Cultural Gardeners submission to the NSW Government
Who we are
We are over 300 individuals and organisations from all states and territories, working in the cultural sector, deeply concerned with taking action on the converging planetary climate and ecological crises.
At least 135 of our group (45%) are based in NSW.
We believe that we need to look after our culture and country, that artists and the cultural sector must take a leading role in social transition to mitigate further devastation and adapt to a warming climate. Accelerated action is urgently needed.
We align to First Nations principles of Caring for Country and the Uluru Statement from the Heart. We align to a Just Transition the framework developed by the trade union movement to encompass a range of social interventions needed to secure workers' rights and livelihoods when economies are shifting to sustainable modes that combat climate change and protect biodiversity. These principles are outlined in the Paris Agreement and are also embedded in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
See our Principles for action.
As the scientific facts, data and evidence (as well as daily news reports) show, the world is already in advanced stages of a Climate Emergency with mass species extinction that is speeding towards biodiversity collapse.
At this relatively late stage, maintaining life as we know it on Earth requires all economies to transition to zero emissions while at the same time drawing down legacy carbon at emergency scale and speed, before 2030.
This extraordinary action will require strong leadership and creative responses to shift our culture toward sustainable practices and away from an economics of perpetual growth and gross consumption at the cost of the natural world.
What we advocate for:
We advocate for an intersectional and collaborative approach to creating policy; so that arts and culture can be integrated across many sectors. We acknowledge that this is new practice and requires creative approaches. This has been adopted in the REVIVE policy and we sincerely hope the NSW Government will follow this lead.
Importantly, we seek to align climate action with culture in ways that are fair, inclusive, future facing, responsive to community needs, and honour First Nations’ perspectives and a Voice to parliament.
Key policy areas where arts and culture are aligned and can make an important contribution, particularly in addressing converging crises and leading systems change are: reducing carbon emissions, eradicating pollution and waste, improving health and wellbeing, ensuring resilient communal housing, reimagining social services, place-making with nature at the centre, and involving communities more deeply in civic life.
A holistic and imaginative approach to transition is needed to move toward a future that serves all people and the ecosystems that all life depends on. Elevating cultural discourse and advocating for artists and cultural workers to play a key role in co-designing plans is an important part of the process. As cultural intermediaries, artists create openings for sharing, for education and opportunities for connection between communities.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the Climate Emergency is deepening at terrifying rates. Australia leads the world in mass extinction of species and increased incidents of extreme weather events. The global pandemic - a predicted symptom of climate disruption - has led to unprecedented global responses and continues to impact people’s lives all over the world. Culture has been radically disrupted and needs to help lead adaptation.
The Australian Arts community has been detrimentally impacted by neglect, systematic defunding, lack of appropriate policy and general lack of care. Australia now needs a future facing cultural policy that leads with an interconnected systems approach, linking policy to practice that serves the wider community.
Investment in culture can rehearse new visions for the future, illustrate many perspectives, connect people to natural environments, shape narratives that are deeply embedded in place, host challenging public conversations between people with different ideas and values to enable greater understanding and stimulate new action. This will prioritise First Nations people in NSW and celebrate diverse cultures that include all Australians.
Simplistic, siloed approaches to inherently interconnected, systemic ‘wicked’ problems do not work. Systemic ‘wicked’ problems require creative solutions, as well as a cultural response, including respect for critique and analysis. Please see our Big Idea for more on systems change.
We call on all governments and specifically the NSW state Government to:
- Invest in Arts and cultural activities that provide place-based and virtual spaces where people connect with each other to reimagine, experiment, play and express. This includes opportunities for creative and cultural work that are integrated within all aspects of society: valuing all forms of culture.
- Ensure access to trustworthy public interest information and make room for other aspects of culture that are harder to articulate and define, and are critical to fostering and safeguarding a healthy democracy.
