State government corporation axes Brisbane sign’s Indigenous makeover

In short:

A Queensland government-backed corporation went back on approval to decorate the Brisbane sign in Aboriginal artwork.

The ABC can reveal the proposed artwork was quietly axed despite being earlier budgeted and approved.

The decision has amplified perceptions that Indigenous voices in state activities are being erased.

A state government-backed corporation reneged on approval to decorate the tourism hotspot Brisbane sign in Aboriginal artwork during an Indigenous arts festival, the ABC can reveal.

The sign overlooks the city's heart and river, and is described by South Bank Corporation as an "iconic photo stop". Even tennis legend Roger Federer was filmed there.

But the quiet axing of the proposed temporary artwork, despite it having been earlier budgeted and approved by government-backed entities including South Bank, has amplified perceptions that Indigenous voices in state activities are being erased.

South Bank brushed aside questions about culture wars, saying the issue arose because a newly appointed board had to reconsider approving the decoration but lacked time to do so. It would not answer questions including how much time was needed.

This year's Clancestry festival took place over 10 days from July 30, involving storytelling, dance, markets and music. Country singer Troy Cassar-Daley was a headline act.

The festival has been run by the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, based at South Bank next to the Brisbane sign, since 2013.

Documents exclusively obtained by the ABC under right to information laws detail this year's plans to temporarily redecorate — or "reskin" — the Brisbane sign for the festival.

It would have been clad in traditional patterns and colours from aqua to brown, designed by Nunukul artist Casey Coolwell-Fisher of North Stradbroke Island. Her work has been used by the festival since 2022.

The $15,170 cost was "within a festival budget enabled by generous corporate sponsorship of event partners Energy Queensland", a QPAC employee wrote in an email to an arts department bureaucrat in April this year.

"South Bank Corporation (and all three signatories to the deed controlling the Brisbane sign) approved the re-skinning of the Brisbane sign with the Clancestry artwork for the duration of the festival."

The correspondence indicates acute sensitivity at the time about the redecoration.

QPAC was responding to "urgent" queries from the arts department. Those answers were passed on to executive-department levels and even an adviser to Arts Minister John-Paul Langbroek.

One departmental bureaucrat wrote: "Can it be publicly said that Energex paid for the sign?"

The department did not answer ABC queries about the urgency, saying correspondence was within "routine responsibilities".

On July 3, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie announced a renewal of South Bank's board, including several appointees with links to Conservative politics.

They included former LNP federal member for Brisbane Trevor Evans and incoming chairwoman Karen Howard, a businesswoman who stood as a NSW Liberal candidate in the 2016 federal election.

Within five days, the redecoration approval for Clancestry was in tatters.

Confidential briefing papers say QPAC chief executive Rachel Healy received an email from Julia Scodellaro, her South Bank counterpart, "advising that, due to recent changes to South Bank Corporation's board membership, South Bank Corporation was 'no longer able to provide approval'" for the sign.

South Bank told the ABC the Brisbane sign was a "major asset and the request to reskin it therefore also required consideration by the newly constituted board, which it was unable to do in time for Clancestry".

"South Bank Corporation is committed to supporting all events in the precinct, including Clancestry which was promoted across a range of our channels, including digital and physical displays as well as online."

But Jackie Huggins, a director of partnerships and innovation for Indigenous engagement at the University of Queensland, described the explanation about axing the sign proposal as inadequate.

Dr Huggins, who is also the ABC's Elder-in-residence and who has served as a director on state-backed entities, said boards "can be very biased in terms of how they serve the government".

"I think this is a broader agenda for the powers that be to simply and deliberately attempt … to erase our culture and our presence,"she said.

Dr Huggins pointed to the new state government's cancellation of a Truth Telling and Healing inquiry.

Indigenous figures including Joshua Creamer, a barrister who had chaired that inquiry, have also raised claims of what is called "Project Invisibility", including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders being removed from boards, and programs being defunded.

But a Crisafulli state government spokesman said there was "no such thing as Project Invisibility", that suggesting otherwise was offensive, and that the government was listening to local elected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander councils to deliver "tangible outcomes".

Decisions about assets, which include the Brisbane sign, were a matter for South Bank, he said.

The Brisbane sign was originally created in 2014 as a temporary landmark for the G20 summit, when world leaders including then-US president Barack Obama and Russia's Vladimir Putin came to the city.

It has since then been refurbished multiple times.

Dr Huggins said of the now-axed Clancestry redecoration: "The design was fabulous … it's very symbolic."