Blak Love

Alethea Beetson is a Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi + Wiradjuri storyteller + dreamer who has worked extensively with Indigenous communities across multiple art forms to inspire new works responding to societal issues, cultural heritage and colonisation. Her research explores the function of insurgence and resurgence in the creative development and production of Indigenous performance.

In 2013 Alethea founded Digi Youth Arts (DYA) is an Indigenous led youth arts organisation sharing the stories of our young people. Her tenure at Digi Youth Arts has seen Alethea write and direct the following productions from a community engaged practice: COOKED (2022, QPAC), ANTHRO-APOLOGY (2018, Queensland Museum), Waiting and Searching (2016, Metro Arts), Don't Read The Comments (2016, Metro Arts), in-dij-uh-nus (2015, Brisbane Powerhouse; 2016 Festival of Pacific Arts in Guam; 2018, La Boite Theatre Company), Losing It (2017, La Boite Theatre Company); and direct Restless Dream (2021, Brisbane Festival), The Truth Is (2014, Twelfth Night Theatre) & Glad Tomorrow (2013, Brisbane Powerhouse).

Alethea also adapted and directed Alexis Wright's Carpentaria as an immersive literary performance for Brisbane Writers Festival in 2017 and 2019. In 2021 Alethea adapted one of her theatre works Losing It into a short-film.

She has worked as a First Nations Music Curator and Producer across BLAKSOUND, Brisbane Festival, BIGSOUND, Horizon Festival, Yonder and Jungle Love.

Tony Birch is the author of three novels and four short story collections, in 2021 he released two new books, a poetry book, Whisper Songs and a new short story collection, Dark As Last Night. His website is: tony-birch.com

Jazz Money is a Wiradjuri poet and artist currently based on Gadigal land. Her practice is centred around the written word while producing works that encompass installation, digital, film and print. Jazz’s writing has been widely performed and published nationally and internationally. Her first collection how to make a basket won the David Unaipon Award and was released in September 2021 by University of Queensland Press.

Dr Jackie Huggins AM FAHA, a member of the Bidjara and Birri Gubba Juru peoples, is currently leading the work for Treaty/Treaties in Queensland. In popular demand as a speaker on Aboriginal issues, she is a well-known historian and author, with articles published widely in Australia and internationally. Her acclaimed biography of her mother, Auntie Rita, was published in 1994 and in 2022 her biography of her father, Jack of Hearts: QX11594 was published.

She was the former Co-Chair National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, former member of the National Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Co-Chair Reconciliation Australia, the State Library Board of Queensland and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. She was Co-Commissioner for Queensland for the Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, and for several years was a Judge of the annual David Unaipon Award.