Revealing our identity to others; who we are, where we come from, our experiences that have shaped those things, and our intentions for the work we plan to do. Hence, ‘location’ in Indigenous research, as in life, is a critical starting point. — Raven Pelletier Sinclair (2003, p. 122)
tRAKa-tRAKn (2021-2024) final crew DRAFT completion due (Dec 2025) – Archive
Creative Team
r e a – lead artist/creative concept/director/sound & co-editor
r e a is a Gamilaraay / Wailwan / Biripi (NSW) artist / curator / activist / researcher / cultural educator / creative thinker.
r e a’s ongoing practice takes its development from new and critical discourses exploring intersectionality and positionality, through the cultural convergence of Aboriginality; within the creative arts and technology, history and colonialism, the body and identity, gender and queer politics.
** Voice recordings provided by r e a: Wesley Enoch AM, Brenda M Nicholas-Leslie, Suellyn Tighe, Joey Carriage, Paul Williams, Lesley Morris & r e a. *Suellyn Tighe is the voice of the Gamilaraay language recordings.
Darrin Baker – editor/colourist
Darrin is a Samoan/Australian video artist and editor with twenty plus years of experience in the field. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with a diverse range of artists, producing works spanning, video installation and fiction writing. Born in Blacktown, his work often draws inspiration from this area. Notable projects include “The Underpass,” a site-specific video installation showcased @ FUNPARK during the 2014 Sydney Festival, and “Pemulwuy & The Naming of Things,” created for Terra Infirma at Blacktown Arts in 2021. Darrin has also been involved in numerous projects with organizations such as The Cad Factory, contributing to productions in remote and regional Australia for over a decade. In recent years, he has collaborated closely with Marrugeku, editing, ‘Gudirr Gudirr’ and collaborating on the creation of three-screen work with artist, Vernon Ah Kee. Additionally, Darrin’s work on the video: “This is Australia” has garnered widespread attention, accumulating over 750,000 views on social media platforms worldwide. Darrin’s commitment to amplifying underrepresented narratives is evident in his collaborations with Indigenous artists such as: r e a (reanoir) tRAKa-tRAKn, which focuses on youth suicide in regional, NSW Indigenous communities. In his creative work Darrin seeks to shed light on the unspoken and overlooked aspects of society, believing that art has the power to reveal truths often concealed in darkness.
Lea Collins – sound designer
Following extensive work in theatre, radio, music, sound production and audio training Lea Collins commenced electro-acoustic composition studies with David Worrall, Tim Kreger and Warren Burt at the Australian Centre for Arts and Technology in Canberra in 1994, graduating from the ANU in 1997 with a Graduate Diploma in Electronic Arts. Lea’s work has been included in a series of Computer Music Concerts of the 1998 Next Wave Festival in Melbourne and the festivals radiophonic event exstatic, also in Live Wires (new electro acoustic work) in Sydney in 1998 and in concerts of the Australian Computer Music Association’s 1998 annual conference and the EuCuE Series XVIII at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, 1999. Collaborative sound work with visual artist Rea has been included in the 1998 Melbourne International Festival and the 2000 Adelaide Arts Festival. Lea participated in the Australian Network for Arts and Technology’s 1999 Summer School. Lea spent 2002 teaching contemporary music students at the Northern Territory University in Darwin and continues her involvement in radio, audio production and theatre having spent 2003 at Radio 2XXfm in Canberra and producing Bonegilla Voices – audio for the National Archive of Australia. Her composition work explores spatialised sound, algorithmic generation of sound material and vocal treatments as well as a continued interest in the voice and the occasional rock gig. Since 2004, Lea has taught Studio Technique and Live Sound at the Canberra Institute of Technology’s Music Industry Centre in addition to Computer Music for Digital Arts and Media Arts students at the ANU.
