Creating the future of First Nations Art
Teleisha Thomas
March 2026In 2026, FUTURE COUNTRY – the second iteration of the Country Road + NGV First Nations Commissions – invites artists to look to the future while simultaneously acknowledging the past. Working across diverse mediums and innovative practices, the selected artists respond to the exhibition’s key themes of ancestral memory, truth-telling, restorying, and future-making.
The Commission pairs an outstanding emerging Australian First Nations artist or designer with an esteemed industry leader from each state and territory across Australia. The initiative provides a career defining platform for artists to make their most ambitious work to date, exploring new mediums, scales and ideas that push the boundaries of their practices.
The nominated artists represent a diverse range of disciplines, ranging from photography, video, sculpture, weaving and textiles, installation and more. Supported by their mentor through conception, development and creation, artists are given the space to make their most ambitious work to date.
I am hoping that this work challenges the way people interact with photographs. I want people to be pushed beyond the act of ‘looking,’ into a mode of engagement which involves a physical interaction. Photographs have an inherent tactility and materiality and I hope the work helps people consider this.
Jahkarli Romanis, Artist
THE RECIPIENTS OF 2026 COUNTRY ROAD + NGV FIRST NATIONS COMMISSIONS ARE
Brook Andrew (Mentor) and Jahkarli Romanis (VIC) | Clothilde Bullen (Mentor) and Katie West (WA) | Megan Cope (Mentor) and Boneta-Marie Mabo (QLD) | Brenda L Croft (Mentor) and Paul Girrawah House (ACT) | Karla Dickens (Mentor) and Charlotte Allingham (Coffinbirth) (NSW) | Lola Greeno (Mentor) and Nunami Sculthorpe-Green (TAS) | Doreen Jinggarrabarra (Mentor) and Stephanie Ali (NT) | Yhonnie Scarce (Mentor) and Carly Tarkari Dodd (SA)
ABOUT THE VICTORIAN RECIPIENTS
ARTIST JAHKARLI ROMANIS
Born and raised on Wadawurrung Country and currently based on Wurundjeri Country, Jahkarli Felicitas Romanis is a proud Pitta Pitta woman, artist and researcher. Her work challenges colonial image-making practices and interrogates the biases embedded within different imaging technologies. Spanning photography, moving image and spoken word, her practice is informed by family stories, oral histories and archival research. Romanis recently completed a PhD at Monash University through the Wominjeka Djeembana Indigenous Research Lab in the Faculty of Art, Design, and Architecture. In 2026, she was recently awarded the winner of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, held on Larrakia Country in Darwin.
Jahkarli Romanis, Photo: Lachlan Beckworth
MENTOR BROOK ANDREW
Brook Andrew is a Wiradjuri and Ngunnawal artist and curator based between Melbourne, Kulin Country and Medellín, Colombia. Working across museum intervention, public art, and a range of mediums, his practice offers powerful insights into contemporary conditions and the legacies of colonialism. Many of his artworks are inspired by traditions of mark making and language from Wiradjuri, his grandmother’s Country in Western New South Wales. Recent exhibitions include Resonant: Bodies, Songs, and Strings, Musée d’Art et de Culture Soufis MTO, Chatou (2025). Brook is Director Reimagining Museums and Collections at the University of Melbourne and Adjunct Curator ngurambang-ayinya (First Nations), Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
