When our parent company Fight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) wanted a fitting artistic tribute to represent the company’s 40-year story, they turned to the oldest storytelling culture on earth. Drawing on Australia’s indigenous heritage, FCTG commissioned a painting by Judi Sutton, a proud Kalkadoon woman (of the Mount Isa Region).
Judi’s brief was to use traditional storytelling and symbolism to create an artwork reflecting our company values, mission and history – while also representing our proud connection with Australia and our journey towards reconciliation.
The result is a remarkable nine-panel (60cm wide, 60cm high), acrylic painting on canvas. The painting was presented to FCTG employees and suppliers at the company’s recent Global Gathering 2022, in Las Vegas, USA. One panel will now be gifted to each of the nine countries with core retail operations – Australia, New Zealand, UK, America, Canada, South Africa, Singapore, UAE and India.
In explaining her painting, Judi said, “FCTG’s mission is, ‘to open up the world for those who want to see’ and this is represented through the mountains, waterholes, and feathers as FCTG provides travel experiences across land (mountains), air (feather) and sea (waterholes), around the world.”
Other key symbols incorporated into the artwork by the artist, include –
- The boomerang, representing our growth and also returning business and customers.
- The footprints represent Flight Centre’s journey, growing and evolving with constantly changing times.
- The rainbow serpent flows through each panel, the tail begins in the centre of Australia’s FCTG community symbol, as this is our global home base.
- The three stars represent Flight Centre’s values – Egalitarianism, Ownership and Irreverence
- The smaller white community symbols, connected by travelling lines, represent all of the places that FCTG customers travel to.
- The handprints symbolise the support that FCTG employees give to their loyal customers and communities.
- The large red and white community symbol represents FCTG and there is one in every panel.