A Gadigal Elder has expressed his "disgust" at the use of his artwork on a flyer encouraging people to vote against the Voice to Parliament.
Uncle Danny Eastwood painted the work, a depiction of Uluru, in 2018, and only discovered its unauthorised use after a friend in Adelaide informed him.
The altered work, which bears an "offensive" dot-painted 'VOTE NO' slogan superimposed on Uluru, has been used on tens of thousands of flyers and distributed widely online.
"I was in shock," Uncle Danny told NITV of the revelation.
"I'm sick of people using my art for other things without asking. People are approaching the referendum from no or yes [perspectives], and that's their prerogative.
"But to put it on a piece of my art, which [depicts] a very sacred place for Aboriginal people ... and to use dot-painting so it looks like it's part of it.
"It's rubbish."
The flyer also bears several falsehoods about the referendum, conflating the Voice with issues of Treaty, reparations and land rights.
The Mount Druitt resident stressed he was not against the No vote per se, acknowledging the diverse perspectives amongst First Nations communities.
"It's a free choice ... but by putting it on that flyer people think I'm supporting the no vote and these racist people."
One Nation supporter spread '20,000 flyers'
The ABC's investigations unit revealed that the flyers had been mass-produced and also widely distributed online.
A One Nation supporter based in the Gold Coast, Spencer Chalifou, has been active in both the physical and digital spread of the flyers, with the ABC reporting he himself had printed some 20,000 copies.
"To me it just looked like a meme [type] of thing, just a stock image," he told the ABC.
"And I had no idea it was actually somebody's painting.
"My apologies to Mr Eastwood because we didn't know what the background of the image was."
The spread of the artwork over secure messaging platforms such as Telegram has been accompanied by "racist" rhetoric, which Mr Eastwood condemned.
"Underneath my artwork they've got abuse, people blaming Aboriginal people ... and saying we 'claim' everything, which is not true.
"I don't want my artwork associated with any of this racist hate stuff."
