Elevate: First Nations Storytelling and Literature Fund
$10,000 grant for career development, open to writers, poets, editors, illustrators, journalists, arts workers and groups in the literature sector.
Marie Munkara, Signature Works Lab 2019, at 20:50 by Richard Wilson at MONA, Tasmania. Photo by Jorjia Gillis.
About the opportunity
The Elevate: First Nations Storytelling and Literature Fund is a $10,000 career development grant for First Nations individuals and groups. The opportunity is open to writers, poets, editors, illustrators, journalists, arts workers and groups in the literature sector. Elevate is designed to support and develop career pathways and opportunities which may include capacity building, networking, mentoring, residencies, and audience development for their work.
Elevate is for projects beginning after Friday 1 November 2024.
Supported activities must last no longer than 12 months from the proposed start date.
Who can apply
- First Nations individuals and groups
- You must be an Australian citizen or an Australian permanent resident, and a practicing artist or arts professional.
Who cannot apply
You cannot apply for this grant if:
- you have an overdue grant report
- you owe money to Creative Australia
- you are a National Performing Arts Partnership organisation
- you are a group based outside Australia.
What can be applied for
To apply, you will need to provide details of your activity and what you would like to achieve.
Elevate can be used for career development which may include:
- study/course expenses
- development of work
- Masterclass/residencies
- project research
- mentoring
- conference or festival attendance
- travel and accommodation
- materials
Creative Australia will review applications against the assessment criteria in consultation with Industry Advisors.
They may consider:
- potential of the artist and/or artworker
- viability
- impact on career.
1. Potential of the artist/arts worker
The Panel will assess the potential of the artist/artworker at the centre of the proposal.
They may consider:
- merit of proposal
- quality of work previously produced
- public or peer response to work previously produced
- demonstrated ability, skills and creative thinking.
2. Viability
The Panel will assess the viability of the proposal.
They may consider:
- skills and artistic ability of the people involved, and their relevance to the proposed activity
- effective use of resources, with realistic and achievable planning
- level of confirmation of proposed activities and partners
- adherence to relevant cultural protocols
- evidence of considered consultation and engagement with participants, audiences and communities.
3. Impact on career
The Panel will assess the impact that the proposed activity will have on your career.
They may consider:
- capacity to strengthen skills and abilities of artists/arts professionals
- potential to discover and develop new markets, or meet existing market demand
- relevance and timeliness of activity.
The types of questions we ask in the application form include:
- a title for your project
- a summary of your project
- a brief bio of the artist or group applying
- an outline of your project and what you want to do
- a timetable or itinerary for your activities
- a description of the outcome your project delivers
- a projected budget which details the expenses, income, and in-kind support of the project
- supporting material as relevant to your project, including examples of your work, bios of additional artists, and letters of support or permission from participants, communities, First Nations Elders, or organisations.
You should submit support material with your application. The panel may review this support material to help them gain a better sense of your project.
We do not accept application-related support material submitted via post. Application-related material received by post will not be assessed and will be returned to the sender. If you think you will have difficulty submitting your support material online, or need advice on what type of material to submit, please contact us.
There are four types of support material you may submit:
- Artistic support material
This should include relevant, recent examples of your artistic or cultural work.
Types of support material we accept
Our preferred method of receiving support material is via URLs (weblinks).
You can provide up to three URLs (weblinks) that link to content that is relevant to your proposal. This may include video, audio, images, or written material.
These URLs can include a total of:
- 10 minutes of video and/or audio recording
- 10 images
- 10 pages of written material (for example, excerpts of literary writing).
Please note: Our panel will not access any URLs that require them to log in or sign up to a platform. Please do not provide links to Spotify or other applications that require users to log in or pay for access.
If you are linking to media files that are private or password protected like Vimeo, please provide the password in the password field on the application form.
Other accepted file formats
If you cannot supply support material via URLs, you may upload support material to your application in the following formats:
- video (MP4, QuickTime, and Windows Media)
- audio (MP3 and Windows Media)
- images (JPEG and PowerPoint)
- written material (Word and PDF).
- Biographies and CVs
You can include a brief bio or curriculum vitae (CV) for key artists, personnel or other collaborators involved in your project.
Brief bios or CV information should be presented as a single document no longer than two A4 pages in total.
- Letters of support
Individuals, groups, or organisations can write letters in support of your project. A support letter should explain how the project or activity will benefit you, other artists or arts professionals, participants, or the broader community. It can also detail the support or involvement of key project partners, or evidence of consultation.
