At ibis Styles The Entrance, we are proud to acknowledge the land on which our hotel operates and the people who have cared for it for tens of thousands of years. Our home sits on Darkinjung Country, where lake meets ocean on the New South Wales Central Coast, a place of deep cultural significance long before it became a destination for visitors. As part of our ongoing commitment to reconciliation and to celebrating the community we are part of, we are honoured to display a striking original artwork by Kamilaroi artist Kyle Waters, who lives and works right here on the Central Coast. It is a permanent reminder to our team and our guests of the stories, culture and connection that surround us every day.
”Ibis Styles The Entrance acknowledge we live, work and play on Darkinjung Country. We pay our respects to Elders, past, present and emerging and recognise their continued connection to these lands and waterways. We acknowledge our shared responsibility to care for and protect our place and people”.
The artwork is a representation of gunni thakun (Mother Earth) giving birth to all living things in Australia. It shows how important our women are to our culture and how they must be respected and treated at all times. The designs inside her shows the different lores and stories, with each representing those same values. The inside of her body is filled with red, white and yellow ochre, to show how special she is as a woman, including the colours in her legs being symbolic of the country and saltwater people. The surrounding designs represent stories and the creation of the lore in line with all the different country’s within Australia.
Kyle Waters is a Kamilaroi descendant who lives on the Central Coast, NSW. He is an emerging young artist and former winner of the Maliga Indigenous Arts and Culture Showcase 2018 (Elders Choice Award).
Commissioning a local artist mattered to us. Kyle lives in the same community our hotel calls home, and his work carries the perspective of someone with a lived, present-day connection to this place — not an image chosen from a catalogue, but a piece created by a neighbour. Supporting emerging First Nations artists on the Central Coast is a small but meaningful way we can invest in the culture and creative talent of our own region.
Every guest who walks through our doors is welcomed by this artwork and by the words of our Acknowledgement of Country. Together they set the tone for the stay we hope to offer: one grounded in respect for the land, for the waterways, and for the world’s oldest continuing culture. We are grateful to Kyle Waters for sharing gunni thakun with us, and to the Darkinjung people for their enduring custodianship of the Country we are privileged to live, work and play on.
