"I'm a storyteller, and every time I tell a story – I've done stuff with the Migrant Resource Centre, refugees and all those various groups – they always tell me their stories," says Uncle Larry, a member of the Taungurong tribe and well-known elder in the Footscray community.

The open dialogue and cultural exchange facilitated by oral storytelling has inspired Uncle Larry to make his gift for the gab work for the greater good. As the successful recipient of one of the City of Melbourne's annual arts grants, Uncle Larry plans to exploit the conciliatory potential of storytelling in a project called Star Stories, which will involve representatives from different backgrounds sharing stories relating to the planets and stars.

"I've got people lined up – Africans who have come here, Arabic people, South Pacific people, a few different Aboriginal people – and all are willing to tell a story," says Uncle Larry.

Uncle Larry's plan is to build, with the help of engineers, a portable sculpture on which all the planets are represented. Recorded stories and lights will emanate from the sculpture, prompted by movement, and accompanied by live storytelling on site. Federation Square's annual Light in Winter festival is slated to host the first incarnation of Star Stories next June.

"There's a lot of misunderstanding in the past about us [Indigenous Australians] and a lot of misunderstanding between Europeans and us and now there's a lot of misunderstandings between Australians and all these migrants and refugees," says Uncle Larry.

"This is a way we can all get together and discuss our commonalities rather than our differences."

The 58 recipients of the 2014 arts grants will share funding totalling $765,000. This year, an additional $40,000 has been dedicated to projects through the City of Melbourne Indigenous Arts Program.

Chair of Arts and Culture Councillor Rohan Leppert said that the grants would employ more than 1000 artists across a variety of art forms and that almost 75 per cent of the work produced would result in free experiences for audiences.

"I congratulate all the recipients and look forward to seeing the resulting works which will collectively reach an audience of 900,000 people," he said.

Other grant recipients include Going Down Swinging, a literature journal that presents a series of spoken word performance evenings called One Night Wonders; and sound artists Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey, who will produce a site-specific work in the Docklands.