If relevant to your activity, letters of support must provide evidence of appropriate permissions and support from First Nations organisations, communities, and Elders. Please refer to the First Nations Protocols for more information.
You can include up to five letters of support, with each letter not exceeding one A4 page.
Meet the latest recipients
Project Description: The Elevate fund will support Tahjee Carter to complete writing and editing her first draft of ‘Koa: The first novel of an epic fantasy trilogy through a First Nations lens from Australia’s north’.
Artist bio
Tahnee is an emerging writer with ancestral ties to Bardi Jawi and Mayala Country on the Dampier Peninsula. Her writing is guided by her connection to the land and the ancient teachings it holds, which flow into both her fantasy and contemporary stories. In 2024, with support from the Creative Australia Arts Project Grant and the Regional Arts WA Next Level Fellowship, she has been working on her debut tribal fantasy novel, Koa. She was grateful to receive a residency at Varuna Writers House in 2023, as well as a scholarship for Magabala Books’ Creative Development program. After deciding to leave her fourth year of medical studies in 2020 to follow her passion for writing, Tahnee’s short story about that experience was chosen to be part of the 2022 SBS Emerging Writers’ Competition anthology, Between Two Worlds, published by Hardie Grant. Through her work, she aims to blend ancient cultural perspectives with universal themes, creating stories that speak to both personal and shared human experiences.
Project Description
The Elevate fund will support Vivienne Cleven’s creative development of fifteen short stories in collections titled, Headstrong, exploring themes of bigotry, hope, overcoming adversity, and identity.
Artist bio
Vivienne Cleven is a proud Kamilaroi/ Bigambul author who grew up in western Queensland.
In 2000, with the manuscript Bitin’ Back, Vivienne entered and won the David Unaipon Award. Her second novel Her Sister’s Eye won the Kate Challis RAKA Award in 2006. She has published articles and fiction in anthologies, magazines and journals.
Project Description
The Elevate fund will support Skye Cusack to focus on the research and development phase of a queer rom com. This will include travel to her family in Yidinji country (Cairns, QLD) and mentorship from Aboriginal author Melanie Saward.
Artist bio
Skye Cusack is an emerging Dulgubarra-Yidinji creative writer living in Naarm. But this doesn’t mean that she’s new to writing – in fact, she’s been a copywriter for over eleven years. She is the founder of BluSkye Marketing, where she has worked with literary organisations such as The Wheeler Center, Emerging Writers’ Festival, and Forty South Publishing. She is well known for her role as Marketing Manager and Producer at Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival.
Skye likes to write things that make you laugh, cry, and call your therapist. Common themes in her writing include mental health, fatphobia, existential Blak crises, and people generally making fools of themselves. Her Indigenous New Adult novel manuscript was shortlisted for the 2024 black&write! Indigenous Writing Fellowships.
Image credit: Rachael Michelle
Project Description
The Elevate fund will support Kirilly Dawn’s opportunity to co-author Caring Our Way: an Indigenous approach to pregnancy, birth and postpartum in collaboration with The Returning Indigenous Corporation and Bundjalung chef, Mindy Woods.
Artist bio
Kirilly Dawn is a Barkindji woman, birth & postpartum doula, somatics facilitator, and multidisciplinary artist based on Bundjalung Country. Her practice and work centres around creating safe spaces to feel and be in the body, through movement, visual arts, and community work. Kirilly currently guides the Postpartum Care Program for The Returning Indigenous Corporation, providing culturally informed community care for First Nations women after birth with ancestral foods, body care, and advocacy. Kirilly is an exhibiting artist of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative, and her writing has been published in print and online publications. Kirilly is a podcast host and producer with Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond, and co-hosted the Custodial Care podcast for The Koori Mail.
Image credit: Alix McKenzie
Project Description
The Elevate fund will support Bernadette and Alison Duncan, and Jodie Herden to develop and create the book, The Burrugarrbuu Benji Magpie Stories. Alison Duncan will share her stories; Bernadette Duncan will incorporate the Kamilaroi language, and Jodie Herden will craft the illustrations to develop the book.
Artist’s Bios
Bernadette Duncan (NSW)
Bernadette Duncan, Kamilaroi woman and language custodian with over 20 years’ experience in reviving Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay language in schools and community. Bernadette develops traditional healing practices with local plants she observed while growing up on Toomelah Mission. Bernnadette has worked with the Atlas of Living Australia to include Kamilaroi language and knowledge facilitates the revival, storage, protection, maintenance and sharing of Kamilaroi language and knowledge.
