First Nations Public Art – Belco Arts and the Suburban Land Agency
Belco Arts are working together with the Suburban Land Agency to facilitate the creation of a suite of public artworks by First Nations artists on Ngunnawal Country.
The intention of this program is to celebrate Ngunnawal and First Nations culture through these public artworks, by creating spaces for First Nations communities in Canberra to be proud of and feel celebrated. This will be achieved through public artworks which honour First Nations people and Country, whilst also creating opportunities for knowledge-sharing and dialogue with the broader Canberra community.
The program will entail walks, talks, sharing stories, cultural advice, mentorships, expressions of interest open to First Nations artists, collaborations with fabricators, installers, opportunities to work in new scales and new materials and for people from many Nations to come together.
The artworks delivered under this program so far are installed in the North Wright Sustainable Precinct and in a walking art trail in Whitlam. The works are publicly accessible, available for all to see and enjoy.
North Wright Artworks
The Sky – Countries Guide (2025)
Jazz Matthews
Painted in-situ on a tear drop shaped concrete plinth outside an SLA demonstration home
This artwork represents the deep connection between Aboriginal people and the sky, which often serves as a seasonal guide for hunting, gathering and cultural practices. The moon, stars and sun also shape the waterways and plant cycles.
As the seasons shift- the waterways and plant life here symbolise movement, growth and the ongoing relationship between people and Country. At the centre are some cultural tools and a meeting place around the fire to reflect cultural practices- sharing, storytelling and coming together. There are colours of Country, kangaroo tracks and pathways. This artwork captures the essence of Country and the importance of the sky.
Jazz Matthews is a proud Ngunawal woman, artist and co-owner of Wilay Designs. Driven by passion and purpose, Jazz is dedicated in sharing her Aboriginal culture, drawing on family and personal experiences. She does digital designs, murals, paintings and workshops. Her focus extends to community and business projects. At the heart of Jazz’ work is a commitment to building positive and respectful relationships.
Mirriyn (2025)
Rebekah Weddell (Ginyaang Art)
Vinyl wrap, artwork features on the large, reclaimed steel posts used for the leaf shaped shade structure in the park area
This artwork captures the movement of star trails, illustrating the Earth’s rotation and the passing of time. Swirling patterns of light trace the path of celestial bodies, creating a sense of connection between past, present and future, and our enduring cultures. This work is also a nod to Van Gogh’s Starry Night, an artwork I strongly connected with as a small child. Each trail represents a moment in time, woven together to tell a story of renewal, continuity and connection. The colours represent the shifting skies from the last afternoon to night. The Brindabellas and other local mountains are depicted in a pale soft white, to represent their glow in the moonlight.
Rebekah Weddell is an Aboriginal artist born on the Gold Coast and raised in Northern New South Wales. She is Dhanggati/Birrbay on her birth father’s side and Swiss German/Irish on her mother’s. Rebekah has been living on Ngunnawal Country for the past 13 years, raising her children and working as a Primary School teacher. She takes inspiration from her surroundings, recreating elements of Country and telling stories through colour, shape, and symbolic representation, in her signature style. Rebekah uses acrylic on canvas or digital renderings and creates art as a way of connecting to people, places and her culture.
Painting makes her ginyaang – happy.
Ngunnawal art trails come to Whitlam – Cultural Imprint Pathway
Seven ceramic inlays have been installed at seating nodes along a scenic active travel path in Whitlam running parallel between Churcher Crescent and Keith Bain Crest.
The series of seven artworks are designed as a trail and invite reflection and learning. Each offers the viewer a chance to pause, reflect and connect with the land. There is a seat and a view at each inlay where Jazz Matthew’s artworks depict Molonglo Valley’s flora, non-human kin and her connections to Country and Culture.
As a proud Ngunawal artist, Jazz’s work celebrates culture, storytelling and connection to Country:
“This installation features seven inlays: Naraganawali (Meeting Place), Dhawura (Land), Namarag (Wattle), Burugun (Echidna), Buru (Kangaroo), Malunggang (Platypus) and Gulgul (Waterways). Each invites you to pause, reflect and connect with the land.“
Special thanks to the amazing team at Wellspring Arts, whose craftsmanship and attention to detail brought these designs to life. Their collaboration ensured each piece not only reflects Jazz’s artistic vision but also stands as a durable and enduring part of the landscape.
We hope this installation encourages reflection and a deeper appreciation for culture, as well as the plants and animals that surround you here.
Wellspring Environmental Arts & Design – Fabricator statement
“In this suburb named for artists and performers, these lovely artworks are gems leading Whitlam visitors through the dramatic vistas of the Molonglo Valley and Brindabella Ranges.
Over more than 35 years of creating public art, Wellspring has had the honour and pleasure of giving expression and distinction to the places Canberrans live. The sweet vision that Wilay Designs share with us shows a deep connection to the natural world, our place within it, and the stories waiting to be told.
