Alongside being an active board member of Kinaway, proud Taungurung man Matthew
Everitt has been running the Dreamtime Art Creative Consultancy with his partner, Fatima
since 2009. Dreamtime Art are trusted advisors whose job is to provide technical and cultural
solutions to a range of clients in and around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and its
management. They offer a range of services including signage, curation, integration,
commissions, design work and more.
A core value of the company is learning, “An organisation will walk in at the beginning of
their journey, not knowing, and will walk out, knowing,” Everitt says. It’s about the
transferring of knowledge to incite better outcomes.
First and foremost, it is an artist-first space. Dreamtime Art is committed to protecting artists’
copyrights, their intellectual properties as well as their Indigenous cultural intellectual
property.
With the rise of technology and Web 3.0, there is quite a general misunderstanding
surrounding issues of copyright and ownership. Their approach for digital transformation
includes the unique offering of a licensing platform that houses Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander artists. Artists look at areas such as the buyer experience, how to retain copyrights,
putting forth protocols to form the best practice, ethical payment structures and what
royalties will look like. This unique artist-led approach ensures that artists maintain a voice
not only in their art, but a voice in the business and financial process succeeding it – a
process in which Dreamtime Art is transparent about for all artists.
For any Indigenous artists out there who are finding their voice in art, “Keep doing what
you’re doing. If your voice is quieter today, it will be louder tomorrow.” Everitt reminds artists
that it’s okay to be contentious; it’s okay to be confrontational. Your job is to communicate
your own unique values and ideas and unapologetically challenge others. Dreamtime Art’s
job is to provide you with the platform and utilise technology to amplify those messages.
When entering an emerging space, do so with diligence. “You can’t wait for the government
to target first nations communities,” Everitt says. It’s about surrounding yourself with
likeminded people in the NFT community to forge your own path.
Written by Beatrice Madamba