2021 Speakers
Thursday 4 March 2021
Shaheen Hughes is Chief Executive Officer of The Museum of Freedom and Tolerance. Shaheen has a background in international, national and state policy and advocacy, a master’s degree in International Communications and an honours in Art History and English Literature. Shaheen is a tireless advocate of the arts, passionate about creating diverse and inclusive environments and social justice solutions and committed to fighting hate and intolerance.
Sisonke Msimang is the author of Always Another Country: A memoir of exile and home and The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela. She is a South African writer whose work is focussed on race, gender and democracy. She has written for a range of international publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Guardian, Newsweek, Bloomberg, and Al Jazeera. Sisonke has held fellowships at Yale University, the Aspen Institute and the Bellagio Centre. She is currently a fellow at the WISER Institute, at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Professor Suvendrini Perera is John Curtin Distinguished Professor and Research Professor of Cultural Studies in the School of Media, Culture & Creative Arts. She has published widely on issues of social justice, including decolonisation, race, ethnicity and multiculturalism, refugee topics, critical whiteness studies and Asian-Australian studies. Suvendi has combined her academic career with participation in policymaking, public life and activism.
Dr Hannah McGlade is an Indigenous human rights lawyer, Associate Professor at Curtin Law School, and member of the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues. She has published widely and her book Our Greatest Challenge, Aboriginal children and human rights received the Stanner Award in 2011. Hannah has been at the forefront of the development of key organisations in Perth and WA, in relation to Aboriginal women legal supports, Noongar radio and Stolen Generations and healing. Hannah has also played an active role in law reform, and her case McGlade v Lightfoot (2002) was the first successful finding of race vilification of Aboriginal people under Commonwealth legislation. She is also a descendant of Moses Woibung from the Carrolup mission.
Anna Arabindan Kesson is an immigrant art historian, writer and curator. She is Assistant Professor of Black Diasporic Art with a joint appointment in the Departments of African American Studies and Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. In her research and teaching she focuses on Black Diaspora and British Art, with an emphasis on histories of race, empire, and medicine. Her first book Black Bodies, White Gold: Art, Cotton and Commerce in the Atlantic World, is available for preorder from Duke University Press. Anna has received several awards and fellowships, including from Yale University, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Winterthur Library, Museum and Gardens, the Paul Mellon Center for British Art and the American Council of Learned Societies. She is involved in several curatorial projects and currently serves on three boards - as advisory council member for the Jamaican artist-run initiative NLS Kingston and 12 Gates Arts, and the Board of Trustees for the contemporary photography organization Philadelphia Photo Arts Center.
Chris Luu grew up in Perth, Australia where he landed his first post-University job as an Architect. He then went onto studying Creative Advertising and Graphic Design. From there, he went on to work at numerous advertising agencies in Perth such as 303 Mullenlowe, Meerkats and The Brand Agency. After that he moved to New York City and is currently working as an Art Director at Johannes Leonardo where he has been awarded numerous global accolades including the prestigious D&AD Pencil. Outside of work Chris skates for vans Australia. He is also a set proclaimed skateboard historian, photographer, artist, tinkerer and won’t-stop maker.
Isaac Garang is a designer of South Sudanese background currently based in Perth. His primary platform for self expression is the clothing brand, IXIII (pronounced I X Three).
Luel de Kuek is a freelance graphic and product designer. He strives to use his art to tell as many stories to as many people as possible, as art has an intrinsic and boundless nature to cross artificial boundaries of skin, colour or creed.
Rhys Paddick is an advocate of cultural leadership and the development of sound educational and training programs. Working in environments that can and do create holistic, healthy and substantial changes. Rhys's career in long-term networks began with educational support and mentoring programs of Aboriginal youth, both in primary and secondary schools. His focus now is to bring a modern adaptation of traditional indigenous culture into the wider Australian forum in an effort to connect Australians with our common culture - people culture.
Crowned Perth’s ‘Best Hip Hop Act’ by WAM two years in a row, HYCLASS, of Polynesian descendant, born in New Zealand and raised in Australia otherwise known as Susan Tuialli is Perth’s most sought-after female hip hop artist with a tremendous amount of soul intertwined with copious amounts of flavour.
Friday 5 March 2021
Roderick MacKay is a writer/director from Perth, Western Australia. With a formal training in visual arts, Roderick is a highly visual storyteller. In 2020, Roderick's debut feature film, The Furnace, premiered as part of the official selection for the 77th Venice Film Festival. Roderick's short films include Trigger and Factory 293.
