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)
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 / academic / 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.
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.
Brett Leavy
3D Landscape Animator, is a First Nations, Digital Aboriginal and descendant from the Kooma people whose traditional country is bordered by St George in the east, Cunnamulla in the west, north by the town of Mitchell and south to the QLD/NSW border. Brett’s dedicated his working life to recording cultural knowledge. His digital work seeks to represent the arts, cultural stories, heritage, traditional knowledge and histories of First Nation people using new, immersive and interactive technologies. He has developed numerous websites, represented First Nations Internet interests at United Nations Forum on Internet Communication Technologies in Tunisia, held Board positions for not-for-profit community organisations in health, housing, media, communication and the arts and presently sits on the Digital Strategy Forum for the National Museum of Australia.
Neil Mansfield
Cinematographer / Videographer / Camera Operator, with 25 years experience. Neil began his career at Film Australia, 1988. Currently he works as a Lighting Cinematographer, Camera Operator & Videographer. He also writes & directs ‘new wave’ features & installation films, which have screened at international festivals: Best Film Jury Prize at Anchorage International Film Festival; The Owl in the Snow (short, 2010) which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival; and, Fresh Air (feature, 1999) which premiered at the renowned Rotterdam International Film Festival. Neil is professionally trained and experienced in all aspects of video production. Over the past 25 years, he has shot music videos; drama & documentary films for Screen Australia, Film Australia, SBS, Channel 4, Greenpeace and Sydney Opera House. Neil makes the most of resources—people, time, equipment, locations & money to achieve the highest production values possible. He has vast experience making art videos, with fixed budgets and strict deadlines, for a diverse range of artists. Recent art projects include- Propel, dance-film project, co-produced with dancer Kristina Chan, Catapult Dance, 2015/16; and, IN BOCCA AL LUPO, music-art film, by Missi Mel Pesa.
Biz (Gerard Scifo)
Illustrator / Original Bat Drawings, was a young graffiti artist from the Eastern suburbs of Sydney. By the mid-90’s he had started practicing as an exhibiting artist and freelance illustrator. His work consisted mostly of pastels on paper and acrylics on canvas – these works were significantly influenced by his aerosol art practice. Much of his work was political, portraying what it was like to be a young indigenous man living in an urban environment. He continued his art practice whilst working as a traditional animator. During this period he realised that he had a passion to make original comics so he gave up animation to focus on creating and publishing his own underground comic. He did this throughout the 90’s whilst still exhibiting his paintings and drawings. From 2001 to now he has continued to diversify his artistic practice by engaging with projects that involve drawing, customising motorcycles & bicycles and creating dioramas.
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.
Karen Kriss
Consultant – Motion Capture Animator, is an artist, researcher and lecturer at UNSW Art and Design with over 10 years of experience in the animation and VFX industry. Her past roles include Head of Production Management, VFX Producer, Digital Producer at Mr.X Toronto, Canada and Senior Production Coordinator at Animal Logic, Sydney. Karen has worked on short form animation and feature films including Oscar winning Happy Feet and Ang Lee’s award-winning Lust Caution. Karen’s current research and passion lies in improving access and inclusion in animation and media arts for people living with disability. She has collaborated with artists from The Junction Works, a disability provider in South Western Sydney on several projects including two live interactive motion captured media arts projects Power of the Dream (2017), SPARK Festival Finale (2017), & animations: Pirate of Floating Island animation (2018) and Destiny title sequence (2019). Recently Karen worked with 5 artists with disability on 2019 Vivid project, Dream States which included large scale animation projections on the ICC building Sydney, “Birdsmouth” Screen ICC building and nineteen screens along Tumbalong boulevard.
Miss Mel Pesa
Composer /Musician / Sound Designer, works across sound & film to make experimental audio-visual works, which explore voice, piano & machines. Missi’s work is influenced by altered states of attention, which is achieved through meditation – these imagined texts are used to reconfigure original piano compositions. Missi has exhibited work at: Scienceworks (Victoria), Tribadelic Festival (Victoria), Tap Gallery (NSW), Arts House, North Melbourne (Victoria) Adelaide National Art Gallery (SA), Slovenia, the Netherlands and Croatia. Missi’s film soundtracks have been played on: NITV, Channel 7 & in festivals such as the Short Black Indigenous Cinema. Missi has been working in Indigenous communities with Indigenous artists as a collaborative artist & digital media producer since 2016. She has travelled around Australia with Sharing Stories Foundation, collaborating with artists and community on art exhibitions, ABC radio documentaries and digital storytelling ibooks. Currently, Missi is part of the Cultural Resilience Hub, based at Jumbunna Research Institute of Technology UTS, where she collaborates on art installations, podcasts and film.
Andrew Belletty
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. His work creates intimate, tactile listening experiences by redesigning images & sounds of country as flexible experiential forms through gallery & site-specific installations. These multilayered, experimental & site responsive works draw on Indigenous knowledges systems. A founding member of acclaimed band Yothu Yindi, Belletty has an extensive track record working with Indigenous communities on country, he also works internationally as a cinematic sound designer with hundreds of screen credits to his name. Recent Exhibitions: 2019: vibrotactile sound design & install, collaboration, Maria Fernanda Cardoso: The Origins of Art. 3-Channel Audio, Single Channel Video, Vibrational Floor, MCA, 2018: Woer Wayepa – Interactive Performance, Cairns Indigenous Art Festival, collaboration with Torres Strait Artists Margaret Harvey & Awa Jeffrey Aniba-Waia, We Here You, We See You, Interactive 360 audio-video. 16-Channel Audio, UTS Data Arena, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research, UTS, NAIDOC. https://andrewbelletty.com/
r e a - artist | curator | activist | academic | cultural educator 