Joonba Ground Pavilion
- Location: Warmun, East Kimberley Region, Western Australia
- Dates: Site Construction: 7 – 20 August
The Bower Studio program has a history of partnering with community groups over many years to help develop culturally appropriate arts centre spaces. Working incrementally allows us to build relationships with the community and take a deep dive into understanding the aspirations of the community while also building our knowledge of the ways artists work, their stories and their connections to country.
In the 2025 Bower Studio project we were invited to support Gija artists by producing designs for an improved art precinct and gallery at Warmun in the Kimberley region of remote Western Australia. The Gija people are famous for their painting and artifact making skills with their work highly sought after by major international collectors and galleries. The Gija community’s art centre and collection are currently threatened by severe floods that inundate existing buildings. Following the devastation floods in 2011 the University of Melbourne’s Grimwade Centre has assisted in preserving this heritage alongside the community and have developed a strong bond with the Warmun art community.
The Bower Studio has been in conversation with the Warmun art centre community for over a year and have been invited to embark on a multiyear partnership to support the development of new facilities to help safeguard culture and help support the artists into the future.
Our immediate goal has been to help construct a place for community gatherings, eating and ceremony at the ‘joonba’ ground at the art centre precinct. Bower Studio has typically nurtured new relationships by embarking on modest projects. In this case a bough shed, made from steel, was developed to designate the selected site as a place for ceremony and community cooking. Despite the modest brief, we have been encouraged to include references to Gija culture and country. Each of the four posts has been made to link to local types of trees used for ceremony: the boab, pylan, dulnarr and bardigi. A mesh roof creates shade as well as everchanging patterns of shadow across the posts, beams and ground as the sun transits through the sky.
Gallery
Student Blog
Community Partners
Community Leaders
- Patrick Mung Mung
- Johnny Echo
- Gabriel Nodea
- Mark Nodea
- Cecil Mosquito
- Peter Gooloou Thomas
- Andrew Pelican Daylight
- Johnathon Malgil
- Dwayne Jessell
- Troy Drill
- Lazarus Johnson
- Cassius Nulgit
- Desmond Bedford
- Harold Yalunga
- Wayne Hughes
- Zachary Stack
- April Nulgit
Studio Leaders
- David O’Brien
- George Stavrias
- James Neil
- Phil Smith
- Gina Dahl
- Jack Hinkson
Students
- Asfand Tarar
- Matthew Sandison
- Lewis Bushell
- Emily Wang
- Daina Minchenko
- Pim Okhuizen
- Anas Ahmed Basheer
- Kristine Agustin
- Sylvia Marshall
- Alex Huntington
Special thanks
- Mayrav (Ravi) Schneider, Executive General Manager Warmun Art Centre
- Shane Feltham, Warmun Art Centre and Gija Men’s Place Coordinator
- Elana Vanlier, Warmun Art Centre
- Kija Rangers
- Professor Robyn Sloggett, Grimwade Centre, University of Melbourne
- Barry Malgil, Manager Job Pathways
- Indi Smith, Good Projects Australia
Sponsors
