Tjilbruke story inspires Kingston Park artwork

When you next visit the new kiosk at Kingston Park, you’ll be hard-pressed not to notice the four decorative panels that act as a partition between the kiosk’s alfresco area and the caravan park next door.

The design was created by prolific Indigenous artist Allan Sumner, who was also the artist behind the On Kaurna Land shop front stickers and the acknowledgement which appears on the front of Council’s Our Place magazine.

Located on the northern side of the kiosk, the morning light shines through the intricate design that’s been laser cut into the Corten steel, casting shadows across a long bench seat and onto the ground.

Allan says seeing his artwork in place and as part of the landscape at Kingston Park fills him with pride.

“From a Kaurna point of view, to have a cultural footprint on the ground here at Kingston Park is something that we’ve wanted for a very long time and that makes me very proud, absolutely,” he said.

Just a stone’s throw from the kiosk site is the culturally significant Tjilbruke Spring which Allan says inspired the design.

“The theme for me was definitely Tjilbruke as this is one of Tjilbruke’s campsites and the other thing that connected for me was using the elements too - fire, earth, sky and water,” Allan said.

“I just wanted to keep it really coastal and make sure we have the theme there with Tjilbruke, family and community that would have been down here”.

“Many Aboriginal communities would have been down this way, fishing and hunting and that sort of thing.”

Allan began working as an artist in 2008 and says the story always comes first when creating a piece of work.

“I always try and think about the area, the people that lived in that area, the stories and the creation stories connected to that area,” Allan said.