Sale of NFT artwork supports digital creativity program for Indigenous youth

An NFT artwork by Raoul Marks, sold in cryptocurrency converted to Australian dollars, is about to pay digital dividends for Indigenous youth.

Jakeile Coffin during a beat making workshop in the Digital Lab at Roebourne. Picture: Claire Leach

Indigenous youth in the north West Australian town of Roebourne are learning to use digital technology for art-making and self-expression in an innovative program devised by Big hART that is now supported with a ­donation through The Australian.

The Digital Lab offers young people mentoring and the tools to make their own artworks, helping to close the technology gap between students in the ­remote Pilbara region and those in well-resourced city schools.

“We have to spend money where inclusion in the digital world is a real issue, and catch kids up,” said Big hART’s creative director and founder, Scott Rankin. “These young people, once they get the opportunity, are exceptional visually in their artforms and they are exceptional storytellers.”

Raoul Marks’ artwork sold on the website SuperRare.

The Australian’s support is via the sale of an NFT (non-fungible token) digital artwork by Raoul Marks that was featured on the cover of the inaugural issue in May of The List – 100 Arts & Culture.

Marks, a graphic designer and double Emmy award-winner, donated the artwork showing an astronaut in an alien landscape, called My Father Had a Garden, and offered it for sale on the curated website Super­Rare. It was snapped up by a buyer in The Philippines, the owner of a chain of bookshops, who paid 20 ether, a unit of cryptocurrency equivalent to about $US20,000.

When converted, it will provide a donation of $27,500 to Big hART’s Digital Lab where it will support the position of artist mentor Jordan East.