- Develop policy that acknowledges the tensions between:
a) tangible and intangible values, highly skilled specialists and wider community participants, commercial for-profit businesses and vital not-for-profit services that will always require investment;
b) national, bio-regional and local perspectives, with NSW First Nations views privileged; and
c) real place/time and virtual experiences - all developed through diverse cultural lenses that reflect our broader society and will lead to better community outcomes.
NSW Arts and Cultural Policy consultation process.
This process has been very short and clashed with funding deadlines. This is taxing for a sector already struggling with hardship, unmanageable precarity, a mental health and well being crisis, and juggling many competing priorities.
Inspired by the REVIVE process and policy, for NSW to create an inclusive, sustainable and ambitious approach to arts and culture and lead, change is needed.
REVIVE does not mention the Climate and Ecological Crisis, a glaring omission. It is vital that the NSW Government acknowledges this as a major global challenge with plans to mitigate converging crises. Many arts and cultural workers have already suffered from COVID, a predicted symptom of Climate Change, and in the 2019/2020 bushfires and 2022 floods. There is more disruption to come. We need to mitigate and adapt.
In 2023, Earth Overshoot Day landed on August 2nd. Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity's demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. We are 5 months over extended. Too many in the creative sector are working in overdrive and reflect this excessive consumption - over using both human and natural resources.
In response to the NSW Government Arts and Cultural Policy consultation framing:
- A new look at people: How can NSW create better, more inclusive, support and pathways for practitioners in the arts, culture and creative industries?
1.1 First Nations people have a unique relationship with country which is an intrinsic part of their culture. This could lead all Australians to take better care for country and the natural world in NSW. Cultural practice heals country.
1.2 The industrialisation of culture ‘cultural industries’ are rooted in ideas of producing and selling product. This emphasis has come to undermine creative processes and practices. Reorienting towards the impact on people’s hearts, minds and spirits through engaged creative work is a vital part of the transition to a carbon positive future. This is not only vital to address mass species extinction, extreme weather events, global warming and climate change but is inextricably linked to well being, good mental health and resilience, needed for transition and adaptation.
1.3 Place-based solutions connect people and culture to bioregions and the natural world. We applaud the Federal Government’s REVIVE policy strap line ‘a place for every story, a story for every place’ and know that the state government has a vital role to play in understanding the local in NSW.
1.4 Whole life creative pathways for NSW citizens need to be mapped for artists, arts workers and the public; mindful of past trends and with responsibility for future generations and a growing, changing population.
2. A new look at infrastructure: How can NSW create and improve sustainable access to spaces, programs and other support for all aspects of artistic and cultural activity?
2.1 Artists are heavily impacted by the growing cost of housing and land. Affordable spaces to create are beyond many people’s reach. This needs addressing in NSW, particularly in major centres, to enable more people access to affordable creative learning opportunities and experiences.
2.2 Cultural infrastructure has a specific role to play in preparing people for disaster and transition, providing shelter and spaces to gather in extreme conditions and offering creative tools to all NSW citizens.
2.3 NSW has a total area of 80,160,000 hectares (801,600 square kilometres). The Macintyre and Dumaresq rivers form part of the state boundary with Queensland, while the Murray River forms part of the southern NSW-Victorian boundary.
2.4 Eighteen of the 89 Australian bioregions are represented in NSW, but only 2 of these 18 bioregions, Cobar Peneplain and the Sydney Basin, lie wholly within the NSW boundary. The other 16 are shared with the bordering states and territories: Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, South Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland and Jervis Bay Territory. The bioregion with the largest area in NSW is the Darling Riverine Plains bioregion.
2.5 These bioregions need to be considered part of NSW’s cultural infrastructure, containing many places of outstanding beauty and linking people to biodiversity that is rare, depleted, vulnerable and endangered.
3. A new look at audiences: How can NSW grow local, national and international audiences for cultural experiences, for the benefit of our community and the broader economy?
