How to Work With a First Nations Artist on Your Reconciliation Action Plan

What Is a Reconciliation Action Plan Artist and Why Does It Matter Who You Choose?

A Reconciliation Action Plan is one of the most public-facing commitments your organisation will make. It sits on desks, gets sent to clients and lives on your website. The artwork at its centre is not decoration. It is a statement about how seriously you take reconciliation and about the relationship your organisation is building with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

That relationship begins the moment you decide who to commission.

A RAP artist is not simply a designer who produces something that looks Indigenous. A genuine RAP artist is a practising First Nations person whose work carries living cultural knowledge passed down through elders, rooted in Country and grounded in a specific nation and community. When you commission their work, you are not buying a visual style. You are being invited into a cultural exchange that carries real responsibilities on both sides.

Understanding what those responsibilities are before you reach out to any artist is the foundation of doing this well.

What Reconciliation Australia Actually Requires From Your RAP Artwork

Reconciliation Australia, the lead body for reconciliation in this country, is explicit in its guidance: organisations must not use stock images or generic illustrations for their RAP artwork. Their published guidelines state clearly that you must acknowledge the artist and the story behind the work and that this process begins well before you submit your RAP for endorsement.

Their framework requires that organisations engage directly with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, understand the protocols and procedures involved and go above and beyond the minimum requirements of Australian intellectual property law. The reason for this is important: current IP law does not fully protect Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) which means the ethical and legal obligations sit separately and organisations are expected to honour both.

This is not a bureaucratic formality. It is the difference between artwork that carries genuine cultural meaning and artwork that merely signals intent.

Understanding Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP)

ICIP describes all the rights First Nations peoples have over their traditional arts, culture and knowledge. It reflects the stories behind the symbols, the protocols around which designs can be used and by whom and the right of communities to determine how their culture is represented in the world.

As Reconciliation Australia and Terri Janke and Company note in their ICIP guide, some of this property is physical like a painting or a design and some of it is not physical at all like a cultural story or a ceremonial practice. Both forms carry the same weight of responsibility.

For organisations commissioning RAP artwork this means several things. It means not asking an artist to reproduce designs or symbols that belong to a different nation. It means not altering the artwork after it has been delivered without the artist's consent. It means crediting the artist fully every time the work is used. It means ensuring that the licence you hold is specific, written and agreed upon before any work begins.

The Indigenous Art Code, developed by the Indigenous visual arts industry following a 2007 Senate Inquiry, sets out best practice standards for exactly this kind of engagement. It is worth reading before you approach any artist.

Reconciliation Action Plan Artwork Guidelines: What Ethical Collaboration Looks Like

Good collaboration does not begin with a brief. It begins with a conversation where you are genuinely listening and connecting rather than gathering information to feed into a pre-existing design direction.

Before approaching an artist, your organisation should have done the internal work. You should know which Country you operate on and have a relationship however early with the Traditional Owners of that Country. You should have a clear sense of your reconciliation commitments and be able to articulate them honestly. What are your actual goals? What actions is your organisation committed to taking? What story do you want this artwork to carry?

When you approach an artist, the Arts Law Centre of Australia recommends being transparent from the start about how the artwork will be used, across which platforms and for how long. This is not just legally important. It is the foundation of a respectful working relationship. An artist should never discover their work has been used in ways they did not agree to.

The process done well looks something like this:

• Reach out with genuine context rather than just a budget and a deadline. Explain your organisation, your reconciliation journey and why you are seeking a commission.
• Give the artist time to consider whether your values align with theirs. This is their right and a good artist will exercise it.
• Discuss and agree on payment before any creative work begins. Fair payment reflects the cultural knowledge and time that goes into the work and not just the hours of production.
• Formalise the licence in writing with clear terms about scope of use, duration and what happens if you want to extend that use later.
• Credit the artist properly every time and tell the story behind the work to your team and stakeholders.

That last point matters more than most organisations realise. Artwork that is displayed without explanation and without the story of the symbols, the Country and the artist's lineage is artwork that has been stripped of its meaning. The purpose of commissioning a genuine First Nations artist is to carry that meaning into your organisation. You owe it to the work to share it.