Kimmo Vennonen – sound engineer
I am active in music and audio, working from my studio in Gorman Arts Centre, Canberra City. I serve a diverse base of clients in the arts from the Canberra region and beyond, specialising in sound design and mastering. Since 1991 I have worked extensively for many of Canberra’s dance and theatre companies. In 2010 I won the MEAA Green Room Award for “creative and innovative sound design”. My sound sculptures have been installed in indoor and outdoor public spaces. I have been in community radio since 1982, and in 1991 contributed to a piece called “Collaborations” with Jim Denley that won the prestigious Prix Italia for the ABC. As a composer I work with feedback and found sounds creating unique and organic soundscapes. In 1992 I undertook a Graduate Diploma in Music (Computer Music) at the ANU supervised by David Worrall, specialising in immersive sound in a geodesic dome. This led to being an ANU Visiting Fellow 1995-1998. For over two decades I have been switched on to 3D sound recording and production. I use my accumulated experience and instruments in high end recording work for organisations like the Canberra International Music Festival. I feel a special responsibility to the artists who have trusted me with their mastering work, since 1996. Built on my early years of broadcast experience, I am very aware of my role as the final quality control. Mastering combines attention to technical detail with a confident artistic interpretation and a keen ability to hear an artist’s needs. I look forward to much more collaboration and exploration in music and arts and I strive to keep my creative ground fertile. I am deeply committed to my professional practice that spans the genres and I work to ensure that every activity is open, sustainable and energising for all involved. http://www.kvp.net.au/
Gail Kelly
Project Coordinator / Administrator, has directed & devised contemporary performance projects for youth theatre, multicultural theatre, community theatre, contemporary performance, circus & physical theatre. Gail has devised hybrid, cross-art form & interdisciplinary contemporary Australian performance projects and directed solo physical performance projects in Australia & UK. From 2007 – 2015 she was the director of ACAPTA (the Australian Circus and Physical Theatre Association).
Recently Gail was the creative producer and project manager for The Fair Ground Project an integrated circus arts project: http://thefairgroundproject.org/ she has worked as project coordinator, administrator and dramaturg on all of r e a’s new media /visual arts projects and installations for over twenty years.
Joey Carriage [1st Performer]
Performer, is a young Indigenous man from the Gamilaraay/Wailwan/Biripi nations’, which are located in the central western region of New South Wales. Joey is currently developing his performance and creative skills and tRAKa-tRAKn is his first professional project.
Jet Thomas [2nd Performer]
Performer, is a young Indigenous man from the Gamilaraay/Wailwan/Biripi nations’, which are located in the central western region of New South Wales. Jet is currently developing his performance and creative skills and tRAKa-tRAKn is his first professional project.
tRAKa-tRAKn (2019-2020) 1st crew development stage – Archive
Support Material for tRAKa-tRAKn, a new Video / Animation / Sound / Installation work
tRAKa-tRAKn takes as it’s starting point a traditional Gamilaraay survival story – Burra Bee Dee (flying mice): this cultural story teaches Gamilaraay youth about the importance of healing on country.
Creative Team
r e a – lead artist/creative concept/director
r e a is a Gamilaraay / Wailwan / Biripi (NSW) artist / curator / activist / researcher / cultural educator / creative thinker.
r e a’s ongoing practice takes its development from new and critical discourses exploring intersectionality and positionality, through the cultural convergence of Aboriginality; within the creative arts and technology, history and colonialism, the body and identity, gender and queer politics.
Gail Kelly
Project Coordinator / Administrator, has directed & devised contemporary performance projects for youth theatre, multicultural theatre, community theatre, contemporary performance, circus & physical theatre. Gail has devised hybrid, cross-art form & interdisciplinary contemporary Australian performance projects and directed solo physical performance projects in Australia & UK. From 2007 – 2015 she was the director of ACAPTA (the Australian Circus and Physical Theatre Association).
Recently Gail was the creative producer and project manager for The Fair Ground Project an integrated circus arts project: http://thefairgroundproject.org/ she has worked as project coordinator, administrator and dramaturg on all of r e a’s new media /visual arts projects and installations for over twenty years.
Joey Carriage [1st Performer]
Performer, is a young Indigenous man from the Gamilaraay/Wailwan/Biripi nations’, which are located in the central western region of New South Wales. Joey is currently developing his performance and creative skills and tRAKa-tRAKn is his first professional project.
Jet Thomas [2nd Performer]
Performer, is a young Indigenous man from the Gamilaraay/Wailwan/Biripi nations’, which are located in the central western region of New South Wales. Jet is currently developing his performance and creative skills and tRAKa-tRAKn is his first professional project.
Miss Mel Pesa – assistant DoP (1st crew)
Composer /Musician / Sound Designer, works across sound & film to make experimental audio-visual works, which explore voice, piano & machines.
Neil Mansfield – camera (1st crew)
Cinematographer / Videographer / Camera Operator, with 25 years experience.
Andrew Belletty – sound recording tech (1st crew)
Sound Design/ Technical Director / Recording Engineer, is an Indian-born Australian sound artist and researcher, working with the vibro-tactile materiality of sound, across visual, media & performance arts. https://andrewbelletty.com/
r e a - artist | curator | activist | academic | cultural educator 