3.1 Audiences are citizens that inhabit a range of intersecting communities. In the Climate and Ecological Emergency we are all at risk and with converging crises, people are under immense pressure.
3.2 There has been a limited and reductive approach to attracting audiences, led by marketing and customer service trends. We need holistic approaches, greater emphasis on audience and community development and opportunities for everyone to learn creative skills. This will build community resilience in NSW.
3.3 According to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and water, Transport makes up 19% of Australia’s emissions and without intervention, the transport sector is projected to be Australia’s largest source of emissions by 2030. Growing audiences through tourism without careful planning for extensive emissions reduction is likely to continue to accelerate the crisis.
3.4 NSW has not had strong policy or rationale for building relationships between NSW artists/ cultural workers and artists / cultural workers/ communities in other parts of the world. This is an opportunity to develop local to local artist/ community exchange and international policy that is environmentally conscious and addresses ongoing challenges of changing climate conditions and disasters with ongoing global impacts. This is critical because otherwise agendas in other parts of the world will lead us.
4. Where should the NSW Government focus the greatest effort and resources?
4.1 Focus on transition to a carbon positive and regenerative future.
4.2 Since artists are uniquely gifted at communicating complex information in profound ways that are easily understood, we think investing in programs that empower artists to create science and research based, socially engaging work is the most impactful way forward at this challenging time.
4.3 Building creative training into NSW education systems with an emphasis on developing creative skills in the wider NSW population will help prepare the public for the challenges ahead.
4.4 Our decades of combined experience tells us that bringing artists, scientists, food growers, researchers, and civil society together through creative projects realises exponentially great results…
5. What barriers can the NSW Government remove to unlock the full potential of arts, culture and the creative industries?
5.1 The current business model provides building assets at exorbitant cost to creative companies that they are expected to lease in order to work. Funding is returned to Government with enormous human cost to arts organisations. Artistic practice needs to be valued for the vital role it plays in enriching and strengthening culture with the understanding that it requires space at peppercorn rents to be sustainable. Local authorities, such as City of Sydney, is doing more to address this need and we hope the NSW state Government could follow this lead. State assets such as schools could be invaluable creative community resources but not if schools are being urged to ‘make money’ from their resources.
5.2 The funding system is onerous, especially for relatively small amounts of funding. Many artists and arts organisations are locked into unnecessary bureaucracy and ‘busywork’ that takes time away from and undermines creative practice. Overhauling these systems so they are more accessible, common sense and less driven by data collection would help the sector to be more nimble and adaptive. We do, of course, respect the need for transparency and accountability and believe there are simpler solutions.
6. What does NSW do well?
6.1 Extraordinary First Nations Countries, Elders, Leaders and artists across the state with 65,000 years continuous culture and responsibility to Care for Country that can lead us all.
6.2 We have the largest population of any state in the country, with tens of thousands of creative artists and cultural workers and a wonderful array of iconic venues and events across the state. From the Sydney Opera House to Broken Heels Festival in Broken Hill, from Orange Regional Gallery, to the Elvis Convention in Parkes, and Blues Fest in Byron to Four Winds in Bermagui, to Sydney Festival. While small regional arts organisations continue to deliver significant collaborative events developed over time with the local community eg The Wired Lab Muttuma, Cementa Kandos, CAD Factory Narenderra. These are complimented by residencies offered by philanthropists such as Shark Island Institute and the Corridor Project.
6.2 Sydney is recognised as an ambitious global city in a diverse and progressive state. Staying connected while reducing planetary impact and resource use, needs reimagined systems built on strong place based foundations and curiosity for people we will never meet and places we will never travel to. One of the best ways to achieve this is recognition that people from across the world live in NSW and are our greatest asset.
7. What can NSW do better?
7.1 Sydney and NSW were the first point of invasion and with this history carry a specific responsibility to establish treaty and truth telling in this state. Exceptional First Nations artists and communities have informally started this process and should be recognised as leaders and supported to continue this work.Cultural practice heals country and community.
