A small Indigenous community from Cape York is gaining notoriety for its creative use of rubbish.
Transforming pollution into art
A small Indigenous community from Cape York is gaining notoriety for its creative use of rubbish.
Artists in the Pormpuraaw community have been collecting fishing nets from their once-pristine beaches and recycling them into spectacular artworks.
‘We take this terrible form of pollution and try to make beautiful and meaningful art out of it,’ artist Sid Bruce Short Joe said.
The ‘ghost nets’ have become a common sight along the beautiful beaches of Cape York Peninsula as increasing numbers of fishermen and women illegally discard their nets overboard.
The artists in Pormpuraaw collect these nets and craft them into different forms, from turtles to fish and crabs. All of the animals are all linked to the artists’ totems.
‘We do these ghost nets just to educate [people about] what’s happening to our marine life,’ Sid said.
Learn more about the ‘ghost nets’ in our video:
