Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC) 2024

A Widjabul/Wia-bal woman from the Bundjalung territories, Rhoda Roberts AO is an experienced, motivated and versatile arts executive, with a diverse range of international and national industry practice within commercial, community and non-profits, festivals and events.

The former Head Of First Nations Programming Sydney Opera House, Rhoda is currently the Curator, Parrtjima Festival, Alice Springs; Festival Director, Boomerang Dreaming Festival; the First Nations Creative Director for the Northern Rivers Performing Arts (NORPA); First Nations Consultant NIDA; the Elder in Residence SBS TV; Creative Director, Shine On Gimuy Festival; and she is the newly appointed Arts Ambassador and consultant for Voyages Indigenous Tourism.

A practicing weaver, actor/producer and director, she continues to work across the creative industries and is a sought-after consultant, speaker and performer in theatre, film, television, and radio.

Photo: Lisa Hatz

Vanessa Hutchins has worked in creative industries for over 30 years – specialising in production and project management. Her production credits include Production Manager for Bangarra Dance Theatre and the Marrugeku Company’s Crying Baby production, which included national and international touring opportunities.

Working in the Northern Territory for many years, Vanessa delivered a diverse range of programs and initiatives focused on First Nations artists, and developed the Remote Music Touring Program in partnership with Artback NT and Music NT. Vanessa travelled to Honiara in 2012 with Tjupi Band from Papunya as part of the Australian delegation to the Festival of Pacific Arts. Vanessa has been the Theatre Manager at Newcastle’s Civic Theatre and Gosford Laycock Street Community Theatre.

Photo: Vanessa Hutchins

Doctor Eliorah Malifa is a Samoan producer and academic. Her PhD research focused on the development of a sustainable screen industry in the Pacific. Before concentrating on screen, Eliorah worked extensively in arts management, festival coordination and Indigenous arts. Eliorah currently manages projects for the International Organisation for Migration. Eliorah has also contributed to the development and production of over 20 screen based projects, including feature documentary, short documentary, film festival, installation, short film, webseries, podcast and documentary. In 2022/23 she was selected for the SBS Screen Australia Digital Australia program and the AIDC Impact Fellowship. Eliorah is passionate about creating pathways for Pacific creatives in screen, and is committed to community building within this network.

Photo courtesy of Australia National University

Torres Strait Islander Will Kepa is a multi-instrumentalist, audio engineer and music producer based in Cairns, Far North Queensland. He is also the co-founder and co-director of the ‘Sounds of AustraNesia’. He has performed at major festivals in Australia as well as internationally in the South Pacific and Europe. Kepa has a professional reputation as one of the most sought after musicians in the FNQ region, as well as throughout the country, and collaborates with countless organisations and festivals.

Photo: Lisa Gautusa

The word ‘Arpaka’ comes from the Western Island languages and translates to ‘dawning of a new day’. Arpaka Dance Company was formed in 2003 specifically to nurture and maintain the traditional dance, language and musical talents within the community, ensuring the ancient knowledges within song and dance remain relevant. Without this form of expression and continuance, the knowledge would disappear from memory.

The dance group is a vital vehicle that expresses the identity and meaning of being a Torres Strait Islander, ensuring the development, research, and recording of cultural knowledge remains. With a rich cultural tapestry, cultural unity and language diversity, the company have graced national and international stages, including the opening of Musee du Quai Branly and the Australian Embassy in Paris, Honiara (Solomon Islands), Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Darwin and Cairns festivals and events.

Delegates:
Aroha Pehi (Torres Strait Islands)
Brianna Kemmering (Torres Strait Islands)
Casey Natty (Torres Strait Islands)
Chandler Connell (Torres Strait Islands)
Dar’nell Williams (Torres Strait Islands)
Dennis Newie (Torres Strait Islands)
Harlisha Newie (Torres Strait Islands)
Helen Anu (Torres Strait Islands)
Masepah Banu (Torres Strait Islands)
Neville Bonney (Torres Strait Islands) 

Photo: Wayne Quilliam

As an Aboriginal man of the Gudanji/Wambaya nations in the north (residing in Borroloola, Northern Territory), Benjamin is deeply committed to highlighting the pivotal role of Indigenous arts and media industries in celebrating Aboriginal cultures and identities. His portfolio predominantly focuses on ‘observational’ storytelling, having developed a distinctly refined and unrivalled take on chronicling Indigenous culture and arts festivals, offering viewers a vivid sense of immersion in each captured moment.

Photo: Antonia Tehatu

Nornie Bero is an Island girl from the Komet Tribe of the Meriam people in the Torres Strait. She has been a professional chef for over 25 years and is passionate about making native ingredients the hero of the Australian kitchen.

