White horizontal wording of Yirra Miya First Nations Creative Agency with an icon logo on the left.
Graphic Design and Layout,
Illustration

Coastal Management

2024
NSW Government Logo

Connect & Discover

The Department of Planning and the Environment contacted Yirra Miya as part of the NSW Government’s commitment to enhancing the lives of First Nations people through empowering local communities to inform decisions related to managing Country. Over the next five years, their aim is to focus on increasing the level of engagement of Aboriginal communities in coastal management.

To assist and facilitate this commitment, guidelines were prepared that provided an overview of the considerations for engaging Aboriginal communities, knowledge holders, and Aboriginal-led organisations through approaches that are culturally safe, respectful, and reciprocal.

Leticia and Lauren were excited to meet with the DCCEEW team to discuss this thoughtful and exciting project and knew that they could, together, bring these important guidelines to life.

A light blue symbol of a larger circle in the middle and smaller circles surrounding it.

Gather & Create

Cultural Illustrations

Lauren’s cultural ties are to Saltwater Country so developing the illustrations to accompany the guidelines meant Lauren could draw upon her cultural roots and, in close collaboration with the team at DCCEEW, illustrate the themes that had been identified.

A photo of our cultural designer Lauren. She is smiling, has brown hair and is wearing a white and black checked tshirt.
Relationships

Relationships

This illustration represents the process of developing, building, strengthening, and maintaining relationships. This illustration shows 5 yarning circles that are interconnected to represent the importance of the key themes of rapport-building through the CMP process. These themes include: cultural safety and responsibility, engagement skills and expertise, resources and support, identifying stakeholder and engagement opportunities, as well as Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP). The different symbols used in this illustration represent people, community, and connection to Country.
Cultural Safety

Cultural safety

This illustration is a representation of cultural safety and the importance that holding culturally safe spaces has within the CMP process. To be culturally safe is to create an environment that is spiritually, socially, physically, and emotionally safe. At the centre of these 3 yarning circles are people coming together to meet and share knowledge. The different layers throughout the yarning circles represent the different layers of safety required to hold a space safe enough to empower First Nations people with a supportive and positive environment. The kangaroo tracks represent the notion of moving forward and that, through the CMP process, the department is continuously promoting cultural safety.
Coastal Songlines

Connection to Land, Sky and Water

This element tells the story of the connection between land, sky and water. The element starts with Elders and the younger generations gathering around a meeting place to learn and connect to country. The inner dots are symbolic to traditions being passed down from generations to generations. The outer wavy lines represent our waterways and connections we have to them. While the inner circle with the lines and tiny circles represents the stars in the sky. They are all layered over one another to represent the connection they all hold to our culture.

Layout Design

The layout design was developed collaboratively within the Yirra Miya team, with Leticia leading the blend of elements and design to bring the Coastal Management guidelines to life. This was a project that was developed over many months, to ensure it was reflective of the DCCEEW team’s vision and ambition, and that it ultimately resonated with its intended audience of First Nations people.
Coastal Management Document

Share & Embrace

Lauren and Leticia lived and breathed this project and their passion for it, and enjoyment of working with the amazing DCCEEW team, is apparent in the finished document. We have received recognition from various NSW Government departments for the beautiful work reflected, blending government branding guideline requirements with the cultural storytelling told by the elements.

To view this document, please click below:

View Document

Related Projects

Spark Renewables

FNAAFV

Ausgrid

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following website may contain images, video and voices of deceased persons.