.
The mood of "Wawu" is compassionate and redemptive. In both subject and style, the album’s acoustic hiphop/jazz/roots fusions draw parallels with Lauryn Hill’s groundbreaking The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
Deline’s live vocal delivery has the ability to change hearts, minds and even change the weather. Interweaving Wulngkabadi (Yalanji traditional singing) with a jazz, hip-hop, soul infusion. Her extraordinary compositions are enriched by brilliant musicians, Airileke (drums) and Stephen Maxwell (keys/bass). "Wawu" is a show that is an absolutely necessary experience.
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// Director
A Ngugi woman of Mulgumpin (Moreton Island), in the Quandamooka (Moreton Bay), Queensland Australia. Libby Harward creates artworks that break through the colonial overlay to connect with the cultural landscape, which always was, and remains to be there. Her practice, in a range of genres, continues this decolonising process. Libby describes her practice as a process of simultaneously listening, calling out to, knowing and understanding Country.
Libby founded Munimba-ja culture space in 2021 Libby is predominantly interested in creating a black space in Maleny where Aboriginal people can come together to discuss, organise, collaborate, showcase and celebrate on our own terms.
OUR TEAM
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// Gallery Assistant
JADAMALI LEUGA (Yalanji/Samoan)
Strong, proud and intuitive, Yalanji/Samoan artist Jadamali has her roots planted deep in Yalanji culture and has also been exploring her Samoan identity since her late teens. Jadamali uses mostly the digital art platform to express her journey through life and to tell relatable stories. Jadamali’s intuitive futuristic style gives her artwork a depth of wisdom that extends well beyond her years. Her prints are multi-layered story telling pieces with powerful insight.
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// Creative Producer Music
Keely Eggmolesse is a proud Kabi Kabi, Gooreng Gooreng and South Sea Islander woman with more than 12 years’ experience in the arts and community sectors. As a multidisciplinary artist, Keely enjoys exploring and combining different modalities in her rich storytelling. Her primary practice is built around embodied vocal techniques, informed by culture and community, and inspired by the song of country, tapping into her generational knowledge of healing through song.
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// Blak Creatives Co-ordinator
Her name is Brenda Mau, and she strongly identifies as a Mandubarra woman. She is a direct descendant of the matriarchal line of her people in the Mamu dialect area of the Dyirbal language in North Queensland through her father’s lineage. Through her mother’s lineage, she identifies as a Torres Strait Islander woman of Waiben TSI (Kala Lagaw Ya), with connections to the Kalkadoon (Kalkatungu) and Wuthathi/Mutjati (Paman) peoples.
Brenda is a Blak Creatives Support Coordinator, working at Munimba-ja Art Centre and Gallery in Maleny. She believes that art connects people through storytelling, truth, laughter and growth. While her primary practice is digital illustration, she works across a range of mediums and enjoys exploring new ways to visually express and elevate ideas.
Integrity, respect and a commitment to elevating voices where it is needed are core values that guide her. Brenda’s art seeks to break down barriers and question the status quo, while maintaining and strengthening relationships within the wider community.
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// Gallery Assistant
Quandamooka weaver
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// Artist, Project Management and Artworker
Emerging contemporary artist exploring the natural landscape through a colonised vs coloniser lens. A Wiradjuri descendant, born on Ngemba country, raising a revolution on Jinibara land. Lexie navigates being a white appearing woman whilst exploring her family lineage and how it is integral in her interpretation of the land in which she lives and creates on.
Dabbling in paint, mark making, eco dye, weaving and clay, Lexie is also an arts educator who is passionate about accessibility, inclusivity and social activism.
Although her artworks are often recognisable by their playful use of colour, Lexie also uses natural elements to continue the important conversation between the natural and manmade environments. And most recently, the conversation between native and introduced tree species.
The logo represents the coming together of all mob who create Munimba-ja Art Centre, an Aboriginal Art Gallery and Culture Space that hosts a thriving creative community a nurturing breeding ground for new ideas.
When fresh water meets salt water, a convergence happens. A place is created for new life. This place of coming together becomes home to unique plants and animal communities that have adapted to the brackish waters of the in between spaces — a mixture of fresh water draining from the land and salty seawaters of the oceans.
These liminal places or estuaries also serve as natural filters and become perfect places to provide nurturing breeding grounds for many species of birds, fish, plants and more than human species. Estuaries are among the most productive ecosystems in the world. Many animals rely on estuaries for food, places to breed, and migration stopovers.
Munimba-ja Welcome Place is continually inspired by the meeting of fresh and salt water in the pursuit to nuture and maintain a safe space that can celebrate Blak Excellence.
The Munimba-ja Welcome Place logo was designed as a collaboration between Libby Harward a salt water Murri, and Bj Murphy a Fresh water Murri with Amy Franks and Jenny Zhao from Crumpet Club.