Exhibition · NAIDOC Week 2025
The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy
Two photographic series, the Pilbara Portraits and the Shaede Project, shown together for NAIDOC Week 2025. The works confront the gaps in opportunity and visibility that Aboriginal children and Blak and Queer people face in Australia today.
When 4 to 13 July 2025
Where Heart Space Copa, 206 Del Monte Place, Copacabana NSW
Entry Free
About the exhibition
Ripple Narratives presented The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy as part of NAIDOC Week 2025. It brought together two connected portrait series to explore identity, justice, cultural continuity and the legacy we leave behind.
The Pilbara Portraits show the lived experience of children and families in remote Aboriginal communities, in some of Australia’s most disadvantaged regions. The Shaede Project is a celebration of Blak and Queer expression, fluidity and sovereignty that pushes back on colonial binaries.
The room was set up as an immersive space, with loosely grouped portraits and red desert sand. Visitors were invited to take off their shoes and stand barefoot in the sand as they moved through the exhibition.
On opening night, Shaede was in the room in the same dress, ochre and adornments seen in the images: a living sculpture in a quiet, two-hour performance that reclaimed the gaze.
The NAIDOC 2025 theme runs through every part of the exhibition, from the children photographed in the Pilbara to Shaede reclaiming space and story.
Pilbara Portraits
Artist Ripple Narratives
Medium Photography
Print Canson Infinity Edition Etching Rag 310 gsm, matte
Year 2025
Hung rear to entrance
Portraits, each 20.32 x 25.4 cm
Whirlwind Wonder
Thumbs Up Warrior
Unflinching
No Words, Just Fire
Glint and Grit
The Watcher
What the Eyes Hold
Strength in Her Smile
Seen Enough
Elder of the Eyes
She Who Remembers
The Matriarch
Contextual photographs, each 15.24 x 20.32 cm
Hedland House, Termite Mound, Murujuga Wide, Murujuga, Fence Climb, Jigalong Car, Jigalong Church, Jigalong Family, Jigalong Creek, Jigalong Football, Jigalong Football Team, Jigalong Kids, Jigalong Road, Jigalong Shed, Karijini Canyon Tree, Karijini Canyon, Karijini Dirt Road, Karijini Long Road, Karijini Rocks, Tap Drink, Warralong, Yaandina Youth
The Shaede Project
Artists Ripple Narratives with Dylan “Shaede” Hoskins
Medium Photography
Print Canson Infinity Platine Fibre Rag 310 gsm, satin
Year 2025
Hung entrance to rear
Works
Ceremony for One, 76 x 51 cm
Do You See, Me?, 76 x 51 cm
The Gaze, 51 x 76 cm
Veil of the Ancestors, 51 x 76 cm
Crowned Warrior, 76 x 51 cm
Rising Sovereign, 76 x 51 cm
Adornment and Armour, 76 x 51 cm, front window
The artists
Ripple Narratives
Ripple Narratives is a visual storytelling agency co-founded by Luke Gemmill and Scott Lahiff. It works across portraiture, documentary and immersive storytelling, bringing under-represented voices forward through collaborative, culturally careful practice.
Scott Lahiff
Scott is a photographer who tells stories through human connection. His documentary eye and collaborative approach produce honest images of the lived experience of people and communities.
Luke Gemmill
Luke is a proud Palawa man and multidisciplinary storyteller. A filmmaker, photographer and cultural advocate, his work spans commercial, cultural and community storytelling and centres First Nations perspectives.
Dylan “Shaede” Hoskins
Dylan Hoskins is a Dunghutti, Bundjalung and Gumbaynggirr multidisciplinary artist. He/They are a gender non-conforming, Queer Blak storyteller and a curator of connection through music, story and space. Dylan’s work spans cultural production, performance and activism, and their practice is rooted in presence, care and cultural responsibility. It makes spaces where creativity can breathe, community can gather and art can be a form of truth-telling.
Instagram: @itshaede · Ambassador: @blaqmobs
Acknowledgements
Ripple Narratives thanks the communities of the Pilbara, in particular the families, children and Elders who welcomed us. Thank you to our collaborators Dylan “Shaede” Hoskins, Jesse Lethbridge and Josef Graf-Cooper, to Heart Space Copa, and to the organisations who helped with travel and access across Country. We honour the cultural protocols and lived truths shared with us.
Special thanks
Pilbara Community Legal Service
Wirraka Maya Health Service Aboriginal Corporation
Yaandina Community Services
Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA)
Banjima Native Title Aboriginal Corporation (BNTAC)
Yinhawangka Aboriginal Corporation (YAC)
Eastern Guruma Aboriginal Corporation (EGAC)
Martu people of the Jigalong and Warralong remote communities
Kariyarra Nation
Ngarda-Ngarli people
Darug Custodians
Dunghutti Elders
Sacred sites featured, with permission
Karijini National Park
Murujuga
Why it matters
“This work is about more than sharing images. It’s about starting a conversation. These portraits are a way of making sure the faces and stories of children in the Pilbara, and of Blak and Queer identities, aren’t overlooked. It’s about meeting them on equal ground and asking: what legacy are we leaving for the next generation?”
Luke Gemmill, co-founder, Ripple Narratives