Nornie is the founder and CEO of Mabu Mabu – a native foods business with a flagship restaurant in Federation Square, a catering business and range of retail products. She is an author of her own cookbook, an ambassador for COLES and a ‘Friend of Australia’ as part of the Tourism Australia program. Nornie has featured in multiple TV shows, including Zac Efron’s Down to Earth series on Netflix and Adam Liaw’s The Cook Up on SBS.

Photo: Tatanja Ross from On Jackson Street

A Gurindji woman born out of necessity in Melbourne, in the right political climate, Constantina is a burlesque and cabaret star who got her big break in Melbourne’s Outblack annual shows and created a following at festivals around Australia.

This poster girl has been the muse for many artists and posed for many a portrait.  Through song and clever story telling, she expresses messages about the current political climate with lots of love, humour and song. A native kriol speaker Constantina, will ask for help from the audience from time to time to pronounce English words – but beware if she picks you!

Photo: Constantina Bush

Carclew is South Australia’s largest multi-art form and cultural org dedicated to artistic outcomes by and for people aged 26 and under, providing young people opportunities to try different art forms, supporting emerging artists to develop their craft and advocating for youth arts practice. Celebrating 25+ years of First Nations programming, spanning different communities within SA, Carclew is proud to continue working with, for and by First Nations people and artists across our programs.  

Carclew will bring a cohort of 4 young First Nations artists and creatives to FestPAC, drawing from an established group of early career artists who are role models and emerging leaders in their fields within the SA Arts Sector, most recently shining in delivery of Youth at Purrumpa. These artists work in a variety of artforms including visual arts, music, dance, film and literacy and will be able to engage the other streams accordingly.  

Representing a range of Aboriginal language groups, these young and emerging artists engage with culture in their contemporary artist practices, utilising traditional knowledges to inform their process as a means to revitalise, create and regenerate new and old cultural practice.  

This cohort represents a variety of experiences when it comes to connecting, living and working with community. All the artists are on their own journey through this space, but are eager to engage with community and share their stories to promote healing and connection for First Nations peoples.  

Delegates:
Tilly Tjala Thomas (South Australia) Photo: Jimblah AKA  James Alberts
Katie Aspel (South Australia & Victoria) Photo: Sophie Alexandrou
Lilla Berry (South Australia) Photo: Matthew Denieuwe
Nathan May (South Australia) Photo: Eyes and Ears Creative

Sonja Carmichael and her daughters Elisa Jane and Freja Carmichael are Ngugi Quandamooka women working across diverse mediums of Indigenous fibre art practice, supported through exhibitions, collaborations and new work. Their intergenerational practices and weaving are a presentation and workshop activity.

The Carmichaels have been working across and within their respective curatorial, artistic, research and community engagement work, to contribute towards regenerating and strengthening Quandamooka weaving practices that carry and embed the stories, knowledges and connections to Quandamooka Country. They also work with plastic matter and ghost nets washed up on the beaches and coves on Stradbroke Island in south east Queensland.

Sonja is a weaver, working with contemporary and traditional plant fibres, reviving the ancient loop and diagonal knot weave associated to Country, and was documented in the completion of her practice-led Masters of Philosophy at University of Queensland (UQ).

Freja is an art curator, who has been working alongside other First Nation curators, artists and community members on projects that centre on cross-cultural exchange and documenting and promoting fibre knowledges and practices. She is currently completing a PhD project with UQ on Indigenous creative fibre practices and cultural networks.

Elisa Jane (Leecee) Carmichael is a multi-disciplinary artist who works across the mediums of painting, textiles and weaving. Her practice visually explores the beauty of nature and her surrounding environment, drawing inspiration from her cultural identity and heritage. Her contemporary explorations of Quandamooka weaving provide a modern and unique twist on this enduring cultural tradition.

Photo: Rhett Hammerton

DAAF is the signature event from the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Foundation (DAAFF), a not-for-profit Indigenous organisation that is owned and governed by the Art Centres it represents, that celebrates the rich cultural and artistic diversity of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Centres.

The Fair was originally conceived to complement the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA). It also celebrates the National Indigenous Music Awards and Garma Festival and proudly sits under the umbrella of the Darwin Festival. These prestigious events are held in the same period, and together mark the most significant national festival of national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts in the world.

