About the artist - Sarah Richards

A Ngiyampaa Woman born on Gadigal land, Sarah is a contemporary artist and professionally qualified accountant, living and painting on Ngunnawal and Ngambri countries since 2012.

Sarah was awarded ACT NAIDOC Artist of the year in 2015 and Canberra Women in Business’ Indigenous Business Woman of the Year in 2023. In 2018, Sarah used knowledge gained from key government and consulting roles, including roles at PwC Indigenous Consulting and the Australian Department of Finance, to turn her passion from a hobby into a small business and created Marrawuy Journeys.

Marrawuy (Mar-ra-way) in her ancestors’ language of the Wongaibon people means 'red kangaroo' and was the totem of one of her ancestors, Richard King. This is one of the reasons she has chosen to go by Marrawuy Journeys, but the other is the fact that a kangaroo can’t easily jump backwards. This also resonates strongly with Sarah because no matter what challenge she is thrown, she keeps moving forward.

Wellbeing, creativity, and culture are at the heart of everything we do at Marrawuy Journeys. When people are well, productivity rises, creativity flourishes, and in a team environment, strong culture drives success. Supporting wellbeing through productivity strategies and creative expression helps unlock potential and energise teams in meaningful ways.

Marrawuy Journeys is:

• a 100% Aboriginal owned and led business;
• Supply Nation Certified
• NSW Assured member; and
• an Indigenous Art Code member.

An Educational Journey

To launch Chartered Accountants ANZ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Scholarship, CA ANZ commissioned Sarah to create an artwork celebrating the power of education to open opportunities, strengthen connection to community, and inspire the next generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander accountants.

Sarah tells the story behind An Educational Journey:

“My artwork focuses on a tree and the different elements that make up a tree, from the roots, to the trunk, to the branches. One of the functions of the roots is the anchoring of the tree body to the ground, and supporting it. I likened this to family roots and is represented by the set of circles closest to the base of the tree which represents the person about to start their education journey, with the other four circles representative of their parents and ancestors.

“Another function of roots is to absorb water, represented by the blue dots; and nutrients that support a tree’s growth, represented by the dots in the outer roots. Just like the absorption of water and nutrients is important to a tree’s growth, a person will require access to various support tools for a thriving educational journey. From my experience, the support and encouragement from my family and a number of my teachers, along with the financial support received from my cadetship and scholarship, were major contributing factors in assisting me to be successful in completing my educational journey.

“The educational system is represented by the trunk of the tree. As one moves further up the trunk (aka the educational system), the more opportunities that are likely to become available. The opportunities are represented in the form of the branches of the tree. Personally, I felt I have had more opportunities by completing my degree and accounting designation then if I had only completed high school.

“Lastly, the circles in the tree greenery represent community and how a person who has completed their educational journey can then take what they have learnt back to benefit their communities. For example, if the educational field chosen was accounting, once that person had finished their accounting education and built up their experience in that field, they could go back to their community, take up a position in the finance area of an Aboriginal community controlled organisation and eventually become the CFO.”

- Sarah Richards; Founder and Owner, Marrawuy Journeys.