Home » News » Travelodge Resort Darwin transformed into Indigenous mural for Darwin Street Art Festival

3 November, 2023

Travelodge Resort Darwin transformed into Indigenous mural for Darwin Street Art Festival

Australian artist, Adnate, has transformed the exterior all the Travelodge Resort Darwin into a five-storey outdoor art gallery as part of the Darwin Street Art Festival (DSAF).

This year’s street art festival saw 30 artists participate and 20 colourful new murals emerge across Darwin.

Travelodge Resort Darwin was the only hotel to participate in the festival this year, with Adnate wielding his roller and artistic eye with great effect to pay tribute to the local Larrakia mob.

DSAF Director, David Collins, said he was proud to have local artists – including Adnate who had a reputation for using portraiture to convey the depth and beauty of the human spirit – make up over half of the line-up for 2023.

“The children featured in Travelodge mural are both from the Fejo family – they are Larrakia people and are the Traditional Owners of Garramilla (Darwin), which sits upon Larrakia Land,” Collins, said.

“Both Adnate and the team from Darwin Street Art Festival consulted with the Fejo Family and their Elders prior to this mural commencing and received their blessing and permission to use images of their young people (Jacie and Kacia King).”

“These children are the emerging generation of Larrakia people and represent their future.

“And our artist has done an incredible job of capturing this.”

Adnate painting the mural. (Supplied)

Travelodge Resort general manager, Lucy Ockleston, said the powerful portraiture cut a striking feature in
downtown Darwin with Adnate following in the footsteps of New Zealand-born artist, Pennyrose Wiggins (who painted a tribute to Darwin’s famous Wet Season on the hotel walls) and muralist, Lisa King (whose two-storey high portrait of Larrakia Woman, Artist, and Activist, Mililma May adorns the walls of the Travelodge at the busy Cavenagh and Lindsay Street intersection).

“We are humbled to participate in the Darwin Street Art Festival for a second consecutive year and are thrilled to have an artist of Adnate’s calibre transform our hotel’s exterior into such a beautiful mural,” Ockleston, said.

“The end result is striking with the red, yellow, and black background symbolising the Aboriginal flag and the children representing the future of the Larrakia people.”

Travelodge’s two DSAF artworks and the Adina-Vibe painting form part of Darwin’s CBD self-guided Street Art Tourist Trail which can be accessed by downloading the DSAF app.

The Adina-Vibe artwork is best viewed from the pedestrian Sky Bridge leading to the Darwin Waterfront precinct and from street level whilst the newest Travelodge mural is in Woods Street overlooking Frog Hollow Park.

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Adnate Darwin Street Art Festival David Collins Lucy Ockleston Travelodge Resort Darwin