Art Centre Delegates  
Eunice Yu (Western Australia)
Lynette Yu-Mackay (Western Australia)
Solomon Booth (Torres Strait Islands)
Ishmael Marika (Northern Territory)
Sabrina Granites (Northern Territory)

Indigenous Fashion Show Delegates  
Maminydjama ‘Magnolia’ Maymuru (Northern Territory)
Cindy Rostron (Northern Territory)
Lyllardya Houston (New South Wales)
Lucy Simpson (New South Wales)
Liandra Gaykamangu (Northern Territory)

Photo: 2016 Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Fashion Show, Sarina Cowcher Collection featuring Gary Lang’s fabric design, Modelled by Magnolia Maymuru. Photo by Shane Eecen.

Paul Girrawah House acknowledges his matriarch ancestors, in particular his mother Dr Matilda House-Williams and his grandmother, Ms Pearl Simpson-Wedge. He recognises diverse First Nations ancestries from the southeast Canberra region, including the Ngambri-Kamberri (Walgalu), Pajong (Gundungurra), Wallabollooa (Ngunnawal) and Erambie/Brungle (Wiradyuri) family groups.

House holds a Bachelor of Community Management from Macquarie University, and a Graduate Certificate in Wiradjuri Language, Culture and Heritage from Charles Sturt University. He currently works on Country with the Australian National University, First Nations Portfolio, as a Senior Community Engagement Officer.

House regularly collaborates with his mother, Dr Matilda House, on ceremonies and creative projects including the Welcome to Country for the 47th Opening of Australian Parliament in 2022, and in 2021 with the major commission Mulanggari yur-wang (alive and strong) for the National Gallery of Australia’s Sculpture Garden for the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial. This permanently installed work comprises a series of carved trees inscribed with symbolic interpretations of Maliyan (eagle) and Umbe (crow). It is part of a larger project House has undertaken to carve into eucalyptus trees across Canberra to respectfully acknowledge ancestors and to express return, renewal and the reclaiming of identity on Country.

Intrinsically related to this cultural work of ceremony and language, House has collaborated with fellow glass makers including Tom Rowney, the Master Glassblower and Technical Manager of Canberra Glassworks, to produce works representing his culture and Country in the form of yidaki, coolamons, and boomerangs. House has a distinguished history of playing the yidaki at cultural performances since the early 1980s as a young man. In 2017, he began a collaboration with Tom Rowney to create a group of high quality sounding yidakis in hand-blown glass and these were first displayed in the 2018 exhibition Confluence at Canberra Glassworks. These works are now held in local and national collections including Canberra Museum and Gallery and the Australian National University.

Photo: Sittixay Ditthavong, The Canberra Times

Injalak Arts Centre is a captivating hub of creativity nestled in the heart of Gunbalanya, in Australia’s Northern Territory. 

Situated in West Arnhem Land, it is here that the ancient art forms of the Kunwinjku people come to life through the skilful hands of our talented artists. 

Inyjalarrku and Karrbarda groups have a long history of ceremonial exchange not just at festivals (i.e. Stone Country, Mahbilil, Mowanjum, Barunga) but also diplomacy ceremonies (Mamurrng), funeral ceremonies and community celebrations. 

Injalak artists include performance artists with dance, song and didgeridoo, carvers and weavers. 

The group will perform traditional dances, weaving and carving demonstrations and screen award-winning short documentary film written by Nina Haigh, Kala Kunbolk, which follows women of Gunbalanya in their quest to preserve their age-old tradition of collecting pandanus leaves and natural colour on country to create handcrafted baskets. After this, our weavers Connie Nayinggul, Merril Namundja and Doreen Djorlom, along with Nina Haigh, will conduct a Q&A. This film has recently been short listed at the Flickerfest Awards.

Delegates:
Cody Namundja (Northern Territory)
Connie Nayinggul (Northern Territory)
Doreen Djorlom (Northern Territory)
Joel (Joey) Ngandmirra (Northern Territory)
Lachlan Nabegyo (Northern Territory)
Merril Namundja (Northern Territory)
Owen Naborlgorlh (Northern Territory)
Robbie Burrilil (Northern Territory) 

Photo: Injalak Arts and Crafts Corporation

Artistic Director Peta Strachan formed Jannawi Dance Clan in 2008, specifically as an all-women’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural performance group focusing on the ancient and modern history of the Darug nation and peoples, incorporating language and song retrieval. It’s the only Australian company to tell stories of place led by the Darug community and custodians. 

Jannawi translates to ‘with you – with me’. The company embraces contemporary and traditional dance practice globally. The company is currently comprised of seven Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women with cultural representation from nations across the Sydney basin and North-Western New South Wales, through to the top of the Cape Yorke Peninsula, North-East Arnhem Land and the Torres Straits.

