Arts Upper Hunter has been successful in our application for funding from the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support fund from Creative Australia. The IVAIS fund’s goal is to build capacity, sales, skills, and employment for Aboriginal people, with an emphasis on visual arts.
Our own main goal is for the program to be driven by local First Nations along the way. That means some details will evolve as we go. But you can expect:
- Dare to be Deadly – visits to local schools by artists to provide inspirational speeches and hands-on activity for Aboriginal youth.
- yarning sessions across the Upper Hunter region with varied topics from grants and local markings, to cultural tourism and lore.
- a lot of activity in the last six months of the program in 2026, from a pop-up gallery to an online exhibition to On Country leadership work.
Meanwhile we’ve been proudly running Travelling Totems at Singleton NAIDOC Day and Muswellbrook NAIDOC Day. This project next travels to the hotly anticipated Cultural Spectacular happening at the Muswellbrook Showground on Saturday 14 September. Worimi artist Stuart Berends is working with the community to paint symbols, culturally significant to the artist depicting meeting places, native fauna and tribal totems. The community are adding handprints or their own symbols to the poles creating a vivid and bold effect.
The totems will then find a resting place at the Wanaruah Land Council in Muswellbrook on permanent display
This project is supported by Wanaruah Local Aboriginal Land Council and Mach Energy.
Photo: Stuart Berends, local First Nations artist at the Muswellbrook NAIDOC event. Photo taken by Sue Lawton.
Blak Arts In the Upper Hunter project is supported through the Australian Government’s Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support program.
Images:
Left: Taken at the Muswellbrook NAIDOC by Sue Lawton.
Right: Taken at the Singleton NAIDOC by Marina Lee Warner.