My name is Judi Sutton and I am a contemporary Indigenous artist from the Kalkadoon people, this painting is my interpretation of Flight Centre and their reconciliation journey.
This piece is a multi-panel painting with each of the 9 panels to be distributed to each country with core retail operations: Australia, New Zealand, UK, America, Canada, South Africa, Singapore, UAE and India.
In my painting the large red and white community symbols represent Flight Centre, there is one in every panel to symbolise Flight Centre in each country where the paintings will hang. Flight Centre’s mission which is “To open up the world for those who want to see” is represented through the mountain’s waterholes and feather, as Flight Centre provides travel experiences across land, air and sea around the world. Land is the mountains, air is the feather and sea are the waterholes. These symbols are found throughout each of the 9 paintings.
The rainbow serpent flows through each of the panels, the tail begins in the centre of Australia’s Flight Centre community symbol, as Flight Centre was started in Australia. The tail end of the serpent reflects the beginning of Flight Centre’s journey from the past and into the present with the head of the serpent leading into the future.
The boomerang represents Flight Centre’s growth starting with one U (person) symbol, gradually more people join the team, shown through more U symbols and dots along the boomerang. The boomerang also represents returning business due to flight centres quality work.
The footprints represent Flight Centre’s Journey, starting from the first panel in the past. Flight Centre’s essence of their story and history of over 40 years flows with their footprints throughout each panel as they grow and evolve with the constantly changing times.
The smaller white community symbols connected by travelling lines represents all the places that Flight Centre customers travel to, with Flight Centre’s service and the handprints throughout the piece symbolises the support that Flight Centre employees give to their loyal customers, so that they can reach their full travel potential.
The 3 stars represent Flight Centre’s core values of Egalitarianism, Irreverence and Ownership. “Our spirit of egalitarianism, irreverence and ownership defines the way we behave. These are the three shared values we place above all others to help us make informed decisions and solidify our company culture. Our values are simple, powerful and they shape our behaviour across our entire network of brands and businesses.” It is due to these values, the 40-year history as well as Flight Centre’s journey towards reconciliation and the passion of Flight Centre Employees, that have shaped Flight Centre Travel Group into one of the world’s largest travel retailers today, which will continue to grow well into the future.