Delegates:
Peta Strachan (New South Wales)
Hannah Hanson (New South Wales)
Serene Yunupingu (New South Wales) 

Photo: Liza Moscatelli

Dre Ngatokorua is from the Adnyamathanha, Kuyani, Wangkangurru, Yunkunitjatjara, Maori and Cook Islander peoples. A language teacher, DJ and broadcaster, he is better known by his artist name MoZzi, and brings to Hawaii MoZzi X Inkatja: A New Moon.

A New Moon is a multimedia production about Lavene (Inkatja) told through projections, animated traditional artworks, narration and music. The production takes us on a journey from the Flinders Ranges in South Australia across Country to the Wangkangurru people of the Simpson Desert. This is the story of a young girl on the Umeewarra Aboriginal mission, from learning Lore to working as a community constable enforcing Australian law, becoming a community leader and artist.

The MoZzi X Inkatja performers are Dre Ngatokorua, Lavene Ngatokorua and Elder Vince Coulthard.

Lavene’s an Adnyamathanha and Wangkangurru woman, a visual artist, and currently CEO of the Davenport Community Council and director of Umeewarra Aboriginal Media.

Vince Coulthard an Adnyamathanha man and member of the Iga Warta team and community. A senior cultural interpreter, Vince has a wealth of knowledge in Native Title.

Delegates:
Dre Ngatokorua (South Australia) Photo: Cat Beaton
Lavene Heather (South Australia) Photo: Dave Laslett

Muggera was founded by Darren and Jax Compton in 2015, based on the culture and lands of the Yugambeh in South East QLD and the Minjungbul in Northern NSW. Both artists are trained performers and choreographers across traditional and contemporary genres of dance practice, and they have both worked across many mediums, including dance, theatre and television.

Muggera Cultural Enterprise was formed as a family group that prides itself on its cultural knowledge and professionalism. They have forged intergenerational and long-term cultural endeavours with the company, supported and guided by Elders and custodians. Their work provides a platform for language and songline revitalisation, through the commitment of performers from a long line of cultural leaders and world-class performers. Their formidable respect for cultural philosophy helps to maintain strong Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural performance, education, and engagement.

Delegates:
Brock Tutt (Queensland and New South Wales)
Darren Compton (Queensland and New South Wales)
Joshua Sly (Queensland and New South Wales) 

Photo: Luke Currie-Richardson

Our Islands Our Home are:

Dylan Mooney (Torres Strait Islands)
Dylan Mooney is a Yuwi man from Mackay, central Queensland, Torres Strait Islander from Darnley Island and Badu Island and Australian born South Sea Islander. He has completed a bachelor of contemporary Australian Indigenous Art at the Queensland College of Art. Mooney’s practice includes digital illustrations, drawing and print- making and street art – inspired by history, culture, family history and community stories. Mooney uses his art practice to share his stories of what it is like to be an Indigenous person in modern Australia. With his various mediums, he captures the struggles and hardships First Nations peoples have gone through, but tells a story of resilience and survival and how far Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander peoples and South Sea Islander peoples have come.

Photo: Justin Ma

Yessie Mosby (Torres Strait Islands)
Yessie is a Traditional Owner living in the Kulkalgal tribe area in the Central Torres Strait Islands. He is an artist, father, craftsman and a Torres Strait 8 claimant in the landmark human rights complaint to the United Nations over climate change. In 2022, the Torres Strait 8 made international legal history after the United Nations Human Rights Committee found that the Australian Government is violating its human rights obligations to Torres Strait Islanders by failing to act on climate change. Yessie’s art has been featured at the Sydney Biennale, Institute of Modern Art and Australia Fashion Week. Using storytelling, Yessie continues to advocate to transition his island home of Masig to renewable energy.

Photo: Karl Bouro

Born and raised in the multi-racial pearling town of Broome in Australia’s far Northwest Kimberley region, singer/songwriter/guitarist Stephen Pigram has been performing and songwriting since the late 1970s.

He has been a member of the Broome bands Kuckles (1981 to present), Scrap Metal (1983 to 1992), and was Musical Director for the original production of the 1990 stage musical Bran Nue Dae by Jimmy Chi and Kuckles. Since 1994 he has performed and recorded with six of his siblings in the Pigram Brothers, pioneering a vocal/acoustic ‘saltwater country’ style of music.

He played a major role in the development and production of the AACTA 2011 nominated Australian film Mad Bastards as composer, actor and co-producer. He has toured the nation and internationally as a featured artist in the Black Arm Band, Tura New Music Ensembles and the Australian Chamber Orchestra for their 2012/13 production The Reef which toured the U.S. in February 2016.

