Cezera Critti-Schnaars | Emcee & Facilitator
Based in Perth, Western Australia, Cezera is a proud Nyoongar and Greek theatre maker whose passion for theatre started when she was a kid. As a teenager, she branched out into writing her own work, participating in Yirra Yaakin Writers’ Group for a total of five years.
She completed the Aboriginal Performance Course at WAAPA in 2018 Since, she has worked with a number of companies in both acting, writing and directing positions. She played the role of Jo March in adaption of Little Women for The Blue Room Theatre and Mel & Sal in 2021 and directed the Ngalaka Daa Ensemble piece for Yirra Yaakin and WAYTco in both 2021 and 2022.
Recently she co-directed Seven Sisters with WAYTco for Perth Festival 2023 and had her debut play Salted Pretzels premiere at the Blue Room Theatre with APK Productions. For her performance in Hecate (2020) she was awarded Best Newcomer and Best Supporting Actress at the PAWA awards.
Mia Freeman | Facilitator
Mia is a second year arts management student at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) with a passion for turning artistic endeavours into reality.
She studies all aspects of arts management, including communications, marketing, law, finance, and project management and production. Mia loves to be involved in and support local art that captivates thought-provoking ideas and lends itself to reflection on contemporary society. She is eager to expand her knowledge in all fields and is particularly resonating with film, live performance and festival/event producing.
As a member of Perth Festival’s Young Voices program, she strives to be a leading voice for young creatives and a part of sustaining the arts industry as an enriching and supportive space.
Asha Kiana | Speaker
Asha Kiani is a performer, theatremaker, storyteller, musician and Teacher. Born and raised by her Indian father and Irish mother on Wardandi Nyungar country, Asha draws inspiration from the diverse threads that weave her identity. Asha has been involved in storytelling projects with The Centre for Stories, Perth Festival and, in 2019 helped devise and perform in Saga Sisterhood, a transformative performance project for South Asian women.
In January 2020, Asha wrote and performed her debut solo piece Drift which explored grief and loss and received the most audience votes for 'Best of' (The Blue Room Theatre, 600 Seconds, Perth Fringe World Festival). In June 2020, Asha co-founded the Second Generation Collective with local Video Artist Elham Eshraghian-Haakansson. Asha and Elham work with the local Iranian-Australian community, to curate stories of displacement, migration, home and identity via multi-modal art forms.
Currently, Asha works as a Teaching Artist for Barking Gecko Theatre and is aspiring to write and produce her debut EP. Asha pursues the ‘untold stories’ around her and seeks to connect with audiences via authenticity, empathy, vulnerability and humour.
Chloe Flockart | Speaker
Chloe Flockart (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist from Njaki Njaki Noongar Boodja in Regional Western Australia. She has worked as a puppeteer, puppet maker, and puppet mentor for companies around Australia and the UK, from tiny tabletop puppets to a large-scale inflatable turtle for Cirque Du Soleil.
When not working in puppetry, she passionately advocates for arts access in remote and regional communities. She is a founding member of Meridian Regional Arts Inc, a not-for-profit focused on ensuring the arts are accessible to regional communities in WA’s Wheatbelt, and a Regional Arts WA fellowship artist for 2021-2023 with a focus on creating a sustainable career in regional areas, and Minderoo Artist Fund recipient focusing on intersecting the arts with environmental activism. She is very good at fixing things with gaffer tape.
Elham Hakaansson | Speaker
Elham Eshraghian-Haakansson (she/her) is an award-winning Iranian-Australian researcher, director, and video artist. Her research navigates inherited stories and postmemory felt by displaced community through the poetics of the moving image. She invites viewers to become the 'witness' rather than the 'passive bystander', examining empathy in film poems, and immersive multi-media experiences facilitating a critical discussion surrounding empathy, custodianship, compassion, and social change.
Her work has exhibited nationally and internationally, receiving numerous prestigious art awards for her video installations such as the 2018 Dr. Harold Schenberg Art Prize, 2020 Invitation Art Prize, 2020 14th Arte Laguna Special Prize Award and the 2022 Ellen José Art Prize as well as a recipient for the inaugural Early-Career Creative and Performance Leadership Fellowship 2022 with the Forrest Research Foundation. Performance Leadership Fellowship 2022 with the Forrest Research Foundation.
