Manly Harbour Village creative placemaking outcomes

From the Hills to the Bay (2021) by artist Delvene Cockatoo-Collins celebrates the distinctive local  coastal character of Manly. The artwork incorporates the natural history of the area and shared community stories collected at the artist’s community twine making workshop.

The foreshore plaza artwork consists of a series of four projections, each made up of four projected designs telling the stories of Manly, including:  

• Tawalpin series is the Jandai name for cotton tree, which grow along the Quandamooka coastline and beyond
• Quandamooka Sea Life series represents the yungan (dugong) and bunbiya (turtle) active in the bay
• Along the Foreshore series depicts the mudflats, mangroves and all life forms that live within this important ecosystem
• From the Hills to the Bay series shows the layers of Country in the hills down to the water’s edge.

Slow rotation of the lighting projections layers the artwork with a sense of movement reflecting currents, sea and wind, providing both a meditative quality and fun interactive night time activation opportunity, celebrating and enhancing the Manly Harbour Village as a seaside destination.

The artwork projections and series projection program are an outcome of the Manly Harbour Village Precinct Project.

Projecting now

Featured artworks

Tawalpin series

Tawalpin is the Jandai name for the beach hibiscus or cotton tree, which is commonly found along the Manly foreshore and along the Quandamooka coastline and beyond. The tawalpin is a tree that provides and gives so much with their low-lying branches as a playground for children, the long straight branches used for spear making, and the inner fibre for twine making. The twine is used for nets, baskets and many other functional items by the Nunukul, Ngugi and Goenpul including uses for catching mullet fish. This series features a costal tree species and its significance with human life, that includes tawalpin leaf with lady bug, netting with mullet fish, tidal current with mullet fish and twine making with leaves.

From the Hills to the Bay series

This artwork series represents the layers of Country in the hills down to the water’s edge where the Moreton Bay figs are found. When you look out to the water, you see the bird life including mirrigimpa the sea eagle and the black swan, which returned to the bay during the quiet times of 2020. Along the foreshore is also different types of traditional foods that have always been found including our quampie shell. Sometimes you find pearls inside. The patterns with the shells are the important mudflats where the quampies are sustained and grow.

Along the Foreshore series

An important part of the ecosystem is the mudflats, the mangroves and those which live within it. When you walk along the foreshore quietly, you can hear the clicking sounds of the fiddler crab. Their bright claw is easy to spot and to follow their movements. Two are shown in this series, one on the mudflats and another on its own. The mangroves are found along the foreshore and provide protection and homes for the life within the mudflat areas. Also shown in this series is the kinyingarra or oysters. They have been a continual food source for the people of Quandamooka Country and continue to be a delicacy for all to enjoy.