Leonard Andy is a Djiru Traditional Owner of the Mission Beach area.  He lives at Mission Beach on his traditional land and creates a number of unique art pieces including paintings, artefacts and batiks. 

 

His attention to detail is evident in the intricate designs painted on his carved wooden swords, boomerangs, spear throwers and canvases. His creativity goes back to his high school days where, “my school books were filled with drawings instead of work.”

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Leonard is heavily involved in local conservation groups and has a particular interest in the urbanisation and subsequent loss of natural habitat of the Mission Beach area, in particular the impact on Gunduy, the cassowary. This concern is reflected in his art.

 

He has an interest in the plight of native plant and animal species in the Mission Beach area and is an active participant in raising awareness through groups such as C4 (committee member), Mission Beach Habitat Plan (committee member) and the Garners Beach Cassowary Recovery Community Consultative Committee. He won the 2009 Wet Tropics Management Authority Cassowary Rainforest Aboriginal Culture Award for his services to the community

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Leonard has exhibited his artworks and paintings in numerous exhibitions and his artwork has been purchased by private and institutional collections. He has also contributed artwork to a number of publications including magazines for the North Queensland Land Council and The Wet Tropics Management Authority. His artworks also feature on interpretative signage at the Hull River Settlement Memorial at South Mission Beach and as part of the Ulysses Trail Heritage Trails Project at Mission Beach.

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Leonard has worked as a cultural tutor for Aboriginal culture at the Clump Mountain Co-operative since 1992 and provides cultural advice. He is regularly invited to undertake Traditional Welcomes in his traditional country, Djiru.

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