AustLit
Dancer, writer, comedian, film and theatre director and actor, Wayne Blair graduated from university in 1997. Since graduating, Blair has worked with several theatres (including Bangarra Dance Theatre), film and television productions. Blair portrayed Othello for the Bell Shakespeare Company. He directed short films: Black Talk (2002), and The Djarn Djarns (2005). Blair starred in Shifting Sands - Grace (1998) and Mullet (2001). In 2008, Blair was appointed the Artistic Associate of Belvoir St Theatre.
In 2012, Blair was nominated for an AACTA Award, Best Direction, for The Sapphires.
Fiona Foley creates work across media that deal with history, identity, sovereignty and personal signification. In all her work, she insists the viewer re-examine historical stereotypes.
Her national contribution to the arts was recognised when she was awarded the Australia Council artist of the year for 2013.
Throughout her career, Foley has engaged issues of indigenous identity on a regional, national and international level, creating a dialogue with artists and communities here and around the world. In 2013 Foley delivered the keynote address for the Origins Festival of First Nations in London.
In 2009-10, the University of Queensland Art Museum and Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art co-curated a major survey exhibition of Fiona Foley’s work, titled Forbidden.
In 2011, Fiona Foley was appointed an Adjunct Professor with the University of Queensland and her essay, ‘When the Circus Came to Town’ was published in the November issue of Art Monthly.
Recent group shows include the Australia exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and unDisclosed – 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial.
Recent solo shows include a retrospective at Andrew Baker Gallery as well as a show at CAST in Tasmania and Niagara Galleries. Another show of works from her career was exhibited at Redcliffe City Gallery titled Courage.
She has many major public sculpture works including Lie of the Land, Melbourne (1997); Bible and Bullets, at Redfern Park, Sydney (2008); Black Opium, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane (2009) and Blue Water Art Trail, Mackay (2009).
A founding member of the Boomalli artist co-op formed in 1987, Foley has been involved in numerous group projects over the course of her career and has a deep commitment to mentoring the next generation of contemporary Indigenous artists and arts professionals.
In 2020, she released Biting the Clouds: A Badtjala Perspective on the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act, 1897 (UQP).
Source: Courting Blakness website, hosted by AustLit.
The words Wandi (the wild duck) and Moonie Jarl (Teller of Tales) are the Aboriginal names of sister and brother Mrs Olga Miller and Wilf Reeves of Maryborough, Queensland. Their father was an elder of the Butchulla people. It was from the elders of the Butchulla people that Miller and Reeves learned their stories and the art of illustrating them. She is known by her people as 'Caboonya' (keeper of Records), a title given to her by her grandfather, Fred Wondunna (The Dreaming website, 2007)
Jeanie Bell is a Murri woman from South East Queensland, who identifies with the Yuggera tribe of the Brisbane Valley and the Dulingbara clan group from Fraser Island. She is a community linguist who has been working with the revival and maintenance of Aboriginal languages for many years. She has also been involved in researching the Aboriginal history of South East Queensland and has had her work published in journals and has delivered conference papers.
Since 2003, Bell has been primarily working with authors from the Koorawinga Aboriginal Corporation to publish bilingual children's books in Butchulla language and English.
The words Moonie Jarl (Teller of Tales) and Wandi (the wild duck) are the Aboriginal names of brother and sister, Wilf Reeves and Mrs Olga Miller of Maryborough, Queensland. Their father was an elder of the Butchalla people. It was from the elders of the Butchulla people that Reeves and Miller learned the stories and the art of illustrating them.
Kamarra Bell-Wykes is a writer from South East Queensland belonging to the Jagera and Dalingbara people. Kamarra Bell-Wykes wrote the play Chopped Liver, which has toured Australian schools, prisons and Indigenous communities.
Jodie Mitharing Burns is an illustrator from K'gari which is also known as Fraser Island. Her name Mitharing means mountain.
Shawn Wondunna-Foley is the first son of the late Aboriginal Butchulla elder Shirley Wondunna-Foley and Barry Foley who is of Irish descent.
As well as the manuscript, Dingo Finds a Friend (2010), that was shortlisted for the David Unaipon Award 2010, Wondunna-Foley has also written a number of works on cultural heritage management. He is also recognised as a leading artist among his people who belong to the Fraser Island region of South East Queensland.
'Fred Leone is one of the three Butchulla Song men, the Butchulla tribe through his grandmother’s line covers Kgari (Fraser Island), Hervey Bay, Maryborough, and the surrounding areas of the Fraser Coast. He is also Garawa on his grandfather’s line. Garawa is on the coastline across the Queensland/Northern Territory border. He also has Tongan and South Sea Islander heritage.
Fred is committed to social change and social justice, particularly applying his skills and knowledge to support the strength, status and development of Indigenous culture.
Through his music, language and dance, and body of work, Fred is also focused on enriching the lives of young people in the areas of positive leadership, self-expression, self-confidence, self-pride and pride in communities and culture.
In recent years Fred has had Indigenous cultural input into the following major public and internationally broadcast events, including Australia vs Great Britain and Irish Lions, G20 World Leaders Summit Welcome to Country, G20 Cultural Program Opening and Commonwealth Games Torch Relay.
Fred was also the Artistic Director of Black Arm Band’s renowned stage show DIRTSONG and toured internationally to the United Kingdom, United States of America, Brazil, Singapore, Taiwan, Canada and Malaysia. In 2016, Fred toured his first play Gunyal *Scar to Glasgow funded by the National Theatre of Scotland.'
(Source : QPAC)
'Rose Barrowcliffe is a Butchulla-Wonamutta doctoral candidate at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. (2022) Her research uses critical race theory to examine how Indigenous peoples are represented in archives and how that then affects their representation in historical narratives. Rose’s research is grounded in the K’gari Research Archive, an archive that is about the Butchulla Traditional Country now also known as Fraser Island. Rose is a member of the Indigenous Archives Collective.' (Archives and Manuscripts Volume 49, 2021 - Issue 3)
'Nanna' Joyce Smith is the oldest living Elder of the Butchulla tribe from Hervey Bay / Fraser Coast and K'gari Fraser Island in QLD.
Kal Ellwood.is a historian.
Also known as Birdz, Nathan Bird is a rapper. Raised in Katherine in the Northern Territory, he was more recently based in Melbourne, where he also worked for Link-Up Victoria.
'Butchulla & Kabi Kabi man Aidan Rowlingson is an emerging multidisciplinary artist and producer based on Jagera and Turrabal country in so-called Brisbane who interprets the world around him through acting, writing, visual art, and directing. Aidan creates and produces LGBTQIA+ First Nation performances and creative developments.'
Source: Yellamundie Festival 2021.