Her artistic values prioritize agency, empathy and legacy advocating for community arts programs, as co-founder of the Second Generation Collective, which seeks to bridge intergenerational gaps, navigating trauma and communal care.
Flewnt, Joshua Eggington | Speaker
Joshua “Flewnt” Eggington is an award winning, Proud Nyoongar Wongi rapper from Boorloo(Perth). With astrong family legacy rooted in activism. '
Flewnt uses his raw Hip Hop flow andmodern-daymusings as hisplatform to articulate a powerful, positive, and uplifting message for his people.
Katherine Wilkinson | Speaker
Katherine is a creative producer and curator working across socially engaged, site-responsive and live contemporary art practices. She is currently the Program Director for the Fremantle Biennale, a festival of site-responsive contemporary art.
Previously she was the Curator at DADAA, a Creative Producer with Perth Festival (Witness Stand, 2021; Five Short Blasts, 2019) and the Special Projects and Revealed Coordinator at Fremantle Arts Centre.
Her most recent projects centre place, water and care. Katherine works, lives and swims on the lands and waters of the Whadjuk people of the Nyoongar nation.
Laura Boynes | Speaker
Laura Boynes is an award-winning Independent Dance Artist, Performer, Choreographer, Educator, Movement Director and Disability Arts Worker based in Boorloo/Perth. Laura’s practice is centered on presenting social, cultural and political happenings as they intersect with individual experience.
Her practice utilises the body as metaphor and as a meeting point for investigating ideas of human resilience, social responsibility, adaptability and ecological change. She uses performance as a tool to inspire critical thought and reflection on the contemporary world.
She has choreographed multiple short and full-length independent works and directed large commissions for dance companies such as LINK Dance Company, CO:3 Youth Ensemble, Buzz Dance Theatre and the WA Academy of Performing Arts.
Her solo work Wonder Woman created with Adelina Larsson and Julie-Anne Long (2019) was nominated for four PAWA Awards and won the Australian Dance Award for Independent Dance in 2020. Her latest work Equations of a Falling Body premiered in the Perth
Nirrimi Firebrace | Speaker
Nirrimi Firebrace is a multi-passionate artist currently exploring how to navigate the creative potential of AI authentically. She won her first big photography award at 15, and has been flown all over the world to shoot for brands like Netflix & Sony. She has been writing stories since before she can remember as a way to process trauma and make sense of her messy brain. She is a proud Yorta Yorta and ASD/ADHD mama to 2 daughters, Alba and Asta.
Nirrimi runs Common Good Studio in Stackwood, where she handbuilds playful ceramics and formulates colourfully weird glazes. She sets too many goals and gets too little sleep but is deeply passionate about developing systems and tools that make creative dreams possible.
'Ofa Fotu | Speaker
Of Tongan heritage, Australian born 'Ofa Fotu is an incredible soul singer, storyteller, visual artist and voice over artist. Best known as a collaborator and ensemble member of Hot Brown Honey or as frontwoman of funk/soul band Odette Mercy and Her Soul Atomics as Odette,‘Ofa Fotu instantly captivates audiences with her remarkable vocal range.
As a Creative Producer with the City of Fremantle, ‘Ofa works as part of the Festival Team creating, developing and is responsible for the implementation
of the City of Fremantle’s annual Festival Programming. This includes Fremantle International Street Arts Festival, Heritage Festival, Fremantle Festival: 10 Nights in Port and Hidden Treasures.
'Ofa has worked with many different musicians from varying genres. She has produced and programmed a number of festivals innately invested in ensuring platforms are made available to all. She is a creator to be reckoned with.
Peter Cheng | Speaker
Peter Cheng is an experimental filmmaker and educator based in Walyalup, Western Australia, with a passion for community representation & collaboration. Peter's video practice serves as a critique of hermeneutic sociocultural systems as Peter aims to advocate and challenge preconceptions.
Since graduating from film school in 2011, Peter's unique perspective as a gender non-conforming artist informs their work, driving a commitment to fostering inclusive & diverse perspectives. Peter has collaborated with acclaimed artists such as Tracey Moffatt, Derek Kreckler, Cecile B. Evans and Molly/Aaron. They created 'Perth Artists,' a documentary series that achieved a community broadcasting grant.
