The Joy of giving

Na Djinang has now become a not-for-profit charity. 
It took time, effort, and patience. But what does it really mean? 

For us, it changes our governance structure. 
For you, it means that when you donate, you get a tax deduction. 

Let’s be honest— 
giving feels a whole lot better than paying tax 

What struck me most in the process was this: to qualify, a company must exist for social good, not private gain. 
But what does social good look like for us —especially as a Blak organisation? 

As an artist, I often feel I’ve lost the joy of giving. 
Each day I build new relationships, 
find ways to collaborate and connect. 
But beneath it all lurks the constant ask: 
Buy our show. Give us money. Share your time. Offer your Culture. Support us. 

It can feel like leeching, like begging. 
The image of the “helpless artist.” 
The “needy Blak” looking for a handout. 

So how do we call ourselves an organisation for social good, if all we seem to do is extract from the generous? 

It makes me think of Daumal’s poem: 

I am dead because I lack desire. 
I lack desire because I think I possess. 
I think I possess because I do not try to give. 
In trying to give, you see that you have nothing. 
Seeing that you have nothing, you try to give of yourself. 
Trying to give of yourself, you see that you are nothing. 
Seeing that you are nothing, you desire to become. 
In desiring to become, you begin to live. 

Maybe it’s not that we don’t give, but that we have already given. 
As artists, we give of ourselves—and in doing so we find the reason to live. 

Generosity doesn’t fuel joy, it creates space for it. Generosity is an emptiness, 
and wherever there’s emptiness, life rushes in to fill it. 

That feels true for me. 
I need to make a show, 
to give away a part of myself, 
so that there’s room for the next thing to grow. 

And maybe that’s the heart of it: 
 
To be generous is not to offer something grand. 
It is to empty yourself, to create room for new possibilities. 
To see a gift not as a tax deduction, but as a way of welcoming new influences. 
And art is the false economy of wonder and nonsense that makes all of this possible. 

And so shamelessly I ask you to   
open your wallet, buy our shows, give of yourself  
for the next chapter will be all the more thrilling because of it.