Gunyah. The Blackfella’s Spiegeltent

“It’s going out there, it’s going to travel places and display all our art work and tell everyone Aboriginal people do exist in Lakes Entrance and we’ve got our art work to prove it.”- Lennie Hayes, Gunyah artist and proud Gunai/Bidawal man.

We’ve made the art, we’ve made the movies and now we need to realise our deadly dream to build Gunyah. A moveable, inflatable Aboriginal arts venue inspired by the shell of a sandcrab. We want to put Aboriginal art and culture on the world stage and provide an alternative to the Euro-centric model of arts venues in Australia. Our arts company Wurinbeena Ltd has been networking far and wide in readiness to start touring - locally, nationally and globally. The buzz is out there!

Gunyah was conceived and designed as a collaboration between Lakes Entrance artists (above) Frances Harrison, (Gunai Monaro), Catherine Larkins and Lennie Hayes (Gunai Bidawal) in a unique partnership with Focus Design Services.

Gunyah will be a deadly place for gathering, song making, storytelling, ceremonies and celebrations, With an audience capacity of 200, our venue is venue is 16m wide and 22m long!  Acclaimed UK company Inflate will build the exterior shell and print the extraordinary drawing representing land, water and sky by Frances and Lennie onto its entire surface. At night Gunyah’s glowing shell will invite us to gather inside, to share its stories and experience a world where grass weaving and kangaroo skins will sit bang up against slick inflatable surfaces.

Gunyah will inspire Aboriginal artists and communities to create new work, employ and train young Aboriginal people to manage and travel with the venue promoting Aboriginal art and culture as it tours across the country.

Rachael Maza Artistic Director, Ilbijerri Theatre says "Ilbijerri Theatre is very excited at the creation of Gunyah - a culturally safe, Blackfella controlled and a welcoming friendly space, that travels! AWESOME!! Gunyah is innovative and practices addressing the chasm that is ‘black friendly’ venues. We look forward to creating and presenting work in this space wherever it goes!”

 Wurinbeena Ltd is on the Register of Cultural Organisations. Our organiszation is Not for Profit and endorsed as a Deductable Gift Recipient (DGR). Donations over $2 can be claimed as tax-deductible where no gift or reward is received as part of this campaign.

Wurinbeena Ltd  needs $50,000 to commission world famous UK company Inflate to build our state-of-the-art inflatable space with the spectacular art work of Frances Harrison and Lennie Hayes covering the entire roof.

The Gunyah creative team have been working on realising this deadly dream of building Gunyah for over ten years. In the event of insufficient funds secured to fully realise all elements of the project, we will prioritise the elements of the project, develop fundraising campaigns for essential items and stage a one-off season until additional funds become available. We will continue to develop our partnerships with performing arts centres and other providers to provide employment opportunities within the arts for Aboriginal people in Gippsland.