Young Menang leader Kiya Watt shares her cultural stories through art

Inspirational Menang Gnudju Noongar woman Kiya Watt has been an established artist for more than three years now after discovering her passion when painting a NAIDOC Week project with her children. By learning about her culture through painting with her children and telling them stories, Watt began her own journey into the realm of Aboriginal art. Through painting, she has deepened connections with her family and culture, and now uses her platform to raise awareness about the issues affecting her people today. “I think I felt responsible as a mother and a Noongar woman and having children I really wanted to learn about my culture,” she said. “We used art as a way of storytelling, that’s the main reason I really wanted to pursue art and activism. “I come from a long line of artists and storytellers, a lot of my family are respected elders in the Albany community and I have many amazing role models to look up to.” At 27 years old, she already has a huge social media following. With 22,000 followers on Instagram and 4900 on Facebook, she is an emerging leader with influence in the community. She specialises in murals, corporate commissions and workshops where she draws on traditional stories learnt from elders and contemporary stories based on experiences of reconnecting with family. Though she was born in Albany, where she lives today, Watt grew up in Denmark. Her experience with Aboriginal people was very minimal as the Denmark population was predominantly non-Indigenous. Her family is from Doubtful Islands, a group of small islands 20km east of Bremer Bay. The Noongar nation in the South West WA is made up of 14 different language groups. Menang is the Albany region and Gnudju is around Esperance where Watt’s great-grandmother migrated from. Watt has just completed her latest piece of art — her biggest to date. The 3m-long canvas portrays her representation of reconciliation. “I was commissioned to create this for a Reconciliation Action Plan where the art is printed on to programming and the company makes a promise to be more inclusive and culturally appropriate throughout the business,” she said. “I’ve done this for them, reflected my story, my culture, and the animals from Menang country.” She wants people to understand there are many Aboriginal language groups. “I always try to educate people about the importance of acknowledging that we’re not all the same, we all have different identities and I try to honour my identity through my work,” she said. One way she has furthered that cause was through the addition of a Noongar doll named Kiya on iconic Australian children’s TV program Play School last year. The artwork on her clothing symbolises the ocean, an intrinsic element on Menang Noongar culture. “It’s really exciting and it’s really important to teach about identities,” she said. “Playschool has had Aboriginal dolls before which were quite tokenistic, whereas Kiya is a Noongar doll and has a cultural identity to allow children to have that understanding.” Not only is the single mother of three an artist, but she also works full-time as an Aboriginal youth worker at Palmerston. “I do a lot of community work, counselling and mentoring Aboriginal youth, I’m in an emerging leaders Noongar group where we start up initiatives for the Noongar community in Albany and bush classrooms teaching culture and educating through art,” she said. “The bush classrooms are where I want to run my workshops through which I want to teach business skills to Noongar youth so they can navigate the business world and have skills I’ve learnt. “It’s challenging trying to juggle everything. I’m a single sole parent of three children so time is really tight but I feel committed to giving back to my community so that drives me to keep finding time somewhere.” She is passionate about using her platform to highlight issues impacting Indigenous Australians that can go untouched by mainstream media. “It’s really important to me because a lot of our language and culture is lost and I want to learn everything I can so I can be a good leader and an elder eventually for the next generation of Noongar youth,” she said. “I want them to have role models to look up to and people out there fighting so they can feel encouraged to then handle that fight as well when it’s their time.”