Alison Duncan, Storyteller
Alison Duncan is a local Elder and Storyteller, she grew up on Toomelah Mission in a family of 13 children. Her grandmother Hannah Duncan was a language speaker and a traditional healer. Alison loves to share her stories especially that connect people to country.
Alison’s stories of a Magpie she befriended, is incredibly special to her personally. She had tragedy in her life and through her friendship with this magpie “Benji’ she finds some comfort for her grief.
Image credit: Bernadette Duncan
Project Description
The Elevate fund will support Charlie King’s research and development phase to grow his extraordinary family’s historical stories into a creative non-fiction book for broader publication.
Artist bio
Dr Charlie King AM is a veteran ABC broadcaster and human rights campaigner who has worked across the Northern Territory for more than 50 years. As a Gurinjdi man and second-generation Stolen Generations survivor, storytelling, justice and truth-telling is at the heart of everything he does.
Charlie is the founder of the anti-domestic violence campaign NO MORE and hosts ABC Grandstand, a role he has held since 1990. In 2006 he commentated the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008, the first Indigenous person to do so. He has been recognised through a range of awards including NAIDOC person of the Year, Elder of the Year and Darwin City Council Citizen of the Year. He was then awarded NT Senior Australian of the Year 2019, became a member of the Order of Australia in 2021 for significant service to the Indigenous community of the NT and recently received an honorary doctorate.
Project Description
The Elevate fund will support Lay Maloney’s research and development in self-lead residency on the country to Cairns, and their community at Yarrabah to collect cultural information and visit sites integral to the second instalment of a series of books called Chthonic.
Artist bio
Lay Maloney is a young genderfluid storyteller of the Gumbaynggirr and Gunggandji nations and South Sea Islander heritage based on Dunghutti Country.
Since 2020, Lay has made significant strides in poetry, speculative fiction, fantasy, and young adult literature.
Their debut novel, Weaving Us Together, won the black&write! award in 2022 and will be published by Hachette Australia in July 2025. Currently, Lay is focused on their second novel, Chthonic, supported by a Magabala Scholarship in 2023.
Lay was the Emerging Producer for the Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival 2024 and actively supports fellow First Nations writers. They received the First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN) and Varuna Writer’s House fellowship to revise Chthonic. Lay is committed to truth-telling through fiction and advancing the Blak literary community.
Image credit: Steph Isbester
Project Description
The Elevate fund will support Bebe Oliver to write a body of literature that records the real voices and stories of the Aboriginal nations of the Kimberley, Western Australia. This will include a collection of written and visual pieces, consisting of poetry, verse, memoir, and photography. The completion of this project will result in a print publication, representing an exquisite collection of living culture.
Artist bio
Bebe Oliver is a Bardi Jawi award-winning author, poet, and illustrator.
From his early days as a classical pianist and composer, Bebe swiftly rose to prominence as a West Australian Young Person of the Year, before producing and directing theatre, dance, public art, and festivals across Australia, Aotearoa, and Europe.
As a leading advocate for Aboriginal advancement and self-determination, Bebe has collaborated with international entities including Aesop, Global Citizen, and World Pride to champion Blak stories and communities.
His debut poetry collection more than these bones (Magabala Books, 2023) has been celebrated for its raw, unflinching exploration of mental health and the human condition.
A writer, facilitator, and speaker living on the unceded land of the Kulin peoples, Bebe is deeply committed to the empowerment and visibility of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creators.
He is the Artistic Director and CEO of Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival, and the Deputy Chair of Magabala Books, demonstrating his drive for literary excellence and cultural representation.
Bebe’s highly celebrated and widely published work explores love, loss, identity, the intersection of Aboriginal and gay existence, and the rich tapestry of place and Country, making him a compelling and transformative voice in contemporary literature.
Bebe’s newest book, if this is the end (Magabala Books, 2024) is regarded as a fearless and honest exploration of identity, and “a queer Blak classic”.
Image credit: Lexi ZQH
Project Description
The Elevate fund will support Lystra Bisschop’s (AKA Rose) research and complete the creative development of The Upworlding, the final book of a YA trilogy, which expands First knowledge from local to national to global. The trilogy will be the first of its kind: expanding local Indigenous knowledge from The Upwelling (Book 1) to national Indigenous knowledge in The Upwarping (Book 2) to global Indigenous knowledge in The Upwarping (in Book 3).
Artist Bio
Lystra Rose is an award-winning novelist of Guugu Yimithirr, Birri Gubba, Erub/Mua, and Scottish heritage who lives on Yugambeh-speaking Country (Gold Coast). Lystra is editor-in-chief of Surfing Life magazine—the first female editor of a mainstream surf mag in the world. Lystra implements a ‘cultural education by stealth’ methodology.