Affy Bhatti is passionate about bringing positive change to Australian communities and is a Board member of several not-for-profit organisations, supporting causes such as providing scholarships to refugees, the preservation of Islamic art, and making Australia’s most recognised leaders more accessible to professionals. Affy has previously held advisory roles for the Australia Day Council of WA, celebrating the extraordinary contributions of Australians to society and for the WA Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Interests Multicultural Advisory Committee. Affy provides trusted advice to private and public organisations assisting with strategic and complex initiatives, navigating uncertainty to achieve their objectives successfully.
Rosie Sitorous is an emerging writer based in Western Australia. She has an established creative practice in spoken word performance, music and comedy, and works as a linguist with rural, regional and remote Aboriginal communities. Much of Rosie’s writing reflects on her relationship with her late mother, a great influence on her love of language, as well as her search, as a ‘third culture kid’, for place and belonging in contemporary Australia.
Gary Bonney is an educator and storyteller and has undertaken a number of roles in the Kimberley and the Kalgoorlie/Boulder area that directly relate to working with government and non-government sectors in regional and remote areas of Western Australia. Gary’s experience has included work in secondary education, with at risk youth, young people in residential settings and with Indigenous people in the Goldfields and Kimberley regions of Western Australia. Gary has a passion for working in community with marginalised people, and educating others to increase awareness, access, social equity and understanding. Gary is an early career screenwriter and works with Revelation Film Festival and was Associate Producer for The Furnace.
Harjit Singh is one of the founders of the Australian Sikh Heritage Association which documents and shares history on the early contribution of Sikhs in Australia. ASHA recently completed a first of its kind ‘Australian Sikh Heritage Trail’ that serves to mark an early Sikh cremation site within a public park and create a meeting place for diverse communities. Harjit is also one of the founders of Turbans and Trust, which has generated over 10,000 one on one conversations between strangers to build an understanding of respect and equality. Harjit’s passion for civil rights has driven him to work on close to a hundred civil rights matters across Australia, building understanding without confrontation wherever possible. Harjit has delivered speeches on his view of Australia’s multiculturalism at various forums and conferences. Passionate about turbans and his faith, Harjit’s goal is to make Australia the most Sikh aware country in the world. Harjit wants the turban to be recognised as being just as Australian as the Akubra! Harjit recently worked as the primary Sikh Consultant on the film, 'The Furnace' that involved him consulting on the aspect of the film including the script, names of characters, cultural appropriateness and period costume.
Saturday 6 March 2021
Emma Gibbens impacts communities and social movements, creating positive change driven by her ability for meaningful conversations and enabling action in others. She is currently achieving this by working at the Museum of Freedom and Tolerance which amplifies the voices and stories of marginalised communities, using the arts as a platform for conversation and change. Emma has a decade of experience in political campaigning across the United States and around the world. More recently, Emma was the WA State Director for the Australians for Marriage Equality campaign, with WA achieving the second highest YES vote in the national survey.
Shaun Nannup is a senior Aboriginal leader and Director of Wisdom in Your Life – healing through Aboriginal ways. His purpose in life is to connect people through his stories. If you have sat through a ‘welcome to country’ by Shaun you will know how connected he is. He is connected to the ancestors. He knows their stories. He knows what must be done. He is a leader of reconciliation.
Len Collard is a Whadjuck Noongar elder, Professor at the School of Indigenous Studies University of Western Australia. He has a background in literature and communications and has researched areas including Noongar interpretive histories and Noongar theoretical and practical research models. Len’s latest innovation research work is with CAN Cracking the codes of Noongar place names.
Monica Kane has been an arts leader for over nine years and is currently the co-CEO of Community Arts Network and Chair of The Blue Room Theatre. Having just completed her Masters in Human Rights Education in 2020, she is passionate about how arts and culture connect stories and people that can truly reflect the plurality of voices that make up Australia. CAN’s work aims to advocate for platforms that share underrepresented stories and voices. Monica has overseen CAN’s Place Names program for the last five years, which has worked on bringing to life Len Collard’s innovative research on Noongar place names by connecting with local communities.