7.2 It’s not all about big numbers or the money. Arts and culture have something vitally important to offer and this needs factoring into - triple bottom line accounting or better still applying circular economy and donut economics will prepare the sector and the NSW Government for
7.2 Artists are experts, researchers, facilitators and mediators. Highly skilled, any requests for consultations requiring their expertise should be treated as professional engagements. Artists are experts, researchers, facilitators and mediators. Highly skilled, any requests for consultations requiring their expertise should be treated as professional engagements. Stop asking artists to work for free - this process of consultation with a sector of professionals would ordinarily cost for the expertise. This sector is already disadvantaged and not taken seriously, so please, pay people with lived experience and expertise to
7.3 There is a wonderful opportunity to encourage these venues and festivals to focus on transition and promote them to shorten supply chains for both infrastructure and content, attract more local audiences and showcase more local acts as well as finding creative ways to bring acts from other parts of the country and the world in ways that continue to reduce carbon and waste production.
7.4 Transport is the cause of 19% of Australia’s emissions.According to the Australian Govt, without intervention, the transport sector is projected to be Australia’s largest source of emissions by 2030. Yet that same Government is insisting that the cultural sector can grow it's 'business' through 'tourism' - which relies heavily on cheap flights that the Government subsidises. There is desperate need for better public transport infrastructure across NSW so that people can choose low carbon modes of transport to get to the wealth of NSW cultural offers.
7.5 Technology changes and saves lives, no doubt. However the environmental impact of technology is rarely considered and needs to be factored into all cultural planning. Also technology in the cultural sector is designed to be addictive, which impacts health, reinforces colonial influences and cultural cringe, particularly from UK and US. These strong external cultural influences and values can dominate Australian cultural identity and continue to undermine our rich complex multicultural society. Focusing on local low carbon creative skills in real place real time builds local cultural identity, through which to engage and exchange with international cultures.
7.6 Differentiate between public money raised through taxes and other sources of revenue. We have great concern that mimicking corporate structures and behaviours has resulted in an overemphasis on ‘business’ which is shorthand for profit driven models thar undermine the social missions of the not-for-profit sector. This is alo muddied by ‘for purpose’ business models that continue to focus on profit plus exaggerated pressure to develop small businesses and social enterprises. Enterprise and entrepreneurial models rely on extensive unpaid labour, with only 9% reaching year 4.
7.7 Hostile anti-activist legislation and action by police is also silencing artists voices. This needs to be reversed with the understanding that a strong democracy and resilient communities must be allowed to peacefully protest.
8. What's your big idea?
8.1 Preparedness for the challenges ahead require creative people and creative action. Transition to a carbon positive future is a creative process led by First Nations protocols. Schools could be utilised in holiday periods to offer cultural training and experiences to both young people and all ages, to develop creative thinking, skills and resilience.
8.2 If we consider care for country and the natural world as intrinsic to our culture, we need cultural training for new migrants so they have better understanding of the places they call home.
8.3 Planned pathways for creative futures for all NSW arts and cultural orgs that align with IPCC reporting and evolving international standards.
8.4 Artists training for emergency response which has been suggested through the Creative Recovery Taskforce*
8.5 Taking a systems change approach. This territory of emergent work is by its very nature, experimental and creative. Effective action requires critical thinking to understand dominant systems and low carbon collaborative creative skills to develop imagination for new structures led by different mindsets, processes, attitudes and behaviours.
Specifically we must promote respect for intangible cultural heritage that cannot be measured or evaluated in typical impact measurement frameworks. This is critical to honouring and preserving both First Nations and other diverse cultural practices in our richly multicultural society.
The NSW Government has already engaged in systems change work in other fields. There is opportunity for learning and deepening engagement with artists and cultural workers to accelerate the changes being called for.
Following this model, the regenerative thread reinforces a systemic decentrralised local approach that requires strong collective and collaborative skills that the arts and cultural sector is expert at delivering.