Orange Central Square is on Wiradjuri country, we pay our respect to the traditional owners, their elders past & present, and value their care and custodianship of these lands.

The Drawing Us Together initiative running from 29 June - 14 July, is a celebration of indigenous culture through the creation of a children’s story book written by Indigenous authors and illustrated by local school students.

In honour of NAIDOC Week 2024, we are proud to have partnered with five First Nations authors from across Australia to create a selection of short stories and poems inspired by this year’s NAIDOC theme, Keep The Fire Burning. We are delighted to have partnered with Jayden Boundry, Coral Reeve, Bernadette Hardy, Ellen van Neerven and Alton Walley to write this year’s short story.

Joined by our local primary schools, students were asked to submit a series of artwork to be featured as the illustrations within the story book. We thank all the talented students for their contribution.

A selection of 72 illustrations have been chosen as finalists and we’ll need your help to decide on the final illustrations to be included in the book.

To lodge your vote for your favourite illustration, simply find the exhibition in centre, located near Coles, scan the QR code and then fill out the registration form which lets you select which school and piece of artwork you’d like to see featured in the story book. It’s as easy as visiting us in centre to vote, share and support your local schools!  

Participating schools include:

• Orange Public School
• Orange East Public School
• Orange Anglican Grammar School
• Calare Public School
• Glenroi Heights Public School
  

Celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders across the community by getting involved today!