You can find a story in anything… When you explore, that's the beauty of aboriginal art, telling that story of what's in front of you (Toby Bishop, Mob - Kungarakan).
When I go home to country and you go to the freshwater or like I'm around family, there's a deep sense of belonging there. It's a connectedness of not just a place (Kiesha Leon, Mob – Waanyi & Kalkadoon).
The way I feel country and see country and hear country is through my family, through conversations and also visits to country (Rachael Sarra, Mob – Goreng Goreng).
When you're a young child and they're asked, what do you want to be when you grow up? Artist was always what I would wanted to have said (Jenna Lee, Mob – Gulumerridjin (Larrakia), Wardaman and KarraJarri).
It's really important to be telling the stories of the people whose land we're living and building on today.
We're a supplier of architectural acoustic panels. We have received supply nation registration. We're 50% Indigenous-owned.
We wanted to create some initiative that engaged with the Indigenous community.
So, one of the ideas was the Contours of Country range, which came out of the need that we heard in the market for architects to be incorporating First Nations designs in their buildings.
One of the things that I really didn't want to do, none of us wanted to do here, was tell the stories of the artists. We don't want to be grabbing someone's artwork and putting it on our panels and calling it a day. We really want the artists to be telling the stories of their works.
So we decided to partner with Blaklash (Rebecca Fox).
Blaklash is an aboriginal design agency, so we actually work alongside massive architectural firms, landscape architects, and developers. Everything we do is actually grounded in community, culture, and country (Erin McDonald).
The beautiful thing about this collaboration is we do have this shared understanding of what we think, self-determination, and a healthy future for us as mob (Rachael Sarra).
All the artists brought something different and unique and, a different story to tell (Toby Bishop).
It’s more than just a corporate commission. It's getting to collaborate with your community and your friends (Jenna Lee).
We wanted to make sure that this project gave back to community. We return 15% of every sale to the artist.
We wanted to make sure that was sustainable for the artist. We wanted to really put a lot of meaning behind it (Rebecca Fox).
The beautiful thing about a really well-executed piece of acoustic panelling is it's just beautiful to look at and you don't know that it's there to serve that purpose (Jenna Lee).
If we could get more First Nations people involved from the very start to the very end, then when people are enjoying the artwork, you know, it's come from a more kind of genuine place (Keisha Leon).
Hopefully, my work can bring something positive to each person that they see its day (Toby Bishop).
Through this product I'm hoping that it will continue on our culture and stories (Erin McDonald).
And I really hope that clients see the possibility and then commit bespoke designs of their own from First Nations artists locally (Jenna Lee).
If these beautiful designs can sort of stop someone and give you a moment to consider where we are and where we've been, I think that would be really powerful (Rebecca Fox).
Written by Rebecca Fox
