Lockhart River Art

Language: Umpila / Kanthanampu

DOB: 5/05/1963

Josiah Omeenyo is a cultural leader in the community and an accomplished traditional dancer and singer. His art work expresses his enthusiasm for life and Josiah is represented by major galleries both in Australia and Overseas. Josiah was recently shortlisted in the Paddington Landscape Prize.

Artist Statement: “My name is Josiah Omeenyo. I represent the Kanthanampu-Claudie River and Umpila -Pataku River, north-east of Coen. My Dad's family comes from Darnley Erub, a sailor family. I am from a family of three. I have a son Taren Omeenyo and daughter Timisha Casey. I am a cultural leader and have taken children around for various cultural festivals as song and dance ensembles. Up til now my focus was on dance but recently I have greatly felt the pull towards the visual arts, especially painting. I've been doing dancing and singing for so long I learnt it from my grand-parents,parents then something was bothering me, saying softly " can you paint ? " and I said to myself, in my head quietly " yes , you can ".

So I went to the local art gallery ( Lockhart River Art Centre ) and began my career as a painter. My mother is an artist at making weaving baskets . I had my first exhibition in Brisbane the other day , where we danced for ceremony with my elder and a young man. My paintings reflect the landscape and clan groups.”

Awards: Shortlisted, Paddington Landscape Award, Sydney

Josiahs work is available through: Emerge Art Space. Alcaston Art Gallery, Fitzroy , Melbourne, KickArts Contemporary Gallery, Cairns, Australian and Oceanic Art, Port Douglass, Booker-Lowe Gallery, Houston Texas.

The following works from Josiah Omeenyo (clockwise) are:

"Where I hunt and fish," "Puunya II", "My Place in My Land", "Puunya IV".