Artwork stamped superior

Liz Cameron, portfolio leader at the Wollotuka Institute, a department within the University of Newcastle supporting Aboriginal students, was overwhelmed with the quality of work she found at Tobwabba Gallery.

Acquiring works to exhibit at the department’s Wollotuka Acquisitive Art Prize, Ms Cameron and assistant Kelly Stains surveyed 20 Aboriginal art galleries as far north as Lismore but stayed an extra night in Forster.

“The gallery here is superb, we’ve not seen one like it and the artwork is just superior,” Ms Cameron said. The range of mediums, she said, from carvings and timber work in addition to contemporary and traditional dot paintings makes it unique.

“We’ve got 30 pieces, it’s the most we’ve taken from any gallery.”

With 90 pieces on display at the Newcastle exhibition one third will be by Worimi artists.

“It makes everybody very proud,” Forster Aboriginal Land Council CEO Tim Kelly said.

“[The work is high quality]. It’s something we’ve always felt, but it really gives us credibility.”

Despite being an internationally recognised Aboriginal art brand Tobwabba is little known in Australia, something Mr Kelly hopes to overcome.

“We’re in the lonely planet guides but you go across the road and people wouldn’t even know we’re here.”