Champion NAVA's First Nations Policy

This year, NAVA is participating in AusArt Day, a national giving day coordinated by Creative Australia to celebrate and support Australia’s artists and arts organisations. 

By contributing to NAVA on AusArt Day, you’ll be part of a collective effort to strengthen the arts nationwide while directly supporting the implementation of NAVA’s First Nations Policy. Your donation will help to build lasting change, beginning within NAVA and extending across the visual arts sector through greater First Nations leadership and cultural competency.

Despite making continuous and essential contributions to Australian culture, First Nations artists and arts workers continue to face deep and ongoing inequities:

• Precarious incomes: Many First Nations artists earn just $3,200–$6,000 annually compared with the sector average of $48,400 (Productivity Commission, 2022 and Creative Australia, 2025).
• Identity strain and cultural load: 63% of First Nations workers experience high identity strain; 39% carry a heavy cultural load (Gari Yala Report, 2020).
• Racism and exclusion: Nearly half report being treated unfairly at work or hearing racial slurs (Gari Yala Report, 2020).
• Lack of career pathways: Despite increasing demand for First Nations visual arts and craft, there remains a significant gap in career pathways across the sector. In 2019, for example, the National Public Galleries Alliance reported just 25.1 full-time equivalent (FTE) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff across 434 public galleries in Australia.

These numbers reflect the structural barriers that continue to limit art practice, wellbeing, and career progression. NAVA’s First Nations Policy was developed with guidance from First Nations leaders and community input to directly address these challenges.

The Policy focuses on three interconnected goals designed to create meaningful and measurable change:

1. Lift cultural competency:
   • Training for staff and Board
   • Embedding First Nations perspectives in workplace culture and advocacy
2. Support safer employment:
   • Culturally competent HR processes
   • Mentoring and career development pathways
   • Address identity strain and cultural load
3. Strengthen engagement:
   • Partnering with First Nations-led organisations
   • Embedding First Nations leadership in policy and advocacy
   • Ensuring equitable access to opportunities

These goals are supported by a governance framework that includes:

• A First Nations Advisory Group of respected cultural leaders
• Board oversight to align the policy with NAVA’s strategic priorities
• Public reporting and evaluation to ensure accountability and transparency

Your support will help create and sustain this leadership position, ensuring that First Nations leadership is embedded within NAVA and that this work continues to strengthen equity and self-determination across the visual arts.

Every contribution makes a difference, from a one-off gift to a major investment in long-term change.

The National Association for the Visual Arts is a tax-deductible fund listed on the Australian Government's Register of Cultural Organisations maintained under Subdivision 30-B of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. Donations of $2 or more are tax-deductible.

NAVA has a long and proven history of delivering tangible impact for artists, arts workers, and organisations across Australia. Your donation builds on a strong foundation of trust, accountability, and real outcomes.

NAVA's work includes:

• Setting good practice standards for the sector 
• Driving policy and legislative change 
• Undertaking research and analysis 
• Facilitating professional development opportunities for artists 
• Providing online and in-person training and resources 
• Managing small grants programs 
• Offering industry advice and referrals.

NAVA gratefully thanks all donors for their generosity in supporting NAVA's First Nations Policy.