Voices Rising Fund

Aims to elevate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices by supporting the creation of publishable works across literature and music of all styles and genres.

This includes, but is not limited to, works in music, poetry, novels, non-fiction, photography and other media forms for any audience. The focus is on enabling culturally significant projects to move from concept to publication, bridging the gap between creation and commercial distribution.
‍
Rather than relying on traditional advance payments to artists, the Voices Rising Fund invests directly in the development of these projects, providing resources and support to bring them to fruition. Awesome Black acts as a cultural and creative intermediary, ensuring artists, publishers, and labels work together in a collaborative and equitable way. In return, Awesome Black will maintain a small royalty share in the completed project, to be negotiated at the time of contracting, which will be invested in future Voices Rising Fund projects.

The Voices Rising Fund collaborates with a range of industry partners across music and books, including Principal Publishing Partner (Books) Allen & Unwin, to help find the right home for your project.

The Voices Rising Fund is open for applications year-round with no closing date. Assessments will take place twice annually, with a maximum of $60,000 distributed across a minimum of two projects per year. The amount allocated to each project will be determined by Awesome Black, with the funds being allocated to each artist and costs associated with their project.

Applicants can be of any age and career stage, and must be Australian citizens of Australian Indigenous/Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander heritage. Applicants should be recognised by their community and/or have tribal affiliation.

If you are applying as a band, group or collective with non-Indigenous members, you must be able to demonstrate that the project is Indigenous-led, with necessary creative and cultural collaboration and leadership from the Indigenous members. Financial benefit from the Voices Rising Fund must be split equally (at a minimum) between all members and ideally in favour of the Indigenous members.

The project you are pitching must be publishable once completed, for example as an album or book.

Applicants should ideally have prior experience within the creative industries, however, first-time creators may be selected where there is a clear strategic, creative or cultural opportunity.

Aims to elevate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices by supporting the creation of publishable works across literature and music of all styles and genres.