2025 Winners of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Procurement Expression of Interest

Enable WA
Jun 2
3 min read

Part of our Reconciliation Action Plan initiative to provide safe spaces for our Aboriginal and TSI identifying clients and staff.

Celebrating Culture, Community, and Country: Meet Our 2025 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Grant Recipients

Each year, during National Reconciliation Week, Enable WA proudly invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from across the regions we serve to share their stories through art. Our annual Expression of Interest program seeks original artworks that reflect the themes of culture, community, and connection to Country—artworks that will find their home in our offices in Bunbury (Goomburrup), Busselton (Undalup), Perth (Boorloo), and Mandurah (Mandjoogoordap).

This initiative is part of our broader Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), which includes a commitment to creating more inclusive, culturally safe spaces for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients, staff, and communities. By commissioning or purchasing artwork from local First Nations artists, we aim to reflect the spirit of each region while acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we live and work.

Applications for this year’s program opened on May 1st and closed on May 20th. Artists were invited to submit either existing works or propose new pieces that connect to Enable WA’s values—empowerment, collaboration, respect, and wellbeing—or express a deeper story of Country, culture, or local community.

We are always inspired by the depth, meaning, and beauty in the submissions we receive, and 2025 was no exception. Thank you to every artist who shared their work, their vision, and their connection to place.

We’re honoured to now share the four talented artists whose works will soon be installed in our offices during NAIDOC Week (July 6–13), as a lasting reflection of Country and community.

Meet the artists:

Emily Rose - 'Bulali / We Two (Parent and Child)'
Boorloo / Perth

Emily Rose's artwork: Bulali/We Two (Parent and Child)

Framed in warm oak with a vibrant orange varnish, this brightly coloured artwork brings the energy of Country into any space. Shades of coral and ocean flow through the scene, where two jellyfish gently drift — symbols of connection, intuition, and movement through life.

This piece tells the story of a parent and child walking along the coastline, sharing quiet moments and deep conversations. Their bond is unbreakable, woven through generations. As sunlight filters through the clouds, it warms their skin — a reminder of the future they carry and care for. That same sunlight touches the shallow waters nearby, lighting up the reef below — the mother's reef — where sea creatures and shifting sands whisper: we matter too.

This work is a celebration of relationship, responsibility, and the living connection between people and the natural world.

For more of Emily's work, click here.

Bianca Willder - 'Mandjoogoordap (meeting place of the heart)'
Mandjoogoordap / Mandurah

Bianca Willder's artwork, 'Mandjoogoordap (meeting place of the heart)'

Binjareb Boodja connections...

The 2 Djidi Djidi is a family Totem, for my Great Grandfather William Nannup who spent a lot of time down here in his teens/20s. Lots of family in the area... also for my ocean loving daughter Aamarli who now calls this area home!

The kwilena represents the free spirits our mob feel when connecting to country, the calmness, love and feeling of belonging...

With all the community connections made along the ways.

For more of Bianca's work, click here.

Kathy Ugle - 'My Noongar Boodja'
Goomburrup / Bunbury

Kathy Ugle's artwork, 'My Noongar Boodja'

I was inspired to paint this walking through the grass trees around Collie. It always brings me to a deep connection with my Country, my Noongar Boodja. I love to watch the mist in the mornings swirl around the trees and see the sun shining through. I feel at peace and at home.