Best First Nations and industry collaboration (sponsored by QPAC)

This award recognises collaborations between an individual or organisation and one or more First Nations creatives. Judges looked for collaborations that were First Nations-led and contributed to increasing awareness through sharing and celebrating First Nations stories and culture.

WINNER: Charcoal Stories, nominated by POPSART and Chrysalis Projects, in collaboration with artist Vernon Ah Kee, Milani Gallery, Iscariot Media, Avid Reader Bookshop, Tim Bennetton Architects, All City Walls, Drakos and Co, Resene Paints, Gadens Lawyers, (the late) Cameron Eaton, Bligh Tanner, Jonothan Oldham, Caroline Gardam and UAP | Urban Art Projects.

Charcoal Stories is a large-scale public art facade by Brisbane-based, internationally acclaimed Aboriginal artist Vernon Ah Kee, wrapped around the exterior of independent bookshop Avid Reader on Boundary Street at West End.

A bold, visual celebration of the city’s literary life and a tribute to storytelling, community and cultural memory, Charcoal Stories is a mural that covers around 100 square metres of façade space across 52 hand-painted panels naming Brisbane authors, with a particular emphasis on Aboriginal authors, transforming the bookshop into a striking public art installation.

Charcoal Stories was created as part of Chrysalis Projects, an initiative sparked during COVID-19 to support artists, revitalise local businesses and strengthen community through a community-funded, public art landmark. Artist Vernon Ah Kee provided in-kind support for extensive concept development and research, and Chrysalis Projects pioneered a new philanthropic model of community-funded placemaking to raise more than $60,000 from the West End community. Arts Queensland provided $80,000 in critical seed funding.

First Nations owned Iscariot Media, in collaboration with the artist, developed the complex graphic design, and First Nations emerging arts journalist Josh Thaiady worked as a key member of the POPSART intern team, providing pathways for new and diverse media voices.

By the time the project was finished, through strategic partnerships and community investment, the Charcoal Stories project secured more than $140,000 in cash contributions, more than $100,000 in contributed materials and $190,000 in donated professional services.

The judges said Charcoal Stories ensures Indigenous literary voices are physically entrenched in the city’s fabric and was developed with rigorous Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property protocols.

It embeds a story and identity that will stand the test of time, as Country does, and is a landmark achievement in permanent urban storytelling.