Defining Indigenous ((Yugambeh Language) named Gold Coast suburbs with visual illustrations of their literal meaning. Researched Gold Coast City suburb histories from Gold Coast City Council website.
I was inspired to create this series, because the Gold Coast is my hometown in Australia. The strange thing is – I have been here for more than 30years, and when I returned from Sydney some years back – I fell in love with the natural sub tropical habitat of the place – particularly between Tallebudgera creek to Currumbin creek . I realised I never knew what the meaning was of the strangely named suburbs. I did some research and stumbled upon these definitions of the Yugambeh People’s language . I have so far created 15 paintings with four: “work-in-progress” as indicated in the index provided. There are 3 indigenous named suburbs I am yet to consider if I will proceed to create paintings for them. For now I hope these paintings help give a pictorial definition & memory of some of our uniquely named Gold Coast suburbs. ( I have missed Coombabah in the Index box and will rectify that shortly. )
Artist Charleen Morris
What’s in a name?