​Brown birds in a brown landscape, migratory shorebirds are our most endangered group of birds. Every year they migrate from the shores of Australia and New Zealand to their breeding grounds above the arctic circle in Siberia and Alaska. The remarkable annual circuit that they fly is called the East Asian-Australasian Flyway and it passes through 23 countries.

The Overwintering Project: Mapping Sanctuary seeks to raise awareness for our migratory shorebirds and their habitat by inviting artists to help make them visible.
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​Click here to go to the Overwintering Project print portfolio. 

The Overwintering Project: Coffs Harbour
Opening: Friday 6 December, 6.30 pm
Coffs Harbour Regional Art Gallery
Cnr Hoff and Duke Streets,
Coffs Harbour, NSW 2450
Exhibition runs: Friday 6 Dec. 2019 – Sunday 9 Feb. 2019

Local BirdLife groups including Coffs Coast Bird Observers, Bellingen Birders and BirdLife Northern NSW are all enthusiastically on board, as are National Parks and Wildlife Service. The project will involve the two high schools, local artists Sara Bowen, JP Willis, Jo Elliott and poet John Bennett; the members of two local birding groups, Coffs Coast Bird Observers and Bellingen Birders; National Parks and Wildlife Service (NP&WS) staff, including local Gumbaynggirr Elder Uncle Mark Flanders and staff of the gallery. 

As well as entire the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio, the Coffs Harbour exhibition will include works by local artists and the students from the local high schools. The Gallery recently got a grant to bring together high school students, Elders, scientists, birders, poets and artists to learn about shorebirds and make art, culminating in a 'steamroller print' project to be exhibited alongside other works inspired by local migratory shorebirds and their habitat! Many thanks to the gallery curator, Jo Besley, for her amazing support of and vision for the project.

Title: Latham's Capital Snipe
Medium: Hand-coloured linocut
Site: Jerrabomberra Wetlands, Canberra

​Around the length of a ruler and weighing only 200 grams, the Latham’s Snipe migrates the 8,000 or so kilometres from Japan all the way to south-eastern Australia each year. It is one of 40 migratory shorebirds that regularly visit Australia, and around 20 or 30 of these beauties visit the Jerrabomberra Wetlands from August onwards before their return trip to breed and hatch their young. Accelerating habitat loss along their migration route is threatening the species, so for the Latham’s Snipe to survive the wetlands they  need to be protected.