Wellspring’s most treasured honour may be our part in several projects that reveal and remind us of our region’s unique and enduring human spirit: the traditional custodianship and knowledge of Ngunawal / Ngunnawal Country. Hearing these perspectives and stories enriches our own appreciation of Country.
We hope the artwork gems that enliven these hills lead to the sharing of stories and caring for nature in all its forms.
Wellspring Arts, the Canberra based creative partnership of Jennifer Jones and Philip Nizette, specialises in designing and creating distinctive places using a wide range of media. From planning, design stages, collaboration and production; place, audience and context combine to bring art to life.”
An initiative of Belco Arts and Suburban Land Agency, 2025
A warm thank you to the Winanggaay Ngunnawal Language Aboriginal Corporation for their assistance with the Ngunnawal translations.
The Gungahlin Community Centre 2025 – 2026
A collaborative, inclusive project that will leave a lasting mark in Gungahlin
The Gungahlin Community Centre features artwork by Richard Briggs and the team Belinda Smith & Ruth Della commission by Belco Arts. Belco Arts is proud to celebrate the Youth Hub Graffiti Jam Project, where three talented local street artists Paul Licayan, Lawrence Tan and Raph Taib worked side by side with three young people, Billy Garcia, Anael Lukban and Indigo Colquhoun.
The new community centre in Gungahlin will provide flexible spaces for activities, meetings, and events. The project responds to the needs of Gungahlin’s growing population. It will provide modern spaces where people can meet, learn, and take part in community programs.
Find out more: www.belcoarts.com.au/gungahlin-community-centre/
Richard Briggs – The Hands of Time
This large-scale illustrated artwork celebrates the people, places, and stories of Gungahlin. Welcoming visitors at the entrance to the building, the work was inspired by the area’s diversity, community warmth, and natural beauty. Richard visited local groups, restaurants, and spaces, gathering sketches, photos, and stories that shaped this permanent artwork. It creates a welcoming experience that reflects Gungahlin’s identity and invites curiosity, belonging, and connection.
Belinda Smith and Ruth Della – Grounding
Designed by Artist Belinda Smith and Curator Ruth Della, Grounding grew from a participatory event, Walking the Clay Circle, held at Belco Arts Theatre in August 2025. Community members walked barefoot in soft clay, leaving footprints and impressions that were hand-cut into tiles. With support from Strathnairn Arts, these tiles now form a permanent ceramic installation in the Gungahlin Community Centre Courtyard. The circle serves as both artwork and gathering space, inviting reflection, connection, and community activity. Together, these tiles are now a lasting marker of the Gungahlin community’s presence at the centre — a reflection of movement, connection, and the natural rhythms of the shared spaces that shape collective life.
Graffiti Jam Project with Raph Taib, Lawrence Tan and Paul Licayan
Belco Arts is proud to celebrate the Graffiti Jam Project, in which three talented local street artists, Paul Licayan, Lawrence Tan, and Raph Taib, worked side by side with three young people, Billy Garcia, Anael Lukban, and Indigo Colquhoun, to create a fully realised graffiti mural in just one day.
Focused on mentorship, skill-sharing, and building creative confidence, the project invited each young participant to develop and paint their own elements and perspectives alongside established artists, each bringing their own distinctive street-art style to the work.
The resulting mural celebrates creativity, radical ownership, high stakes making, collaboration, material mastery, and the incredible confidence and vulnerability it takes to publicly create a work of art that is immediately seen.
Communities (2024)
Rebekah Weddell
Digital Vinyl Wrap
This painting is a representation of the whole of the ACT and its communities from a birds-eye view, with prominent water sources featured throughout.
Across the top of the work are the Brindabella mountains, a strong and steadfast feature of the region. I look to the Brindabellas whenever I need a reminder to remain strong and true. Alongside the mountains is the Murrumbidgee River which adjoins the Cotter River and a source of Canberra’s drinking water. I often view rivers as a representation of life’s journey, sometimes life feels fast paced, other times slow and settled. It reminds me to go with the flow.
The lakes are also featured throughout the work in the form of the blue circles, as well as the Googong Dam. The regions of Canberra are represented in the sections bordered by the light-yellow lines. Tuggeranong to the South, Weston Creek and Woden to the West, Civic, Belconnen, Gungahlin all featured from a bird’s eye view of the ACT. The uniqueness of each region, communities, and families among them are represented by the different circular meeting place shapes and colours. I like to represent that we are side by side as a community, yet diverse and unique individuals.
Local plants and animals are represented in the form of eucalyptus, banksia, gum nuts, and eucalyptus flowers, as well as kangaroo tracks and magpies. I often represent wellbeing and health with the gum leaves, given their cleansing and healing properties. The sun rising is a symbol of the giver of life, vitality, and energy, which are also attributes of water. With the ACT being an inland place, the water sources here play a significant role in contributing to the wellbeing of this city and region.
