Eileen Tep

Eileen Tep is a Jirrbal woman of the Davidson Road area. She lives at the Jumbun Community near Murray Falls, north-west of Cardwell. She is a skilled weaver of Mindi, Gundula and Jawun bicornual baskets. Eileen learnt her weaving skills from her mother. When creating baskets, Eileen collects lawyer cane from the rainforest at the Jumbun community, removes the spiky outer skin of the cane and prepares the cane from splitting by passing it through the fire. The cane is then finely split and woven into the Mindi, Gundula and Jawun bicornual shape.
Eileen is an emerging painter and ceramicist. Her work is inspired by and has its origins in the traditions and environment of her rainforest Aboriginal ancestors.
The Girringun Aboriginal Art Centre, based in Cardwell, represents artists from nine Traditional Owner Groups, the Nywaigi, Gugu Badhun, Warrgamay, Warungnu, Bandjin, Girramay, Gulgnay, Jirrbal and Djiru people.
The traditional country of these groups covers some 25,000 square kilometres, from north of Townsville, south-west to Clarke River, north to the Mission Beach area, west to Ravenshoe and east to include Hinchinbrook and the Family Group Islands.
Djumbunji Press, through collaborative printer Bobbie Ruben, delivered workshops in screen printing at the Girringun Art Centre as a means of providing practical support to the artists after many suffered devastating losses as a result of Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi. The resultant exhibition, Gijalordi, explores the local Kingfisher story.
Group Exhibitions
2010 Girringun, Gallersmith, Melbourne Vic.
2011 Bunyaydinyu Bagu, Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane Qld.
2011 Tully Agricultural Show, Tully Qld.
2011 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, Cairns Cruise Liner Terminal, Cairns Qld.
2011 After The Storm, Cairns Regional Gallery, Cairns Qld.
2011 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, Cairns Cruise Liner Terminal, Cairns Qld.
2011 Gijalordi, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns
2011 Girringun Guni Mara, Merenda Gallery, Fremantle WA
2011 Bagu With Jiman, Indigenous Ceramic Art Award Exhibition, Shepparton Art Museum, Vic.
2012 Bagu Visits Mission, Unique Frames, Mission Beach Qld.
Awards
2010 Second Place, Tully Show Art Prize -Traditional Aboriginal Craft
2011 Artistic Excellence Award, Bagu On the Strand, Strand Ephemera, Townsville Qld.