Art with the Stars Online Exhibition

Shooting Stars is an education and empowerment program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls in Western and South Australia. Based in twenty-two schools, Shooting Stars is staffed by predominantly Aboriginal women (85%) and reaches over 1,200 girls and young women.

Everything that Shooting Stars does comes from the ground-up and is grounded in Aboriginal ways of knowing, being, and doing. Shooting Stars staff facilitate yarning circles with program participants, communities, and localised steering committees to gather feedback about the program, to ensure that program delivery is place-based, and to identify barriers and facilitators to participants’ empowerment.

In 2019, one of Shooting Stars’ localised steering committees suggested, during a yarning circle, that Shooting Stars implement a local Cultural Project. This project would have two key outcomes: 1) participants could connect with, and learn more about their culture, identity, and community through art-making or storytelling, and 2) the art or story would be shared with non-Aboriginal community members who could learn more about local Aboriginal culture. From this idea, Shooting Stars applied for pilot funding, and the Art with the Stars project was born.

In the Art with the Stars project, Shooting Stars participants connect with a local Aboriginal artist to explore their cultural identity through art making. This exhibition brings together artwork made across 6 different projects at 6 different sites. Halls Creek worked with artists Vicki and Kathy Long on two painting projects. Bianca Hart worked with Collie on a painting project. At Kiara College, Honey Webb facilitated a dance project. In Mullewa, Rodelle Battle and Rebecca Councillor facilitated a mural project on two walls at the school. Fitzroy Crossing worked with designers Lois Hazel and Simone Agius as well as local artists Ivy Nargoodah, Torrence Lulu and Natalie Davy on a fashion project. Through the display of these powerful projects the exhibition showcases the diversity and strength of art making and culture across Western Australia.