The Jacky Winter Group acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands we are on and pays respect to their Elders past and present. The Jacky Winter Group recognises and respects their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationships to their ancestral lands, which continue to be important to The First Nations Peoples of today.

The Jacky Winter Group aims to increase our knowledge and understanding of First Nations culture, history, creative principles, visible languages, perspectives, and contributions in order to lay the foundation for our Statement/Spirit of Commitment.

The Jacky Winter Group respects and recognises:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as The First Nations Peoples of Australia.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders never ceded sovereignty of the land, have cared for their country for over 60,000 years as the world’s oldest living culture and will continue to care for country into the future.
• The diversity of language and culture of First Nations Peoples.
• The intergenerational trauma inflicted on The First Nations Peoples by the social and economic impact of invasion, colonisation, dispossession, marginalisation and control by government policies and practices.
• That Australia’s creative industries largely reinforce colonial Euro/Western values, standards, practices, and ways of working. These systems have done significant harm to First Nations communities particularly around the stealing and misappropriation of sacred First Nations motifs, designs, and iconography.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the primary guardians of their culture.
• First Nations motifs, stories, cultural and spiritual knowledge are owned by, and are sacred to First Nations people. The misuse of this knowledge affects First Nations custodianship and cosmology and can cause harm to the universe, not just to the individual artist and their community.
• The rights of First Nations Peoples to self-determination, including the visual representation and application of their cultural knowledge.

The Jacky Winter Group acknowledges the powerful declaration contained in the Uluru Statement from the heart and it’s three key elements to the reforms set out in The Uluru Statement.

• The Constitutional Change.
• The Legislative Change.
• The Makarrata Commission.

In being respectful of the knowledge and the important role First Nations People hold within their community, The Jacky Winter Group will continue to engage with First Nations People by seeking guidance, vision and encouraging participation in programs and projects presented by The Jacky Winter Group.

The Jacky Winter Group commits itself to:

• Increasing our knowledge and understanding of First Nations cultural and intellectual property by undertaking cultural awareness training led by First Nations people.
• Building trust, collaborative and supportive partnerships with First Nations organisations, communities and individuals by reaching out to community, engaging in dialogue, and inviting First Nations people to participate in events and exhibitions.
• Understand our professional and social responsibility to ensure that First Nations artists are not exploited or disadvantaged by the commercial representation of their culture by educating our team and building our capacity around Indigenous cultural and intellectual property. Raising the status and visibility of First Nations Peoples and their culture across our platforms and celebrating the achievements of First Nations artists through planned social media events and exhibitions at key events such as NAIDOC week and Reconciliation week.

Actions and Deliverables:

Building our capacity

Recognition at the Jacky Winter office, includes:

• The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flag (not including the Australian flag) to be on display at the entrance of our office and Acknowledgment of Country signage to be developed and installed on our front door.
• The Jacky Winter Statement of Commitment and the Uluru Statement from the Heart posters to be on display in our office (to staff, clients, and visitors)
• Acknowledgement of Country at all team meetings.
• A commitment to learn the traditional owners and custodians of the lands in which Jacky Winter staff are working from in Australia and around the world.
• Supporting the Australian Indigenous Design Charter: Communication Design practice standards and Sharing this resource with clients when required.
• Privileging and promoting the cultural identity and cultural heritage of all our artists, both in Australia and around the world by asking each of our artists how their identities inform their creative practices to reinforce the unique cultural identities of our artists and promoting this via their online portfolios. Jacky Winter Group will add an option for new artists to declare their cultural background.
• Through our cultural training, the Jacky Winter Group will create a crafted response to clients who request our artists to recreate indigenous artwork by sharing relevant resources. We will add a small section on this onto our website and link to Indigenous Art Code and Indigenous Knowledge along with sharing these resources directly with clients when required.

Setting our sights – where we want to go

We will build relationships with First Nations people/artists and develop relationships, by:

Short term:

• Investigate our procurement processes to ensure inclusion and identify opportunities for proactive inclusion for First Nations owned and lead businesses/companies.
• Engage, begin dialogues, and build relationships with First Nations communities to identify and pursue opportunities to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander access, participation, and representation at Jacky Winter by inviting First Nations artists to participate and collaborate in workshops and events hosted by The Jacky Winter Group.
• Creation of a First Nations Artist list to keep track of artist development and potential new artists for signings.

Mid term:

• Explore how First Nations cultural protocols, frameworks, and processes might be embedded within Jacky Winter by collaborating with First Nations artists, industry experts and researchers.
• A commitment for all staff to undertake cultural awareness training and to follow up on opportunities to build on learnings from this training via workshops with Terri Janke and ensuring we are attending a webinar/online training at least one a month. (See online training resources in Notion)
• Create the conditions to listen to, support, and build the capacity of First Nations artists at Jacky Winter by developing and offering workshops or collaborative projects specifically for First Nations artists.
• A commitment to explore a First Nations creative initiative or workshop following on from the cultural awareness training the Jacky Winter team will do with Terri Janke.

Long term:

• Work with First Nations People to ensure our licensing frameworks and workplace processes support and protect Indigenous cultural and intellectual property by supporting the development of Indigenous-led protocols to create a culturally safe space to represent First Nations artists at Jacky Winter.
• Play a leadership role in promoting best practice for commissioning, licensing, and representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, culture, and knowledge within commercial art practice by educating our clients, sharing our journey and being transparent with our processes.
• Work towards a First Nations voice within Jacky Winter by establishing an advisory body of First Nations artists and community members.

Jacky Winter portrait by Coree Thorpe - @lucid_juncture