Best Practices for Collaborating With First Nations Artists on Your RAP

Beyond the foundational requirements there are practices that distinguish organisations who approach this work with genuine care from those who are simply fulfilling a requirement.

The first is time. Rushed commissions produce rushed relationships not genuine connection. A bespoke RAP artwork that genuinely reflects your organisation's journey requires multiple conversations. Some First Nations artists will exercise the use of traditional yarning to fully connect and form a genuine relationship that is reflected in the artwork. Reaching out to an artist two weeks before your RAP submission deadline is not a commission. It is a transaction and it will read as one.

The second is scope clarity. One of the most common sources of friction in artist-organisation relationships is the expansion of usage beyond what was originally agreed. An artwork licensed for a RAP document should not appear on staff uniforms, event signage or social media without a separate agreement. This is not a technicality. It is a fundamental matter of respecting the artist's rights over how their cultural work is used and associated.

The third is ongoing relationship. Reconciliation is not a document. It is a practice. The most meaningful RAP commissions mark the beginning of an ongoing relationship between an organisation and an artist where the artwork becomes part of the organisation's identity, is revisited as the RAP is renewed and where the artist is acknowledged as a genuine cultural partner rather than a vendor.

You can read more about how I approach RAP commissions and what each package includes, from a licensed existing artwork through to a full custom digital and physical commission.

The Difference Between Licensing and Commissioning

There are two primary ways to engage an artist for RAP artwork and understanding the difference shapes everything about the outcome.

Licensing means accessing an existing artwork and using it under an agreed set of terms. It is an accessible and cost-effective starting point particularly for organisations in the early stages of their reconciliation journey. A licensed artwork is still authentic and still carries genuine cultural knowledge and a real artist's visual language. But it has not been built around your story.

Commissioning a custom artwork is a different kind of engagement entirely. It is a collaborative creative process that produces something no other organisation will ever have. The symbols, the palette and the story embedded in the work are all developed through genuine conversation between the artist and your organisation. It reflects your specific commitments, your people and your place.

For organisations seeking full platform usage rights to use the artwork across your website, internal communications, campaigns and branded materials a custom commission is the appropriate path. A licence is typically scoped to a specific use and extending it later requires renegotiation.

My existing artwork catalogue is available for RAP licensing and each piece carries the same depth of cultural intention that goes into a custom commission. For organisations ready to invest in something that is truly their own the custom process is where the most meaningful work happens.

Recruitment and Engagement of Artists for Reconciliation Action Plan Artwork

There is no central register that organisations are required to use when engaging a RAP artist. This means the process of finding the right person involves research, referrals and your own discernment.

Some questions worth asking before you engage anyone:

• Is this artist a practising First Nations person with a genuine connection to their community and Country?
• Do they have experience with corporate commissions and do they understand the rights and licensing frameworks involved?
• Can they tell you the story behind their work in a conversation rather than just a brochure?
• Do their values and way of working feel aligned with what your organisation is trying to do?

The Reconciliation Australia RAP artwork resource and their practical guidance for organisations are worth reading in full before you begin. They set out the standards Reconciliation Australia expects and give you a framework for evaluating whether an engagement meets those standards.

When you find the right artist the conversation will not feel transactional. It will feel like the beginning of something.

What Working With Me Looks Like

I am Ngalnya Atkinson, a proud Yorta Yorta artist originally from Shepparton and now based in Naarm. My business is rooted in cultural teachings passed to me through my elders and community and that same knowledge lives in every piece of work I create.

I do not take commissions lightly. Every organisation I work with goes through a genuine process of conversation, storytelling and connection before a single design decision is made. I want to understand your values, your reconciliation commitments and the story you are trying to tell. I also want to know that you have done the work to understand what you are asking for.

If you are ready to begin I offer three ways to commission RAP artwork: a licensed existing work, a bespoke custom digital commission with full platform rights and a complete package that includes a hand-painted original canvas for your workplace. Each is designed to meet your organisation where you are on your reconciliation journey.

You can read more about my background and the cultural knowledge that informs my practice or get in touch directly to start the conversation.

Reconciliation is not something you commission. But the artwork that marks your commitment to it can be the most meaningful investment your organisation makes this year. Done with care it becomes part of your culture. Something your people return to, explain to others and carry with them long after the document has been filed.