Curated Events
In 2024 BWF has had the great fortune to work with First Nations Cultural Curators Melanie Saward and Lenora Thaker, who’ve put together a series of sessions that complement and enhance the program. You’ll find a curator credit next to each of the sessions they’ve created; we hope you enjoy the breadth and depth these panels bring to the festival. BWF would like to extend a huge thank you to Melanie and Lenora for their illuminating and exciting contributions.
Melanie Saward - Aboriginal First Nations Curator
In curating these sessions for Brisbane Writers Festival, I kept my mind firmly on Blak love and joy. All our storytelling is important, valid and worthy of discussion, but often Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creatives are asked to perform our trauma for non-Indigenous audience, and so I wanted to focus on all the things that make us deadly. I’ve been fantasising about what the ideal festival would look like for a long time, and in my six sessions you’ll see writers discuss their own festival fantasies, share love poems and talk about Aboriginal romance novels. You’ll hear about the healing properties of the arts, our hopes for our kids and from artists working to adapt their work across mediums. I hope you’ll come along to witness and celebrate our joy.
Lenora Thaker - Torres Strait Islander First Nations Curator
I have been honoured to curate this year’s Torres Strait Islander program of artists for the Brisbane Writers Festival. The lineup includes authors, playwrights, screenwriters, filmmakers and performers, to name a few. The common thread that weaves through the sessions is that our stories are unique, resonate with the spirit of ancestors, transform and come to life to teach, reflect, entertain and add to the richness of our shared human experience. Please join us and be inspired and enthralled by how we — people of Zenadth Kes — create and tell our stories.
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