Extending the success of her first solo exhibition in 2023, the Gallery presents a new exhibition of Melanie Hava’s work to coincide with the annual Cairns Indigenous Art Fair. Hava was born in Mount Isa in 1982 and currently lives and works in Cairns.

Explaining her exhibition title, Hava said, “Marngaree is a traditional Dyribal word meaning ‘place to be together’. It is the name my grandmother’s family gave to Mungalli Falls—a place where our ancestors would gather, connect, and feel a deep sense of belonging. This exhibition reflects that spirit of home, of being together, and of returning to Country.”

Hava’s 2023 exhibition was titled Bugan Mungan, sharing the name of the sole work she presented: a nine-metre-wide painting that combines her grandmother’s stories with direct observations of rainforest features and geography, and which was subsequently purchased for the Gallery’s Collection.

Her new exhibition presents Bugan Mungan again, with the addition of two extra panels measuring five metres each, which form a triptych with the original work. The overall panorama is grounded in the rainforests, waterfalls, creeks, and rivers of Far North Queensland—places rich with ancestral memory and presence. The spirit of Country lives in every line and layer.

Hava further explained, “Although there are no figures within the landscapes, they are far from empty. They are open—alive with story, spirit, and a quiet invitation for you to step in. To listen. To feel. To belong. Marngaree is where stories, spirits, and Country meet. A tribute to those who came before, and an invitation for you to find yourself within the landscape—to come home, too.”

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Gallery has commissioned a video of Hava speaking with her grandmother about her Country and the stories that to belong to it.