MURRA WOLKA

CREATING GENUINE ABORIGINAL ARTEFACTS AND SUSTAINABLE EMPLOYMENT FOR ABORIGINAL FAMILIES

SUSAN TYRRELL DISCOVERS THERE IS MORE TO INDIGENOUS TOURISM THAN MEETS THE EYE

Visiting the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE2010) brought me into contact with a huge number of tourism operators Australia-wide.

Without a doubt, some of my most interesting and mind-opening meetings were with Indigenous operators. All those I met, and have spoken to since, have one strong theme in common – they are not in it for pure profit, they are all motivated by a very real desire to “give back to their communities through sustainable tourism and employment creation. Refreshing and genuine.

Murra Wolka Art Creations share this philosophy. Their website and email address refers to them as “us mob”. It is a family owned business specialising in authentic Aboriginal art. Unlike cheap Asian knockoffs, all Murra Wolka products are hand painted by Aboriginal artists. Murra Wolka is owned and operated by Joe Skeen (Snr), Joe Skeen (Jnr) and their family and commenced trading in 1990 with a vision to create sustainable employment for Aboriginal families.

Their story is an interesting one. Joe Senior was a little boy when his parents were removed from their traditional homelands and sent to the Palm Island Aboriginal Reserve in North Queensland. Joe would often accompany his father when he was hired out to local farmers to work, mostly at cane cutting. It was then that his father taught him how to identify black wattle roots and how to fashion those roots into boomerangs, as he himself had been taught by his elders. When he was 21 he saw an opportunity to make a living from the work and he started selling boomerangs to farmers before moving to Brisbane in 1960. It was around this time that a Governmentowned curio shop opened as Queensland Aboriginal Creations with Joe as a major supplier.

Murra Wolka, which means hand-painted, was born in 1990 from Joe Junior’s desire to follow in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather. Joe Junior says his earliest memories are of his parents sitting around the kitchen table handpainting boomerangs. Everything on their walls was of Aboriginal origin and from an early age Joe also worked in the business when not at school.

With framed hand-painted bone art, didgeridoos, wooden boomerangs and rock art, Murra Wolka Art Creations is a must see, located only two hours north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast. The Murra Wolka website also allows easy online shopping. Murra Wolka are presently a large supplier both nationally and internationally and have even exhibited and sold in Milan, Italy. Murra Wolka Art Creations pride themselves on suppling genuine Aboriginal art and artefacts and say the satisfaction of helping Aboriginal families makes it worthwhile.

Murra Wolka Art Creations,
Cotton Tree, Sunshine Coast QLD 4558
E: usmob@murrawolka T: 07 5442 8691
www.murrawolka.com