Dr Denise Cook is an historian, oral historian and museum curator with over 30 years’ experience. She is the author of That Was My Home, which explores the hidden histories of the Noongar camps along the Swan River. Denise has documented the voices of Noongar people, juxtaposed with information from the archives, photographs and stories from others in the community. She specialises in WA history, particularly local and Noongar history, as well as protocols for non-Aboriginal people working in the Noongar community. Denise’s work includes the Kaartdijin Noongar website for the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, exhibition team leader (Indian Ocean Gallery) for the WA Maritime Museum, and oral histories for organisations such as Freshwater Bay Museum, Rail Heritage WA and the former Roelands Mission. She co-wrote the Gwalia Unearthed guidebook, and is currently Associate Research Fellow at Deakin University. Denise is particularly interested in researching, recording and telling stories that might not otherwise be heard.
Lynnette Coomer lived in the Shenton Park camps in the 1950s with her parents, grandmother Melba Bodney, and siblings. She went to Jolimont Primary School when she was seven. Later she, and the next youngest children, were taken to Roelands Mission. Lynnette worked for many years as an Aboriginal Education Assistant. In 2015 she won the Reg Henry Snr. Aboriginal Person of the Year Award. Lynnette was also the Kwinana Citizen of the Year for 2020 for her support of the Ngala Yorga Group, Celebrate Culture Kwinana and the Medina Residents Group.
Ian Wilkes is a Noongar theatre-maker, dancer and performer. He has directed several plays including Yirra Yaakin’s Boodjar Kaatijin and Songbird and performed numerous lead roles including in Yirra Yaakin’s Hecate and Ochre’s Kwongan for Perth Festival, CO3’s The Line at State Theatre WA and Honey Spot at the Sydney Opera House. Ian is also a founding facilitator of Culture 2.0, Yirra Yaakin’s regional youth engagement program. He was a facilitating artist on Community Arts Network’s Burdiya Mob project and a performer and cultural consultant on Beyond Empathy’s Excursions project. Ian is currently a writer and performer of on-country performance Galup and writer and director of the VR work Galup.
Poppy van Oorde-Grainger is a filmmaker, artist and producer. Her work has been broadcast on ABC, SBS and Nickelodeon and presented at international festivals and galleries including London International Festival of Theatre, Japan Media Arts Festival and Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. Poppy first gained national recognition as the winner of the Fremantle Print Award and then later the Australia Council Kirk Robson Award for leadership in Community Arts and Cultural Development. Poppy was a director and producer on Community Arts Network’s Burdiya Mob and Ngaluk Waangkiny projects and Beyond Empathy’s Excursions project. Poppy is currently a director, writer and producer of the on-country performance and VR work Galup and is director of not-for-profit production company Same Drum.
Samara King is a Karajarri woman from Broome, Western Australia. She was part of the 2020 Emerging Curator program between Rottnest Island Authority and Western Australian Museum and is the co-curator of Always Wadjemup; a multimedia digital exhibition that reflects the experience of working on Wadjemup (Rottnest Island).
Michelle Broun is a proud Yindjibarndi woman living and working on Whadjuk Nyoongar Boodja. She grew up between the Pilbara and the Southwest-studying and working in Perth, Roebourne, Broome and Margaret River. Michelle has worked at many levels and across many platforms to produce, promote and present Aboriginal arts and culture. She is a curator, cultural planner and creative producer-engaging with community and collaborating with artists to create thought -provoking and moving experiences for audiences, to build bridges between cultures and find common ground on which to move forward. She was the lead curator of the Ngalang Koort Boodja Wirn exhibition at the Museum of Western Australia which opened in 2020. She is currently the Curator of Australian First Nations Art at John Curtin Gallery, focusing on the research, presentation and community engagement related to the collection of artworks produced by the child inmates of the Carrolup Native Settlement.
Chris Malcolm is the Director of John Curtin Gallery. He has worked with some of the most influential contemporary artists from around the world, curating and designing exhibitions over the last 25 years. Moving from a career as a practising artist represented in the collections of the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the City of Fremantle, he commenced working with Curtin University’s Art Collection in 1989. He was involved in the development of the John Curtin Gallery which opened at Curtin University in 1998 as Australia’s largest University Art Museum and following a decade as it’s Curator and Curatorial Manager, has been Director since 2009.
Chris has curated over 15 major international exhibitions for the Perth Festival and was a Founding Curator of BEAP the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth – a major international festival project launched in 2002 showcasing innovative new media arts practise. He has received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in 2002 and 2019 and has developed many exhibitions in collaboration with leading researchers across a range of disciplines from nanotechnology to radio astronomy – including Shared Sky, which has been touring internationally since 2014. As Director, he has overseen the convergence of the John Curtin Gallery’s collection development with its exhibition programming to focus on issues of diversity, equity and social justice.
