Warm Welcome

TUNE IN
FRI 22 MAY
5PM (AEST) 

Come sit with us and listen as we yarn through both traditional and contemporary modes of working and survival for Indigenous people and community. Through collective reflection led by Indigenous storytellers, Uncle Jack Charles, Peter Waples-Crowe, Alice Skye and Isabella Whāwhai Waru we gather online to share and listen deeply. These stories stem from lived experience and collective knowledge, these are ways and methodologies that Indigenous people have developed and applied to their way of living. These are stories about survival, strength and resilience. Reflecting on collective grief and loss, Warm Welcome is a moment to acknowledge what has come before as a way to help accept what is ahead. 

Curated by Moorina Bonini

Special thanks to Jim Lawrie and Wurundjeri Land Council.

Uncle Jack Charles is a Boon Wurrung and Dja Dja Wurrung man, a beloved and respected elder, an actor, musician, potter and gifted performer. He is acknowledged as the grandfather of Aboriginal theatre in Australia and co-founded the first Aboriginal theatre company, Nindethana Theatre, with Bob Maza in 1972. Charles’ acting career spans over six decades and has touched many across the globe. He has showcased his work in many nations including Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the United States. His early career highlights include Cradle of Hercules(Old Tote Theatre); Ben Halland Rush (ABC TV); and the feature film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith.

Peter Waples-Crowe is a Ngarigo artist living in Melbourne. His intersecting experiences as an Aboriginal person and his work with community health and arts organisations give him a unique perspective as an artist and community cultural development worker. Waples-Crowe creates bold colourful work that explores the representation of Aboriginal people in popular culture, often referencing the dingo as a totemic figure and an analogy for queer, outsider Mob. Peter’s practice also consists of reworking of the colonial images from books and galleries print collections; diffracting the colonisers view of Aboriginal people with the mercurial wit of the constantly shifting negotiations of queer and black identities.

Isabella Whāwhai Waru is a Ngati Tukorehe, Te Ati Awa and European descendant. A sovereign, fluid occupation. A queer artist, a storyteller, a bodyworker, a healer, a community worker, a vessel for tides and connections and ancestors. They move between disciplines, environments and states of mind. Through movement, voicework, weaving, visual arts, poetry, workshop, ritual & performance facilitation. They create for the realising and reimagining of themselves and their worlds, with choreographic, performative and artistic interests in body, land and ancestral connections -how we can enact resurgence, healing, transmutation, incantation, communication, manifestation & clearing through the vessel of performance/the body.

Alice Skye is a Wergaia/Wemba Wemba person living and writing music in Naarm (Melbourne). Since her first album ‘Friends with Feelings’ she has signed with Bad Apples, the Indigenous-driven label that celebrates and priorities’ blak excellence. Alice’s first single and peak into her upcoming sophomore album ‘I Feel Better but I Don’t Feel Good’ was produced by local artist Jen Cloher. Her work continues to look inwards and explores finding staunchness in softness.