The "6x6" Artists Connecting Community Project is a concept that brought  nationally renowned non-indigenous artists (Gabrielle Courtenay, David Larwill, Ian Marr, Adam Rish, Luke Sciberras, Garry Shead, Jonathon Throsby, Greg Weight and William Yang) together to spend six hours a day for six days in Moree working alongside local indigenous artists (Margaret Adams, Brent Beale, Ellen Draper, Joy Duncan, Paula Duncan, May Hinch, William (Billo) Priestly), each being a mentor and guide to the other. The artists’ brief was 'New Horizons: Indigenous Families and Children within the Moree Landscape'. Each of the artists represented one discipline from six visual arts genres: abstract, figurative, landscape, photography, portrait, and sculpture. Historically, Aboriginal people (particularly young Aboriginal mothers) have experienced discomfort and dislocation through the intervention of non-Aboriginal welfare services. In these environments young Aboriginal mothers and families are made to feel that their approach to parenting is incorrect, with the focus of the intervention fixed firmly on their problems rather than on their potential and their strengths. In an environment, where families and individuals are out of their comfort zone, barriers are built and blocks to learning are perpetuated. This project places the non-Aboriginal artists in an environment that is removed from their comfort zone and places them in the world of this particular Aboriginal experience. Art formed the bridge between the two cultures and differing life experiences. Through the shared experience of creating art, barriers were dissolved and interpersonal connections made.

The (mostly) urban non-indigenous artists worked together with the local indigenous artists to each produce works that expressed their individual interpretation of the vitality and importance of families and children within the Moree community landscape - a landscape that, for many indigenous people, is characterised by marginalisation and hardship. In this landscape the subject was the future and the artist’s perspective became a vision of how to communicate this 'new horizon' through a visual dialogue of their respective interpretations of the brief. The "6x6" Artists Connection Community Project has been documented by a documentary filmmaker, Anna Cater, and a stills photographer, Wendy Kimpton, who each also mentored a local indigenous filmmaker and photographer, BE Leader Rosie Raphaela.

The culmination of the project was the showcasing of the completed ‘6x6’ works alongside other art works produced by Connections and Mubali in two exhibitions: one at the Moree Plains Art Gallery in September 2009 and the other in Sydney at the NG Gallery in January 2010.

For further information about this project, please contact the BE office on 02 6772 0101 or at admin@beyondempathy.org.au