The ABM Logo

You will notice that the ABM project has a distinctive logo. This logo was designed for us by well known, Cooktown-based Balngarrawarra artist Joseph McIvor. 

The logo has three main elements:

  • A yam. This plants were incredibly important food sources across the study region, and yam motifs are a common element in rock art sites.
  • A culturally modified tree. These are trees that have been modified in some way be prop, usually in the process of either accessing sugarbag or removing bark or wood from the tree to make artefacts like containers of spearthrowers. These trees are almost always the iconic Cooktown ironwood trees, which can live for many hundred of years and are incredibly dense hardwoods that are generally resistant to termites.
  • A human figure, which represents all the Traditional Owners of the project area (as well as such figures being very common in the rock art of the region). 

The colours used in the logo also have particular meanings. The colours in the yam, tree and person are colours commonly seen in the rock art of the study region. The green colour in the words of the logo represent the lands of the study area, and the blue colour represents the sea country. 

Joe McIvor working on a large version of the ABM logo during an ochre workshop held at Melsonby Ranger Base in August 2023.