Internationally recognised mural artist Matt Adnate has completed a new artwork at QIC’s Grand Central shopping centre during NAIDOC Week in just three short days.
Adnate was given an open brief to create something that represented the young Indigenous population. He chose a portrait of a young Aboriginal girl to adorn the 10m by 5m wall; however, her identity will remain anonymous.
Grand Central Community Relations Manager Georgina Bayly said the mural came together seamlessly and already had created positive conversations throughout the centre.
“We are really proud to have assisted the Adapt Mentorship team in producing this culturally-safe space within the Toowoomba community,” she said.
“Grand Central is committed to building and sustaining genuine partnerships which make a positive difference in promoting reconciliation and Adnate has created this perfect representation of a young Indigenous girl for us to showcase in our community,” said Bayly.
Toowoomba social enterprise Adapt Mentorship, who focus on Indigenous youth support services, commissioned the mural through the assistance of funding from CatholicCare.
Adapt Mentorship Co-founder Adam Wenitong said while the initiative celebrated NAIDOC Week, it was a timely reminder to change the narrative surrounding youth crime in the area.
“Since the Youth Crime Forum earlier this year, the community has been a bit fragmented; but we find these street murals really unite everyone and will hopefully create some healing throughout the community,” he said.
“We want to build on relationships, build on knowledge and build around what the painting means and symbolises for the young people,” said Wenitong.
Artist Matt Adnate paints with aerosol and acrylic and said the wall at Grand Central was the perfect size for the scale of the portrait.
“The idea and the concept is to create more Indigenous acknowledgement, particularly in the youth space,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of issues around Australia where Indigenous youth are represented not in the best way, and I feel like through my murals that I paint, especially of the young people, that it puts a positive light on them and hopefully might bring about some sort of social change,” said Adnate.
Adnate’s mural was opened with a small ceremony on Thursday, 6 July.
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