Three Indigenous-led NFT Projects elevating Indigenous art and culture
What excites me most about NFTs is how they create new opportunities for artists to share their stories, elevate their causes, and take true ownership over their work, without the need for intermediaries. This is especially important for artists from underserved communities who have traditionally faced barriers gaining access to the world of professional arts and receiving fair compensation for their work.
NFTs also provide opportunities to store and preserve important cultural art, stories, and artifacts, on an immutable blockchain so that they can live on forever. This makes them a great medium to tell stories and preserve language and culture for future generations.
In this blog post, I want to highlight three extraordinary, Indigenous-led NFT projects that are providing a platform for Indigenous artists, and that are helping elevate and preserve Indigenous art and culture around the world.
Walking Between Worlds is the world’s first genuine Indigenous Generative Collection, with a mission “to energise global Indigenous communities to amplify First Nations powerful, guiding voices through NFTs”.
Their Genesis Collection includes 2,222 unique NFTs showcasing traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island dance vogues. The collection also includes 10 unique Hero pieces which include additional elements, such as Indigenous poetry or soundscapes, to help create an immersive cultural experience.
Understanding the historical economic and technological barriers faced by Indigenous communities, Walking Between Worlds works with Indigenous communities to help them capitalize on the NFT market, leading to greater financial inclusion and self-determination for Indigenous artists.
They bring leading thinkers from within global Indigenous communities together with global experts in the cryptocurrency, technology and digital art spaces. Together, through community-based excellence, and supported by behavioural economics, their objective is to create an ecosystem to provide the foundations for global Indigenous communities to excel.
2. 400 Drums
400 Drums is an Indigenous-led NFT project “dedicated to supporting Indigenous artists, elders, language speakers and tour operators to harness new online platforms for monetizing their skills while sharing their teachings and stories.”
The 400 Drums NFTs are derived from unique Indigenous drums hand crafted by artist David Fierro. Check out a trailer for David’s drum making workshop HERE. In total, their road map includes 11,111 unique NFTs, with NFT holders having access to many benefits and rewards including the change to win a handcrafted drum.
400 Drums was designed with extensive input from Indigenous communities, with proceeds from sales supporting organizations and partnerships in support of Indigenous communities working in the areas of food, water, power, and housing security.
3. IndigeNFT
IndigeNFT is an Indigenous NFT project that “seeks to preserve and promote indigenous culture by bridging the gap between indigenous communities and new emerging decentralised technologies, specifically NFTs, Web3 and the Metaverse.”
Their first collection, launching in May, features Australian animals symbolized in NFTs, which “combine the ancient traditions of aboriginal art with modern-day attributes”.
Sales of Indige NFTs will go towards supporting and promoting Indigenous culture, as well as the socioeconomic development of First Nations communities. They are also in the process of launching an NFT marketplace with the goal of connecting Indigenous NFT artists all over the world.
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