The art from the Rainforest region and the Eastern Cape is a striking art form which is quite distinctive and unlike any other Indigenous art in Australia. The tropical rainforest region of Far North Queensland, stretches along the east coast from Townsville to the Bloomfield River north of Cairns. It incorporates the Daintree Rainforest and is the only surviving part of the ancient Gondwana Rainforest in Australia.

It was in this remote rainforest region that this unique culture and art evolved in virtual isolation and even today it is relatively unknown outside the region. Each traditional group has developed its own style and designs, but together all the art from the region is still easily recognisable as ‘Rainforest Art” owing to the large blocks of colour outlined in black used to produce bold, geometric designs which have totemic and cultural meanings and significance.

The entire Daintree-Cape Tribulation/Bloomfield regions is a small part of the Kuku Yalanji tribal area (sometimes spelt Kuku Yarlariji). The Kuku Yalanji people are the only Aboriginal tribe in Australia who still have their own language. They describe themselves as true rainforest people who live in absolute harmony with their environment.

The world’s rainforest are home to many tribal people. This is one of the least recognised facts about rainforests. Tragically, most of the native societies of the rainforest have already been destroyed. More than one thousand rainforest cultures still exist, but nearly all of them face a grim future. These rainforest cultures are a storehouse of great knowledge, as from them we can learn to live sustainably within the limits required by the planet’s ecosystem. Rainforest cultures have successfully lived in rainforests for thousands of years. Not only are the forest dwelling cultures losing their forests, but also their younger generations to whom they wish to pass on their traditional knowledge.

So much attention in recent years has always been given to the paintings from the Western Desert of Central Australia and the art of the Far North has been largely overlooked. But in recent years there has been an outpouring of almost jewel like art from the Far North, much heavily dotted, precise, with strong symmetries.

(Source: Anderson, C, ‘Traditional material culture of the Kuku Yalanji Of Bloomfield River, North Queensland.’ Records of the South Australian Museum. V. 29(1), July 1996, pp 68-83