It’s been a bumper start to 2026 for Community Arts Network (CAN).

The year kicked off with the news that CAN has received $370,000 from Lotterywest, for Unfinished Business, a Noongar cultural preservation project that will see Elder Winnie McHenry pass on her critical knowledge of traditional women’s business – that would otherwise be lost – down to the next generation. In combination with funding from Creative Australia, the Lotterywest win increases the project budget to $630k!

This boost in funding has massively increased the scope of the project, enabling an international exchange program with Indonesia, the creation of a new documentary film with award-winning film-maker Hugh Sando, and a public exhibition.

Hot on the heels of that win was the news that CAN has received funding from the WA Government's Creative Learning program to deliver the second iteration of High VisAbility, a disability-led residency at Sir David Brand School. Built on the premise “you can’t be what you can’t see”, High VisAbility connects artists and students with lived experience of disability and neurodiversity.

Led by visual and textile artist Jane Ryan and sculpture and textile artist Rachel Haines, this project will see students create collaborative art works, with the ambition of a high profile public exhibition outcome.

It seems that good things really do come in threes because the third piece of good news came in the form of a partnership with Better Beginnings that will see the Noongar sing-along book Moorditj Kulungar distributed to libraries right around WA.

Moorditj Kulungar was published last year as part of Lullabies Kwinana, the pilot iteration of CAN’s new Noongar Nursery Rhymes program. Developed in partnership with Playgroup WA, and inspired by CAN’s long-running, award-winning Noongar Lullabies program, Noongar Nursery Rhymes is a language and music program designed especially for pre-school age children and their families.  Like its parent program, Noongar Nursery Rhymes celebrates, preserves and amplifies Noongar language and culture. 

Pictured top: Artwork from High VisAbility 2.0, created by students from Sir David Brand School in collaboration with artists Jane Ryan and Rachel Haines // Credit CAN Team