More recent collaborations have been with Tura New Music Kimberley Indonesian Project and Kimberley Echoes National Tour 2019, solo performances at Port Fairy Music Festival 2019 and the Australian String Quartet for the Quartet and Country series. Stephen now steps out solo and can limbo, with his guitar fingerpickin’, ukulele tinkling, harmonica blowin’, folk’n country blues snapshots of life in the last frontier with songs from his debut solo CD Wanderer, May 2021 release Solfish, and local cult classics drawn from forty years of composing and performing in the singer songwriter storytelling tradition.

Photo: Ken Langdale 

Chase Pigram was brought into a life full of music at a young age, learning almost everything he knows from his grandfather, Stephen Pigram. Chase is a Broome boy, who not only loves music but also loves to dive along the beautiful Broome coast. He is multi-talented singer and musician who has some exciting and iconic songs to share. At only 16 years old he is one of Broome’s most talented emerging artists.

Photo: Broome Senior High School

The FestPAC Youth Ambassadors program is a vibrant initiative woven into the fabric of FestPAC13, taking place in Hawai’i from Thursday June 6 to Sunday June 16 2024. The inaugural program will bring together youth representatives from across the Pacific region to inform future programs and contribute to the development of FestPAC and the cultural sector of the Pacific.

Representing Australia in the Youth Ambassadors’s Program is:

Rulla Kelly-Mansell is tulampanga nupuwala, from lutruwita (Tasmania), and moonbird from the Furneaux Islands. Rulla is an MC/storyteller and a part of Marlon x Rulla, which won Best Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Artist at the South Australian Music Awards 2022. A cancer survivor, Rulla is also the founder of charity Make Runs Maxi, and the 2020 NAIDOC Tasmanian Aboriginal of the Year, as well as a young Australian of the Year finalist (2020).

Rulla had a decorated sports career, along with background and experience in the conservation of native Tasmanian marsupials, working as an animal keeper and helping successfully grow/manage populations of endangered species. He has travelled the world successfully managing programs with sanctuaries, zoos, aquariums and wildlife parks that are Zoo and Aquarium Association (ZAA) accredited.

Photo: Nick Manuell

The FestPAC Youth Ambassadors program is a vibrant initiative woven into the fabric of FestPAC13, taking place in Hawai’i from Thursday June 6 to Sunday June 16 2024. The inaugural program will bring together youth representatives from across the Pacific region to inform future programs and contribute to the development of FestPAC and the cultural sector of the Pacific.

Representing Australia in the Youth Ambassadors’s Program is:

Siena Mayutu Wurmarri Stubbs, a young Yolŋu woman who grew up in the community of Yirrkala surrounded by her family and culture. Her love for learning and sharing knowledge guides her between both worlds, Yolŋu and Ŋapaki, and helped her graduate from Nhulunbuy High School in 2019 as the Co-School Captain, with a strong sense of self.

After graduating, Siena worked at The Mulka Project to further develop her skills as a film maker and artist. In 2020, her work Shinkansen was awarded the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award – Multimedia Prize. That year, she also produced and filmed work that featured in ABC’s Lockdown Stories, telling how her community faced COVID-19.

Over the following three years, Siena completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film, Screen and New Media) at Queensland University of Technology. Graduating with distinction, Siena is now working at the First Nations-led Triple A radio station based in West End, Magandjin, Brisbane, in the Triple A digital team. Siena is hoping to represent her Yolŋu family and home wherever she finds herself, through the creative lens of storytelling and film.

Photo: Sienna Stubbs

Zoe Rimmer is a Pakana (Tasmanian Aboriginal) woman with Ancestral connections to the northeast coast of Lutruwita/Tasmania. She comes from a long line of shell stringers, basket weavers, mutton-birders and activists. Zoe worked for almost 20 years, creating change in the museum sector, as a curator at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG). Over her career as a curator, she has worked closely with the Aboriginal community in Tasmania in researching collections, working on repatriation, developing permanent and touring exhibitions and preparing film, multimedia and publications. Zoe is passionate about increasing First Peoples’ voice and perspectives across cultural institutions and public spaces; as well as facilitating the revitalisation of cultural knowledge and practices through collections and archives. Her interest in public history and the importance of truth-telling also motivates her work as a curator, researcher and cultural artist.

Zoe is an Indigenous Fellow at the University of Tasmania, where she recently completed her PhD. Her thesis follows her museum work on First Peoples museology, demonstrating the fundamental importance of repatriation to the revitalisation of Pakana cultural identity, spirituality, cultural practice and knowledge. Zoe also continues to work as an independent curator and cultural artist with a focus on cultural revitalisation and reconnection(s) with Country.

Photo: Jillian Mundy