South Australia festival Tumby Colour attracts mural painters with political conscience

Artist Shawn Lu is not usually one to make political statements with his artwork, but at a time when outback water is scarce and there is unrest overseas, he changed his mind.

Mr Lu was one of five international artists invited to remote Tumby Bay, 50 kilometres north of Port Lincoln in South Australia, to paint murals as a part of the region’s annual Colour Tumby Festival.

As part of the project, Mr Lu painted an image of South Australian farmers writing an open letter to the Commonwealth government with the message, “Where is our water?”.

“The Murray Basin, which flows through Victoria and New South Wales, comes down to South Australia and gets picked up by all the cotton farmers, and then the farmers over here in South Australia who grow legumes and wheat, they get left with no water,” he said.

Local farmers were quick to support Mr Lu’s creation.

“They said, ‘That’s such a great idea, this is not new to us’. They’re experiencing it first-hand,” he said.

Water shortages and drought are major challenges for South Australian farmers — an issue Mr Lu learnt about from his partner’s Adelaide-based family.

The talented artist grew up in Singapore and moved to Melbourne 15 years ago.

He also travelled extensively through Eastern Europe, making many friends.

That experience compelled Mr Lu to give the painting a hidden meaning.

His artwork is based on an 1891 Ukrainian painting by Ilya Repin.

“It depicts Ukrainian Cossack warriors sitting around a table writing a letter to the then invaders, which was in the 1600s.

Mr Lu promised to donate a third of the income he made from the Colour Tumby Festival to kids in need in Ukraine.

“So, there’s a bit of a double entendre with this,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Lu said the hospitality he received in Tumby Bay was second to none.

“It’s mind-blowing. I don’t think I’ve been to a part of the world where people leave their cars unlocked with the keys inside the engine,” he said.

Festival boosts local economy

Northern New South Wales artist Loretta Lizzio said Tumby Colour Festival was one of the best events she had been involved in.

“We’ve been having dinner with the locals. The beach is right there so we’ve been going for swims every morning before we start our walls. I’ve never done that before,” she said.

“It just feels really family-friendly.”

Tumby Bay Progress Association president Dion LeBrun said this year’s event exceeded expectations.

“The town was over full with excitement. I’ve never felt such a good vibe in the town. It was incredible,” he said.

He believed more than 5,000 people attended over the weekend providing a massive economic benefit.

“The legacy of that is the street art that happens. It is another attraction on Eyre Peninsula to dovetail into everything else that it has to offer,” Mr LeBrun said.