The 2024 NAIDOC poster has been unveiled and gee it's deadly

The artwork shows an ancestor's hands placing an ember into a burning fire, representing the sharing of cultural knowledge from one generation to the next.

This year's NAIDOC poster is titled 'Urapun Muy’, meaning 'one fire'. Credit: Supplied

The National NAIDOC committee have announced Samuawgadhalgal artist and educator Deb Belyea as the winner of the 2024 NAIDOC Week Poster Competition.

Belyea's winning entry is titled, ‘Urapun Muy’ (pronounced Oorr-up-oon Mooy), and means ‘One Fire’ in the Kalaw Kawaw Ya (pronounced Kull-ow Koww-ow Yah) dialect.

“When I saw that the NAIDOC theme for this year was Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud, I wanted to create an art piece that reflected our First Nations cultures," said Belyea.

“Culture is the fire that burns within all of us. It is essential to us when we talk about our people, identity, and spirituality."

This years NAIDOC poster competition winner, Deb Belyea Credit: Supplied

Belyea is a proud member of the Samuawgadhalgal, Cassowary Clan, whose bloodlines stretch to the people of the top Western Torres Strait islands of Saibai, Dauan, and the Bamaga-Saibai community of Cape York.

The illustrious NAIDOC poster competition has been held since 1967 when the National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) first began producing posters.

National NAIDOC Committee Co-Chair Steven Satour said that Belyea's design perfectly captured the meaning of the 2024 theme.

There is a fire ember at the centre of the piece. Credit: Provided

"We saw tremendous talent in this year’s NAIDOC poster competition. We knew the theme would inspire mob and Deb’s work was exceptional," says Satour.

Belyea says that throughout our lives, culture is taught to us by our Elders in our rich heritage languages, which have sprouted from our homelands.

"It shows us our roads to one another and how we belong to our place or Country. As First Nations mob, it is our lifelong responsibility of learning, teaching and practising culture."

National NAIDOC Week Posters will be distributed across all Kmart, K hub and Target stores nationwide from early June.