Where Earth Meets Sky, and Story Becomes Art
When the sky opens and the first stars appear, I see more than light. I see lineage, memory, belonging.
I’m Nuriah Jadai, a Mangala and Martu artist from the Bidyadanga Community, Western Australia. My people are the Sky People, and our stories flow between the earth beneath our feet and the sky above. It’s in this space, between dust and light, that I find my voice as an artist.
Between earth and sky, where dust meets starlight, I create.
From my home in Bidyadanga to the ochre desert of Mangala Country, I draw from both ancient knowledge and the imaginative worlds I grew up with — Star Wars, Paul Jennings stories, and dragons.
These worlds have always existed side by side for me, shaping an artistic practice that moves between tradition and tomorrow.
“You can get anything from nothing and make it something.”
- Nuriah Jadai
Orbits of Creation
Photography, for me, is both art and remembering.
It’s how I honour the small moments that often go unseen — the amber red to charcoal black of campfire flames, the soft shadows that shape Country, the faces of those who belong to it. My camera moves close, capturing the intimacy between place and identity.
Fashion allows me to translate Country into something you can wear.
Working with my sister Corina, I use secondhand fabrics and community seamstresses to create garments that are sustainable, tactile, and full of story. At the 2025 KAFTA Runway in Broome, three generations — my mother, my sister, and our young models — walked together. It was more than a fashion show; it was a celebration of who we are.
My paintings began before I could remember — dots, colour, the rhythm of Country.
Today, I use fine dot work to tell stories that shift and reveal something new each time you look. My canvases are both maps and memories, grounded in Mangala tradition yet open to new light.
I grew up in a tin shed with no furniture, no anything — and dreamed of making my own.
Now I create pieces like The Gathering Place, circular forms made from Australian steel and Pilbara marble, woven with fabric from Australia’s last working loom. Each piece is both functional and ceremonial, carrying what I call “gathering since time began.”
I come from the Bidyadanga Community, the largest Aboriginal community in Western Australia. My people are the Sky People, our stories written across both land and sky.
As a child, I imagined worlds beyond my reach: dragons, galaxies, stories where light could bend and dust could rise. Those imaginings became the foundation for how I see Country today — not just as land, but as an entire universe of connection.
My work spans painting, photography, fashion, and furniture design, each one a way of honouring where I come from while stepping into what’s possible. As the first female First Nations furniture designer in Western Australia, I’ve learned that creativity isn’t about what we have — it’s about what we make from what we’re given.
Gravity & Gratitude
My work is rooted in two forces: gravity and gratitude.
Gravity — that pull back to Country, to community, to everything that grounds me.
Gratitude — the lightness that comes from seeing beauty in what’s already here.
I move between both: between the weight of history and the lift of imagination. Between the ochre dust beneath my feet and the constellations above. Every piece I create is an offering — of thanks, of presence, of possibility. Between gratitude and creation, that’s where my empire begins.