Anthony (Tonji) Hansen was born in Katanning and in the 1970’s forcibly removed from his mother and grandparent’s care as a toddler. He has worked within the Government sector for the last 30 years, working in the field as a member of the Western Australia Police Department, the Department for Child Protection and the Department of Human Services. With this depth of experience has come a deep understanding of the complex needs of Stolen Generations people and their families and the complexity of these needs.
Anthony also is a hard-working member of the Bringing Them Home Committee and the Carrolup Elders Reference Group. He is a Working Party Member for the South West Boojarah Group of the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council. Tonji currently works with Communicare and sees gains in the current and future investments made by mainstream Australia in compensating Aboriginal people for the wrongs inflicted in the past and continuing now as achievable only if services are directed by strengthened Aboriginal communities – our problems – our solutions.
Sunday 7 March 2021
Zoe O'Neill is a solicitor, creative, community outreach practitioner, lecturer, fundraiser and postgraduate student studying social impact. After a 12 year career as a lawyer in the not-for-profit sector, working primarily with vulnerable communities, Zoe joined the team at the Museum of Freedom and Tolerance in February 2020. Passionate about social justice and strategic design for social impact, Zoe is excited to be at the helm of In Visible Ink 2021 and sees it as an opportunity to bring together some of the most intriguing and fiercest minds in cultural awareness, anti-racism and transgressive art that she personally has admired up close and from afar.
Lilly Blue is an interdisciplinary artist and educator with a background in pedagogical practice, studio research and community engagement. She currently works as Manager of Learning and Creativity Research at the Art Gallery of Western Australia collaborating on projects that amplify the experience of children in relation with the world as critical and valuable in developing culture for multigenerational public audiences. As Teaching Artist and Creativity Consultant for Sydney Opera House she was instrumental in the development of the Creative Leadership in Learning Program and The Creativity Framework. She is co-Creative Director of contemporary arts publication/platform BIG Kids Magazine, and has worked internationally delivering arts residencies, professional development, creative commissions and exhibitions.
Jay Emmanuel is the founder and Artistic Director of Encounter. Born in India and based in Perth, Jay is a performer, writer and director. A graduate of Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris, his works are distinguished by his unique methodology of collaborative theatre-making, melding contemporary theatrical forms with rigorous community engagement and enquiry into authentic storytelling often involving non-professional actors on stage. Recognised as one of WA’s top 50 'Rising Stars' by The West Australian, Jay has worked and collaborated on international productions such as Mahabharata (Why Not Theatre, Canada), Heroes (Radhouane El Meddeb Pantheon, Paris), Biryani (City of Perth Winter Arts Festival), MAA (St Georges Theatre) and on projects with renowned theatre director Ariane Mnouchkine (Theatre du Soleil, France). His recent performances include Helpmann award-winning play Counting and Cracking (Belvoir St/Co-Curious) and The Midnight Run (Inua Ellams, Perth Festival). Jay currently has a number of new plays in development in 2021 and beyond.
Jay is currently a Lead creative at Performing Lines WA. He was part of Belvoir St’s Artists at Work Residency and is a founding board director of Perth International Cabaret Festival. In 2019 he was awarded a Career Development Grant from Australia Council for the Arts and was recognised as a Future Leader the same year.
Marziya Mohammedali is a wordsmith, photographer, designer, educator and artist. Their creative practice focuses on narratives of dissent, identity, migration and transition, working for social justice. They have documented several protest movements within Perth and have been involved in creative and digital activism for various issues. They are also the Arts Editor at Jalada Africa, an online pan-African publishing platform. They are currently undertaking a PhD focusing on identity, protest, and photography, and recently held their first solo exhibition, 'we are the ones we have been waiting for'.
Dr Jo Pollitt is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Education at Edith Cowan University. As an interdisciplinary artist and scholar Jo's work is grounded in a twenty-year practice of improvisation and dramaturgy across multiple performed, choreographic and publishing platforms. She is co-founder and director of the creative arts publication BIG Kids Magazine and is currently invested in methods of expanded embodiment and creative response in researching children's relations with climate futures. Jo also lectures in dance Improvisation at WAAPA, is artist-researcher with #FEAS -Feminist Educators Against Sexism, and co-founder of the feminist research collective The Ediths at ECU. Her novella “The dancer in your hands < >” was released by UWA Publishing in 2020.