EastLink 5km Indigenous Art Trail now open

The new EastLink 5km Indigenous Art Trail is an outstanding community art collaboration between Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place (MMIGP), Croydon Hills Men’s Shed, Mullum Mullum parkrun, EastLink and Whitehorse City Council.

The trail includes 12 wooden art poles painted by local Indigenous artists, located alongside the EastLink Trail in Mullum Mullum valley. Many of the artworks have representations of flora and fauna found in the area. The artists are Aunty Daphne Milward, Aunty Irene Norman, Amanda Wright and Chris Hume.

Helpful trail directions are carved into the top of each art pole. The route of the EastLink 5km Indigenous Art Trail is exactly the same as the route of the 5km Mullum Mullum parkrun event that is held every Saturday morning at 8am. Mullum Mullum parkrun is a free, fun, and friendly weekly community event, part of the worldwide parkrun phenomenon. Walking, jogging or running, parkrun participants can follow the trail directions on the art poles while enjoying the artworks amidst the natural beauty of Mullum Mullum valley.

At 7:45am on Saturday 22 July, the new EastLink 5km Indigenous Art Trail was officially launched with an Acknowledgement of Country and a Smoking Ceremony, led by Dion Edwards from Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place, with around 200 runners and volunteers from Mullum Mullum parkrun participating.

Whitehorse City Council (who installed two of the poles) were represented by Mayor Cr Mark Lane, Deputy Mayor Cr Prue Cutts and Cr Denise Massoud. Parkrun was represented by event director Scott Hawkins. In addition to Dion, Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place was represented by operations manager Henry Nguyen.

EastLink was represented by corporate affairs and marketing manager Doug Spencer-Roy and by Simon Campbell. Simon, who defined the locations and coordinated the installation of all twelve poles, completed the job by running in the 5km parkrun event, which commenced at 8am.

More information about the EastLink 5km Indigenous Art Trail

The art trail has its own Google Map: EastLink 5km Indigenous Art Trail - Map

Dion Edwards gets the Smoking Ceremony underway after delivering the Acknowledgement of Country.

Dion encouraged all runners to come forward to purify and cleanse themselves and their running shoes in the smoke.

Scott Hawkins delivered a rather smoky safety briefing before the run commences. Smoke lingered right across Mullum Mullum valley throughout the duration of the 5km run.