More than half a million dollars will flow to First Nations-led arts and cultural projects across New South Wales under the latest round of Create NSW’s Creative Nations Project Funding program.

Eight projects will share $566,981 in 2025/26 funding, supporting more than 100 First Nations artists and arts workers. The investment backs initiatives designed to empower communities through truth-telling, cultural knowledge-sharing and intergenerational exchange.

Regional NSW was strongly represented, with six of the eight successful projects based outside metropolitan centres. Those regional initiatives will receive more than 80 per cent of the total funding allocation.

The funded projects span survivor-led exhibitions, digital cultural mapping, artefact-making workshops and leadership programs, as well as the activation of culturally safe spaces for storytelling and community connection.

NAISDA Advanced Diploma Jorja Burgess, echoing the future, Carriageworks 2025. Photo © Anthony Edgar

Among the recipients is Creative Futures: Shaping the Next 50 Years of First Nations Dance, led by NAISDA Dance College in partnership with BlakDance and Carriageworks....