Coomaditchie: The Art of Place

Museums of History NSW

The coastal settlement of Coomaditchie, nestled alongside Coomaditchie Lagoon in the southern suburbs of Wollongong, is a vibrant arts and cultural hub. Works by its artists are found all over the Illawarra, in community spaces, buildings, landscapes, streets and galleries.

Through art, Coomaditchie’s Elders pass knowledge to younger generations and to the broader community, ensuring that the cultural and spiritual understanding of the Illawarra is retained and enriched. For over 30 years, the Coomaditchie United Aboriginal Corporation has been the driving force in this process. Established in the early 1990s, the corporation works to strengthen and unite communities through art, advocacy, culture and environmental projects and programs.

The works of the Coomaditchie artists speak of life in and around the settlement of Coomaditchie, its history, ecology and local Dreaming stories. They record the extraordinary arc the artists and community have travelled over more than three decades. The earliest work, Lorraine Brown’s Pelican (1992), was created in the year the artists first formed as an artist collective – a year before they were incorporated as a legal entity during the United Nations International Year of the World’s Indigenous Peoples in 1993. The mission (2007) shows how people lived in and around Coomaditchie Lagoon before the current settlement was built, while the ceramic works, created in 2022, depict contemporary and historical life in and around Coomaditchie and its lagoon.

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https://mhnsw.au/stories/first-nations/coomaditchie-the-art-of-place/