Yawaybanyaragan: Celebrating a Good Feast

Welcoming travellers as they arrive in Ballina, Yawaybanyaragan – Celebrating a Good Feast tells the story of pippies and saltwater representing local Nyangbal cultural history and heritage of the lower Richmond River. The design welcomes visitors to the Ballina Byron Gateway Airport and highlights the physical and spiritual significance the river has to the local Nyangbal people of the Bundjalung Nation and connection to place. This connection references middens located across the area and importance of the river as a vital food source for local people. The design concept incorporates the midden, river, fish and pippies as important aspects of Nyangbal culture with imagery of woven objects representing traditions of gathering, catching, and feasting. Daniel Roberts is a young Aboriginal artist who works with native Australian timbers to craft traditional artefacts such as boomerangs, spears, and shields, each rich with cultural meaning. Tania Marlowe, a Bundjalung artist and co-founder of Jugan Dandii, practices the traditional art of weaving, connecting people with local fibres and ancestral knowledge through workshops and cultural storytelling. Marcus Ferguson, a Nyangbul Goorie from Ballina and Cabbage Tree Island, often features the birds and animals of the lower Richmond River in his works, preserving and celebrating cultural identity through art.