24 Oct 2022: Sydney. TNA is partnering with Theatre Network NSW, Performance Space, and Carriageworks to host an in-person sector gathering during Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art. We will be hearing from local artists, and there will be a chance for small group discussions around the theme of ‘How to be a Good Ancestor.’ There will also be quick updates from the partner organisations.

Monday 24 October 2022 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

The Elston Room at Carriageworks – the cafe will be open!
245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015

Free, but registrations are essential: https://www.trybooking.com/CCYHQ

Travel bursaries are available for regional NSW TNA members. Email Steph Speirs: steph@tna.org.au

THEME & GUEST SPEAKERS

Join leading performance practitioners Dino Dimitriadis and Sēini “SistaNative” Taumoepeau for a deep dive into issues of ancestry, culture and legacy, and their relationship to contemporary performance-making.

These leading practitioners will share their personal experiences as makers and activists striving towards a more equitable future for Australian theatre and performance, as well as their visions for the artform and the sector more broadly.

EVENT PROGRAM

Self-directed meetings (Carriageworks is open from 10am)

3:00pm: Welcome

• Updates from TNA & TNN
• Update from Create NSW – Bec Dean
• Update from Australia Council – Annette Madden
• Panel Discussion: Dino & Seini
• Roundtable Group Discussions
• Reflection & Sharing

5:00pm: Wrap-up, followed by drinks & snacks at The Royal

DELEGATES (AT OCT 19)

SPEAKER BIOS

Dino Dimitriadis (they/them) is an award winning theatre director, creative producer and curator. Their recent directing credits include Overflow, Cleansed, Lady Tabouli, De Profundis with Paul Capsis, Omar and Dawn, multi-award-winning productions of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America Parts I & II and Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses, All My Sleep and Waking, Doubt and The Girl / The Woman. They founded Apocalypse (2009-2021), an independent engine room for responsive theatre and live art projects.  

With an interest in original, queer and intersectional work, producing and curatorial credits include: Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art (Festival and Program Producer, Performance Space), Executive Producer The Old Fitz Theatre, Curator Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Creative Producer Queer Contemporary at National Art School, Curator Queer Sydney for Vivid X Powehouse Museum, Festival Producer The Sydney Fringe. Dino has worked extensively on the development of new Australian work, for both Playwriting Australia and Griffin Theatre Company. Dino has co-created a queer series for television, currently in devlopment with Arcadia Films.

Sēini ‘SistaNative’ Taumoepeau (She/Her) ARTIVIST: Orator & Songwoman with an Intersectional Oceanic-Pacific lens & First Nations focus.

An emerging Elder, Sēini’s career spans 30+ years as Performance Artist, Presenter/Broadcaster & Creative Industries professional. An Indigenous woman of the Mōana: a direct descendant of Ancient Polynesian Celestial Navigators & Chiefly lineage. With energy medicine in her presence, hands & voice; Faivā (performance of space) & Tauhi Vā (relational space) is her praxis; Talanoa: Talk-Story, Cosmology, Human Potential & Technology her central axis. With harmony & rhythm aesthetic, Sēini works first the invisible & intangible, before the visual & material: exploring ideas of connectivity, hōhoko (genealogy), ritual, ceremony, communication, relational inter-sectionality & displacement across Tā Vā (Time-Space).

Sēini is an Analogue to Digital Inter-disciplinary Artist & Coach/Mentor from Sydney’s early Hip Hop Generation.

Sēini is Indigenous to the Kingdom of Tonga & born in Cadigal Lands, Eora (Sydney, Australia) – she is known by the names: SistaNative (Performance Name), Napangardi (Skin-name) & Cantora (Capoeira Name).

Working across the fields of Arts, Media, Culture, Education & Personal Development sectors, Sēini remains dedicated to extending the stories & narratives of Indigenous Oceania, merging her devotion to the metaphysical sciences.

Sēini’s work explores discovery beyond the outskirts, the emergent, the fringe or the margins. An eternal scholar & emerging Elder, Sēini continues to grow her study & practices with the desire to bring Oceanic wisdom & indigenous science to the forefront, through sharing empathic intuitive intelligent Heart centered creative practice to continue to create harmony & community praxis, as an extension of the Indigenous cultures of her people of the Mōana.