First Nations
The First Nations Directorate is a transformative force within Powerhouse. We ensure that our cultures and knowledge are authentically represented and integrated into its practices, fostering inclusive and culturally respectful ways of working.
We are actively integrating First Nations ways of working across every part of Powerhouse — from collections and exhibitions to administration and governance. By transforming systems that once excluded us, we honour historical truths and living cultures, shifting from ownership of objects to relationships with their makers and custodians. We recognise First Nations peoples as enduring, living cultures deserving time, space and self-determination.
True acknowledgement is not just a sentiment or a proceeding, but an ongoing behaviour and responsibility. Through the stories we tell, our care for cultural belongings and collaboration with Community – we remember and respect Country, Always.
First Nations Program
Events
Matariki 2025
Research Symposium 2023
Keynote: Nicole Yamase – Pacific Odyssey
Powerhouse Late: PAWA
Visiting Artists Tongan Weavers
First Nations Initiatives
Blak Powerhouse
After a huge year of Blak arts, music and culture that has witnessed mob taking things to new heights, an era of Blak brilliance is here, and with it, the rising of new kings and queens.
galang residency
Powerhouse Parramatta and Cité internationale des arts (Paris) offer an opportunity for two Australia-based First Nations creative practitioners to travel to Paris for a fully supported 12-week residency.
Caring for Country
In consultation with First Nations peoples of the Country on which the Powerhouse sites are situated, Caring for Country Principles now form the foundation of the Climate Action Plan, they are our Acknowledgement to Country in practice.
Redefining Collections
Deed Of Deposit
An initiative enabling First Nations communities to place cultural material in Powerhouse’s care while keeping full ownership.
Right Of Reply
A unique opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander photographers to undertake a photography commission that responds to the Powerhouse Collection.
Sharing a Wayilwan Story
