Thancoupie Bursary Fund
Gimuy • Indigenous Arts Bursary Fund
About
Thancoupie (Dr Gloria Fletcher AO), also known by her artistic name Thanakupi, was a highly respected Thaynakwith elder from the Weipa region of Far North Queensland and the last fluent speaker of the Thaynakwith language. Emerging to international recognition as a pioneering ceramicist in the 1970s, she is regarded as one of Australia’s foremost Indigenous ceramic artists. Her practice extended beyond ceramics into teaching, storytelling, writing and cultural preservation, with a lifelong commitment to supporting young people to develop their artistic and cultural knowledge.
Established in 2012 in Cairns, where Thancoupie maintained strong ties and lived for more than two decades at her studio in Trinity Beach, the Thancoupie Bursary Fund was formed in accordance with her wish to support emerging Aboriginal artists and arts workers from the Western Cape York Peninsula. The fund provides an annual bursary enabling recipients to develop their practice through mentorship with established artists. Works produced through the program are donated to the Fund and sold via silent auction at CIAF, sustaining the bursary for future recipients and extending Thancoupie’s legacy of cultural leadership and artistic mentorship.
Fiona Omeenyo was last year’s recipient of the bursary and is currently being mentored by master printmaker Theo Tremblay.