Article written by Caitlyn Saliba and Lauren Johnston.
Brisbane is boasting with the never ending list of things to do and see around town. There are two main locations that most think of when someone mentions Brisbane City and that is Brisbane CBD and South Bank Parklands, which is also home to the man-made beaches that everyone loves and adores, but what else is there to do apart from swim and wander the city? Well there is plenty of amazing sites and facilities that you can explore.
For a start, Brisbane’s list of annual events is nothing short of mind blowing! If you like to keep yourself busy and entertained then look up Brisbane’s Annual Event list and take your pick of the never ending varieties of different events and shows that Brisbane proudly shows to the world to attract a variety of artists. Just this month Brisbane has 3 events on, you will find things like ‘The Mantra Room – live Kirtan’ which is a bright mix of music and different genres combined with a sacred yoga chant in a smooth and calming environment. Brisbane also has a ‘Lifestyle: A Sunshine State of Mind Exhibition’ and a ‘J Vanlenzuela Didi and Jonathan Bentley Exhibition’, J Vanlenzuela Didi is a Brisbane artist who focuses on the emergence of patterns and geometric shapes to explore common scenes and sign posts of modern life, Jonathan Bentley is another artist but not in the same way, he uses different medias of art and is now an award winning illustrator, artist and author, he personally has illustrated over 20 children’s books, 3 of which he wrote, illustrated and saw published in 13 different languages. There is plenty of choices to choose from like Free Improvised Comedy, which happens every Wednesday and many more.
If events and shows and all that jazz isn’t your type of thing, then don’t worry there are heaps of cafes, bars and restaurants you can visit and wine and dine at and a bunch of parks to take the whole family to. Brisbane is one of the most family orientated cities that I know of personally, I may be wrong but I have never lived in a city that has such a love for its community and that includes our past community, the Aboriginals, that are the original owners of this beautiful land.
Brisbane’s Cultural Precinct understands how important the site is to the Aboriginal and Torre Strait Islander people, with knowing the importance of it all, they took it and made something from it by incorporating different areas around the city where Indigenous culture meets with a contemporary learning space. Just like Brisbane’s Indigenous Knowledge Center in the State Library where you will find a bunch of amazing and mind blowing information about how this land came to be and how the aboriginals once lived and thrived on this very land. If you are looking for something a little more ‘raw’ QPAC holds a week long program every year called ‘Clancestry’ which works in collaborations with guest curators, Elders and members of the community, Clancestry is to celebrate the arts and the culture of the worlds First Nation People, mainly focusing on Aboriginals and Torre Strait Islanders. If that’s a bit too full on for you and you are looking for something more quiet and low-key then this might be for you, Queensland’s Art Gallery.
Queensland’s Art Gallery is devoted to showcasing local artist and creating a strong bond with indigenous communities through a wide variety of ways including exhibitions and trying to engage the community.
Another sacred place for the indigenous peoples of our city is Kuripa Point around the Brisbane city, it is a traditional meeting, trading and hunting place for them. Something that I personally didn’t know about our city and it’s surrounding suburbs is that a lot of those suburbs are Aboriginally named, such as Indooroopilly (Gully of running water), Bellbowrie, which means the place of the flowering Gums, Cooparoo (a ground dove), Enoggera means corroboree place, Yeerongpilly means rain coming, Wooloowin means fish, Nudgee means green frog, Woolloongabba means whirling water and Wynnum means breadfruit. And this is just to name a few, there is so much cultural heritage in Brisbane that many people don’t even notice, such as these names. To add to this Musgrave Park is actually a well-known meeting ground for the indigenous organization Kurilpa. This is also the site of the National Aboriginal Islander Day of Celebration (NAIDOC) each year. There is so much culture in our city and it’s so important to bring these facts to the foreground and acknowledge the traditional custodians of our great city in order to preserve its history and maintain its future.
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