2023 marks 40 years of Balarinji’s trailblazing in the Indigenous design sector. Our story began in the late 1930s when co-founder John Moriarty was born to a Yanyuwa mother and Irish father in Borroloola in the remote Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory.
Because John’s skin was paler than his mother’s, John was taken from her at the age of four as part of the now-infamous assimilationist policies of the Stolen Generations, a government strategy to eradicate Aboriginality.
John Moriarty with his mother, Kathleen Murrmayibinya
Balarinji founders, John Moriarty AM and Ros Moriarty, met in Canberra in the late 1970s and began working on ideas to celebrate the beauty of Aboriginal art and culture through design.
In early 1983, when Melbourne was home, John drew long neck turtle images which Ros screen-printed onto a doona cover for their first son, Tim Bundyan. They wanted him to feel close to their Yanyuwa family in the Gulf of Carpentaria more than 4,000 kilometres away.
From this simple expression – eventually – came design studio, Balarinji – it’s the Yanyuwa skin name of Ros and John’s sons Tim and James Djawarralwarral.
Their vision was to celebrate the heritage and identity of their sons and their daughter Julia Marrayelu. They began to realise over time that their family’s personal identity journey could resonate with Australia’s broader search for a unique belonging in the world.
Ros and John, Balarinji Studio in Norwood, SA 1995
As the studio has evolved over the past four decades its ethos has remained constant. This philosophy is more than a company value. It is deeply inspired by John’s history and the family.
Balarinji has evolved significantly over its four decades. From starting in textiles, fashion, and homewares, then adding
graphic design, public art and landmark projects for large government and private organisations nationally and internationally, the studio has reinvented itself many times. We now focus our efforts on significant brand and identity campaigns, and deeply embedded responses to the built environment and major infrastructure.
As a nation we’ve only just started to realise the richness and beauty of Aboriginal culture. It’s early days in seeing Aboriginal stories in public view. We have hardly touched the tip of the iceberg. Imagery, story, philosophy, intellectual framing, language – the incredible sources of inspiration are both an opportunity and a responsibility. The responsibility lies in bringing Aboriginal people who are local to Place to the centre of the co-design process.
Balarinji is at the vanguard of a co-design methodology that is based on deeper collaboration with Indigenous stakeholders and community-endorsed creative practitioners local to Place. It allows us to activate authentic voices to draw out knowledge, protocols, history, culture and the contemporary stories of Aboriginal communities, for co-designed interpretation from the beginning to the end of projects.
This is a co-design process with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who include knowledge holders, artists and other creative practitioners. This is not a case of the client’s design team interpreting Indigenous knowledge. Rather, it is about the designers working collaboratively with Balarinji and the artists and knowledge holders to activate the authentic Indigenous narrative, protocols and principles. These then inform the design process from project inception to final delivery for a particular site. The outcomes are immeasurably richer
There have been plenty of moments throughout our journey that have surprised us. Certainly one of the most pivotal moments was finding ourselves in a hotel lift with then Qantas CEO James Strong and pitching him the idea of painting an aircraft with Aboriginal art which led to Wunala Dreaming in 1994.
Wunala was intended to be a three-month promotion, but the
joy and recognition the aircraft inspired kept her in the sky, including a repaint, for 17 years. It was euphoric for us to see her fly. Our nation that had taken John away from his family as a Stolen Generations child when he was four years old, was now heralding his culture all around the country and the globe in an indelibly visible and public way.
Wunala Dreaming was followed by four other Qantas-Balarinji Flying Art aircraft – Nalanji Dreaming (1995), Yananyi Dreaming (2002) with the art of Rene Kulitja, Mendoowoorrji (2013) with Paddy Bedford, and Emily Kame Kngwarreye (2018), named for the artist. Balarinji also designed the textile of Qantas’ longest-running uniform. Called ‘Wirriyarra’, it means ‘My Spirit Home’ in Yanyuwa
Some of our iconic projects have included the multi award winning Nation Brand Mark, award winning Burwood Brickworks art installation, Pacific Highway Aboriginal Art Trail, Australian team uniforms for the 2016 Paralympic Games, Sydney’s M12 Motorway, plus many more.
In 2012, at the request of Borroloola’s senior Law women who wanted to see their grandchildren educated, Ros and John established the Moriarty Foundation to deliver two programs, Indi Kindi and John Moriarty Football.
These programs were piloted in Borroloola where cultural traditions are strong and the local languages include Yanyuwa, Garrwa, Marra, Gudanji, and Binbingka. Today Moriarty Foundation reaches over 2,000 Indigenous children each week in 19 remote and regional communities and 20 public schools in Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales.
These programs succeed because they are Indigenous-founded, Indigenous-delivered, embedded, holistic and authentic.
For Balarinji, our goal is to build a bridge between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and deepen the understanding of Aboriginal Australia through national and international projects. We really want to see more Australian organisations embrace and celebrate our foundational Indigenous narrative. We create change for a new, shared Australian identity through design excellence.
We are deeply grateful to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members, creative practitioners and project collaborators across Australia who work with us; thank you for your knowledge, your heart and your trust.
To our clients and partners, thank you for working so effectively with us to take a new way of design thinking to the nation and the world.
A special thank you to every member of our talented team at Balarinji for their passion, creativity and dedication to shared values and great design.
