GA2023 Logo Narrative

The GA2023 logo shows a stylised Xanthorrhoea (‘black boy’) plant, in the shape of Sydney Opera House. The design was conceived by Blak Douglas (aka Adam Hill), a Sydney-based Aboriginal artist, and developed collaboratively with Greg Hosking from Monotron Creative. The iconography picks up the ‘nature–culture journey’, which is a major program element, reflecting the importance of recognising that even natural heritage places have Traditional Owners and cultural values. The recognisable shape of the Sydney Opera House, attests to ‘changing’ meaning and more-recent cultural values, but is at the same time distinctively different from more usual Sydney Opera House iconography. The local name for the Xanthorrhoea is ‘Gadi’; reflected in the name of the ‘Gadigal’ people of the Eora Nation, the Traditional Owners of the land on which GA2023 will be held.

The image of the Sydney Opera House is used under license from the Sydney Opera House Trust.