A Googong fashion designer whose work transforms cultural storytelling into wearable art has been selected as a finalist in the 2026 Indigenous Storytellers Scholarship.

Kartika Medcraft-Smith is a proud Leterrermairrener and Plangermaireener Pakana woman from North-East Tasmania, who began creating wearable art to pass on cultural stories to her own children.

She is one of the nine emerging Indigenous creatives from across New South Wales selected as finalists, each receiving a $1000 cash prize and the opportunity to be mentored by some of Australia’s most respected artists, designers, performers and storytellers.

Now in its fourth year, the program – presented by Façon Magazine and supported by Greater Bank – aims to create meaningful pathways into Australia’s creative industries, with one final recipient set to receive the full $10,000 scholarship.

“The Indigenous Storytellers Scholarship is about more than recognising talent, it’s about investing in future creative leaders and ensuring Indigenous stories continue to be shared,” said Façon Australia Founder and Editor-in-Chief Lara Lupish.

“The calibre of mentors involved this year reflects the importance of nurturing emerging Indigenous creatives and providing opportunities that can genuinely shape careers.”

Finalists will receive one-on-one guidance from their mentor as they develop projects that celebrate culture, creativity and storytelling through their chosen disciplines.

Ms Medcraft-Smith says connecting with her mentor, Indigenous model Samantha Harris, will provide invaluable insight.

“I’ve been around the art side of things, but I’m brand new to the fashion space,” she said.

“Samantha has amazing experience and history in this space, so that mentoring is something that’s going to be lifelong and is going to support my development in this space more than anything.”

Ms Medcraft-Smith has long been telling stories through art across a variety of media, such as hand-painted jewellery, but it was her first clothing collection that impressed the judges.

Pakana Dreaming is a range of easy-care, everyday clothing designed with family and accessibility in mind, while honouring and sharing ancestral stories.

Launched in May with a catwalk event in collaboration with the Canberra Institute of Technology, the collection was showcased by professional models and community members aged 17 to 54, guided by local industry experts.

“These stories are grounded in family and culture, so I wanted it to be family-friendly and affordable,” she said, “and I wanted to share specific stories about survival and maturing.

“Every piece of clothing in the range is available in each of the three artworks,” she said.

“So if anyone else is cringy like me and likes to do the whole family matchy-matchy thing for photos, you can do that.

“Pakata is about the motherhood journey and has four journey lines which represent me taking my four children home to Tasmania to meet their family and their elders in the community.”

Puwatina is about the Lunapu Caves – a place of great significance for her people in birthing, shelter, food storage, tool-making and teaching.

“It’s a cave system that actually goes for a couple of kilometres, and there was men’s and women’s business undertaken in different areas,” she said.

“For men, initiation ceremonies were held, and young men were taught how to make their tools. And for our women, mothers-to-be with their elders would come across from the Furneaux Islands, and they would all shelter in the caves for weeks until the baby was born, then support Mum and baby until they were both well enough to travel back.”

Lastly, blue-toned Muka honours the role of the oceans and rivers, namely Bass Strait and the Tamar River.

“That’s the story of the importance of water for them to connect to those caves and the healing of the ocean of our people.”

“They’re pretty incredible stories,” she said,

“Unfortunately, all our old people are gone now, and we haven’t been back for a little while.”

It’s here that Ms Medcraft-Smith plans to return should she win the major scholarship prize.

“If, by some miracle, I were the recipient of the full scholarship, that would be on my radar to take the collection down to the Mannalargenna Day Festival.

“My dream is to really sort of take the collection home, and I guess be validated by my own people.”

The winner of the $10,000 Indigenous Storytellers Scholarship will be announced on 9 July at a special event during NAIDOC Week at Murrook Culture Centre in Port Stephens.

To check out the collection, visit Pakana Dreaming.

Make us preferred on Google