Peter has partnered with community arts organisations to ensure high-quality video documentation of emerging and established artists and community arts events. Currently, Peter is editing their debut feature film that explores religious upbringings and the blur between faith and fiction.
Peter Cheng has garnered cinematography awards and is recognised for their advocacy & disruption in the field. As they continue to push boundaries and create thought-provoking video art, Peter strives for inclusivity, diversity and justice.
Sam Nerida | Speaker
Sam Nerida (they/them) is a playwright, director and producer, occasionally a performer, and is often working in arts x disability and arts x education spaces. They are the Associate Producer: Creative Learning for Perth Festival.
Most recently they were an ally artist for PLWA’s Kolyang Diversity Lab, and wrote a short work for WA Youth Theatre Company’s Growing Voices. They have been a Perth Festival Lab Artist and KISS Club Artist, and directed The Jellyman for which they were nominated for Best Director (PAWA 2020). Plays include Tissue and See You Next Tuesday, the latter of which won Best New Work and Best Independent Production (PAWA Awards, 2019), and in 2020 they were commissioned to contribute to APT’s Dear Australia monologue project.
Sam’s latest performance credit is TOAST (Black Swan State Theatre Company & TBRT, 2022), and recent producing credits include Mother of Compost (Noemie Huttner-Koros, 2022), Queer as Flux (The Nest Ensemble, 2021), and a regional tour of See You Next Tuesday (Static Drive, 2022). They are currently the Secretary of the Board of The Blue Room Theatre as well as a teaching artist at All Saints Highschool, AWESOME Arts and WA Youth Theatre Company.
Shona Erskine | Speaker
Shona is dedicated to understanding the complexity inherent in creativity and innovation, and the challenges of expertise and elite performance. She coaches senior leaders in the skills of creative leadership, and lead workshops on the neuroscience of creative practice, spanning corporate, not-for-profit and creative sectors.
In addition, Shona runs facilitation and conversation processes that attend to complexity and perspective. She continues to deliver psychology for performing and visual artists, as well as production and crew, through professional companies, universities, and in private practice. Shona has developed curriculum in areas of performance and wellbeing for performing artist, teachers, and directors using best practice models.
Sukhjit Khalsa | Speaker
Sukhjit is a writer, performer, theatre-maker, filmmaker, producer, and ED of The Blue Room Theatre. Her work as a multi-form artist for the last ten years has been recognised at the PAWA Awards (2020), Mona Brand Writing Awards (2022), WA Multicultural Awards (2022) and Young Australian Sikh of the Year (2023).
Her passion for storytelling began as a finalist in the Australian Poetry Slam (2014), semi-finalist on Australia’s Got Talent (2016) and winner of The Moth GrandSLAM (2019). Sukhjit spoke at TedxUWA (2017), TedxNewtown (2019) and has supported Missy Higgins and L-FRESH the Lion on their national tours. Sukhjit premiered her sell-out theatre show FULLY SIKH with Barking Gecko and Black Swan (2019). Sukhjit and her partner, Perun Bonser, were selected to develop their rom-com series ONE OF THE GOOD ONES at Ron Howard & Brian Grazer’s talent lab, Impact Australia (2020). They premiered their video installation work BETWEEN BREATHS at Goolugatup Gallery (2022) and the work toured in 4A's BUSH DIWAN (2022).
Sukhjit has been a story-telling trainer at the Centre for Stories and has produced storytelling and theatre projects for adults and school students. COLLECTABLES, her debut hip-hop single is now streaming on all platforms.
Tyrown Waigana | Speaker
Tyrown Waigana is a Wandandi Noongar and Ait Koedal artist and design. This mean his heritate can be traced people from the south-west Western Australia and Saibai Island in the Torres Strait.
Tyrown's practice includes graphic design, illustration, painting, animation and sculpture. He take on a variety of work from corporate commission looking for indigenous styled graphic to highly conceptual fine art. His practice relates social nuances to myths and uses humour as help ingest deep subject matter. Waigana enjoy taking on projects that allow him to grow as an artist and all-round creative.