The Upwelling is Lystra’s debut novel, which collected seven awards including Winner of the 2023 NSW Premier’s Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature, Winner of the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Literary Prize for Indigenous Writing, Winner of the State Library of QLD’s 2018 black&write fellowship (manuscript), and Shortlisted for the 2023 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for Young Adult Literature.
Lystra is a 2024 CYA ARA Historical Fiction judge; she was also awarded a 2024 Keesing Studio Paris Residency with Creative Australia and Cite internationale des arts. Lystra is Griffith University’s 2024 Winner: First Peoples Alumnus for Arts, Education and Law.
Image credit: Ray Bisschop
Project Description
The Elevate fund will support Desirai Saunders in research and development to create a first draft of Dreamwalkers, a fantasy narrative following three sister-cousins who inherit ancestral magic and must race against time to save their community.
Artist bio
Desirai Saunders is a proud Gunggari woman with family ties to Mitchell, QLD. A First Nations digital illustration artist, Desirai currently resides in Brisbane. She expresses her connection to culture and urban identity through a blend of traditional and modern elements, celebrating the intersection of traditional culture in a modern world. Her art focuses on creating powerful and inspiring representations of Blak women, aiming to uplift and resonate with those who view her works.
Desirai has had the opportunity to collaborate with brands such as Nike, Apple, Canva, and Adobe. Recently, she illustrated a children’s book written by Bianca Hunt, published by Hardie Grant. Through her creative career, she continues to advocate for the careers and cultural contributions of First Nations artists while celebrating her own vibrant artistic expression.
Image credit: Josef Joe Ruckli
Project Description
The Elevate fund will support Adam Thompson to complete the research and concept development, and craft writing of 8 stories, that share the rich tapestry of Pakana culture and contemporary life.
Artist bio
Adam Thompson is a Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) writer and screen producer from Launceston, Tasmania. His poetry and fiction have been published in various literary journals and anthologies. His debut collection BORN INTO THIS (University of Queensland Press) was shortlisted for the USQ Steele Rudd Award (Short Story Collection category), the 2021 Age Book of the Year Award, The Readings Prize 2021: New Australian Fiction, and longlisted for the 2022 Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Awards (Fiction category). In 2021, BORN INTO THIS won the International Story Prize: Spotlight Award. In 2022, he released a children’s book in the Little J & Big Cuz series, THE STORMY NIGHT (Hardie Grant).
Adam also works in screen. He has written several episodes of the Australian children’s animation, Little J & Big Cuz, and was shortlisted for an AWGIE in 2022. Adam has undertaken screen producer attachments with Film Art Media and GoodThing Productions, and in 2022, he launched the first Palawa screen production company, Kutikina Productions, of which he is a co-director.
Under Kutikina, Adam has co-written and co-produced the short film, My Journey, which featured at the 2024 St Kilda Film Festival and was nominated for an Australia’s Top Short Films award. Adam then went on to co-write and co-produce the 1-hour TV drama, Moonbird, for SBS/NITV (TX in early 2025).
Image credit: Scott Cunningham
Project Description
The Elevate fund will support Ellen van Neervan in the creative development of Ruby’s Web, a middle-grade novel that questions, ‘What is racism?’ and ‘Why is it harmful?’ for young people, particularly in a social media age.
Artist bio
Ellen van Neerven is a writer, editor, and literary activist of Mununjali Yugambeh and Dutch heritage. Ellen has authored two poetry collections, Comfort Food and Throat, one work of fiction, Heat and Light, and creative non-fiction, Personal Score, which received the 2024 Victorian Premiers Prize for non-fiction. Ellen is also the editor of many anthologies including Homeland Calling: Words from a New Generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voices, Flock: First Nations Storytelling Then and Now and Unlimited Futures (with Rafeif Ismail).
Heat and Light won the David Unaipon Award and the Dobbie Literary Award. Throat won three prizes at the 2021 NSW Premiers Literary Awards including Book of the Year, the Kenneth Slessor Prize, and the Multicultural Award.
In 2024 Ellen debuted their first play swim with Griffin Theatre Company to audiences on Gadigal, Yugambeh and Wiradjuri land.
Image credit: Anna Jacobson
Key dates
Applications closed
Amount: $10,000
Notification: Mid-October 2024
Please note: To apply you must be registered in our Application Management System a minimum of two business days prior to the closing date.
Contact
Please direct all guidelines, application, and general enquiries to:
Tammy Close
Project Manager, First Nations Arts and Culture
T: +61 02 9215 9145
E: tammy.close@creative.gov.au