Indigenous artists dreaming of another shot at Qantas flying art

The idea to emblazon a Qantas jet with indigenous art came to designer Ros Moriarty at two in the morning.

The ‘Wunala Dreaming’ Qantas Boeing 747-400 jet.

The idea to emblazon a Qantas jet with indigenous art came to designer Ros Moriarty at two in the morning, and as hard as she tried, she could not shake it.

“I don’t know where it came from. (Husband) John said ‘Go back to sleep, it’ll never happen’,” recalled Moriarty, the co-owner of Balarinji indigenous art and design.

“At the time (1993), Qantas was the biggest brand in the world profiling Australia, and I thought if the biggest Australian would say something beautiful about Aboriginal culture, art and design, that would go a very long way.”

After Moriarty lobbied “anyone with anything to do with Qantas” for months, the airline agreed to paint a Boeing 747-400 with the now famous “Wunala (kangaroo) Dreaming” livery, and history was made. “It came down to commerce in the end,” said Moriarty. “Ansett was flying its first international flights and Qantas needed to race Ansett to the opening of Kansai Airport in Osaka. That provided the impetus to actually make Wunala Dreaming happen and overnight it became the most photographed aircraft in the world.”

What was meant to be a three-month project became the start of Qantas’s Flying Art series, which has now resulted in five aircraft taking to the skies bearing Balarinji’s designs.

This Wednesday will mark 25 years since Wunala Dreaming first flew and Moriarty is hopeful Qantas will look to Balarinji again, when the ambitious Project Sunrise flights begin in 2022-23.

Described by Qantas Group chief executive Alan Joyce as the “final frontier in aviation”, the non-stop flights connecting Australia’s east coast with cities such as New York and London will be undertaken by either Boeing’s 777X aircraft or Airbus A350ULR.

Qantas will choose by the end of the year, and Moriarty said Balarinji would be thrilled to see one of those aircraft in another striking indigenous art livery.

“We would be delighted,” she said.

“The aircraft are always developed with a fair amount of secrecy and confidentiality but there’s not an aircraft in the pipeline now.”