While the ocean provides negative ions that contribute to a sense of wellbeing and relaxation, the water sources here are also places where locals will go to relax by the many lakes in the suburbs, connect to Country and nature out at the Cotter, cool off at Kambah Pool or Pine Island, and awe at the power of water at Gibraltar Falls. With the waterways, and all the stories they hold, it is apt that they feature in my representation of this place, a place of beauty that I love and now call my home.
This project is proudly supported by Icon Water
Icon Water are the ACT’s supplier of essential water and wastewater services. A part of the community for over 100 years, we play a fundamental role in the provision of essential services that contribute to the public health, prosperity, and liveability of our region.
Our vision is to be a valued community partner by helping local not-for-profit, grass-roots organisations in their mission to provide community access and participation. This is why we are so proud to be partnering with Belco Arts on a project celebrating First Nations culture throughout our community.
Original work: Communities, Acrylic on canvas 2023 Region Media Collection
Dancers on a Lakefront (2010)
Konstantin Dimopoulos
“On my site visit I was drawn to the proximity and beauty of Lake Ginninderra and to the long corridor that runs between the street and the arts centre. For the space here I sensed that it would be exciting to take the viewer on a journey. Given the dance studio’s vicinity and given that dance in all cultures is an energetic festival of life and movement, I felt that here was an opportunity to create in colour and line, a moving homage to the people through a dance metaphor of energy and vitality.
In this instance the water, the architecture of the building and the vertical lines echoed in the fabric of the building, suggest a celebration of movement. The sculpture develops this theme and is like a ballet in which these lines of different characters have their own part, choreographed and moved gently by the wind. Like music in dance, wind is the critical element in this production, shaping and forming with its influence.
Dance unites us all. All cultures have a form of dance, as do many birds and wildlife. Leaves dance and swirl in the wind, waves dance upon the sea. On visiting the site and looking at the relationship between the arts centre, Lake Ginninderra and the natural environment, I sense that dance is a uniting factor, bringing all the elements together to form a completeness.
I have created this work in yellows; one a warm rich yellow; the other a vibrant sunny yellow. The name for Lake Ginninderra comes from Ginin-ginin-derry which means throwing out little rays of light, sparkling. Dancers on a Lakefront captures this meaning in many different ways, from the colour to sunlight dancing on the rods, to its analogy with dance which, to me, resembles light, illuminating stories, openly and powerfully expressing emotion. The work also refers to the wider environment, the wheatfields in rural ACT, the grasses and reeds around Lake Ginninderra. At night the work will change to become a beacon, a welcoming light drawing people towards the building, and that the ebb and flow of people around the work creates its own dialogue, the people moving around it becoming part of the artwork. Often when creating an artwork there are pleasant surprises. In this case the reflection of the artwork in the windows of the dance studio behind it; and on Lake Ginninderra.”
Magpie Message Stick #3 (2020)
Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello
Bullseye glass
The Magpie Message Stick #3 belongs to a series of message sticks which reference both our traditional message sticks, which serve various functions, such as tokens of safe passage, summons to ceremony or trade, and other forms of communication, as well as specific native birds which are known to be messengers bringing news, predictions, or warnings.
This work holds some of the ashes from the smoking ceremony performed by Wiradjuri Echoes at dawn, 21 August 2020 to mark the completion of Belconnen Arts Centre and the beginning of our new era.
They are made from Bullseye glass, which is kiln fused, cut into strips, re-assembled and re-fused multiple times, and then wheel carved on a diamond lathe and polished to its final satin like finish.
Powerful Owl (2010)
Bruce Armstrong
1957 – 2024
Bronze and timber
A maquette for the public artwork Owl, located at the intersection of Benjamin and Belconnen Ways, Belconnen. Melbourne based sculptor Bruce Armstrong’s work is typically monumental and often described as shamanistic. Owl was conceived as a guardian spirit overlooking the entrance to the Belconnen town centre.
Follow the Belconnen Owl on Twitter @BelconnenOwl
Ark in the Ark and Beyond
Wataru Hamasaka
Two arks have been carved out of a single piece of white granite and the addition of water creates this beautiful floating ark within an ark. The artist’s inspiration originates from the Iwafune Shrine in Osaka – a massive, boat-shaped, traditional Shinto rock shrine.
River Lizard (2013)
Paul Haslam and Richard Lamond
“I have always been a maker, full time for the last 20 years. I have training and experience with a wide variety of tools and processes, and my art incorporates a wide array of mediums. My expression draws on interests across graphic concepts, form and function, surface and texture, and an intrigue with transience. In my art I like to lead the audience’s thoughts with minimal content. While exploring Ginninderra Creek we were impressed by a lizard on the opposite bank. We have used the lizard’s form to express some of the personalities of the river as it interacts with the landscape” – Richard Lamond
Kindly donated to Belconnen Arts Centre by Rena McCawley.