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Artwork for Country, Culture and First Nations knowledges

Country, Culture and First Nations knowledges

A conversation with Andrea James, Wayne Thorpe, Dr Julia Hurst and Kimberley Moulton

Thursday 22 May, 6–7pm

Southbank Theatre, The Lawler

Free event

Join us for a free discussion exploring the strength, diversity and living practice of First Nations knowledges.

Allocation for this event is exhausted, tickets may be available at the box office on the day of the event. 

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About the Event

Take a deeper dive into the world of Andrea James’ powerful, poignant and heartfelt play, The Black Woman of Gippsland.

Join us for a 60-minute panel conversation exploring the strength, diversity and living practice of First Nations knowledges across the arts, community and academia.

Yorta Yorta/Gunaikurnai playwright Andrea James, Gunnai cultural consultant Wayne Thorpe and First Nations academic Dr Julia Hurst will discuss how Indigenous knowledges live through creative practice – carried in story, language and place – as a continuation of ceremony and culture.

This discussion, moderated by Yorta Yorta curator and writer Kimberley Moulton, will delve into the role of oral history, the cultural authority of country, and how knowledge is held, protected and shared.

This is a space to listen, learn, and consider what it means to honour First Nations knowledge systems and how they carry truth, memory and justice, as well as how they challenge institutions shaped by colonial histories.

This event is free to attend, however spaces are limited so please register for a free ticket.

Accessibility

  • Wheelchair Accessible

Artwork for Andrea James

Andrea James

Andrea is a Yorta Yorta/Gunaikurnai theatremaker and graduate of VCA. Her plays include Big Name No Blankets (co-written with Sammy and Anyupa Butcher), Yanagai! Yanagai! (premiered at Playbox in 2004 and toured to the UK), and with Cath Ryan, Dogged (Griffin Theatre Company). Her play Sunshine Super Girl premiered at Griffith Regional Theatre in 2020, then 2021 Sydney Festival before an extensive national tour. Andrea is currently Associate Artistic Director at Griffin Theatre Company where she directed Ghosting the Party by Melissa Bubnic in 2022, Jailbaby by Suzie Miller in 2023 and swim by Ellen Van Neerven in 2024. Previous positions include Artistic Director of Melbourne Workers Theatre (2001-2008), Aboriginal Arts Development Officer at Blacktown Arts Centre (2010-2012) and Aboriginal Producer at Carriageworks (2012-2016). Andrea was recently awarded the Mona Brand Award for Women Stage and Screen Writers. She was a recipient of British Council’s Accelerate Program for Aboriginal Art Leaders and was awarded a Creative Australia National Theatre Award in 2024.

Artwork for Wayne Thorpe

Wayne Thorpe

Wayne Thorpe is of the Gunnai and Yorta Yorta tribal family groups. Wayne has presented cultural awareness sessions and Welcome and Smoking ceremonies throughout Gunnai / Kurnai country (Gippsland), as well as inspired people to understand the culture through the stories and history of country. He has promoted culture through the language of songs, stories and dance to help the healing of the people and nature since 1984. This is the first engagement with a theatre company for Wayne. His brief education and research background includes Cultural Ceremony with Uncle Max Dulumunmun Harrison in Gunnai and Yuin countries since 2011 to present day; Med. Masters of Education at Monash University Gippsland (2008-2011) where he wrote a thesis titled WATBALIMBA – Language of Song Story and Dance; and a Batchelor of the Arts in Linguistics, majoring in Community Sociolinguistics at Bachelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education in Northern Territory (2002-2007).

Artwork for Julia Hurst

Julia Hurst

Julia is an Indigenous historian, gaining her PhD from ANU in 2019. Her work is informed by her family's matriarchal (Dharug/Dharawal/Stolen Generations) stories of separation and continuing to reconnect with history, family and country.  Julia is currently Lecturer in Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander History at the University of Melbourne, and was until recently was Deputy Director of the Australian Centre. Julia's work is informed by story, place, and the 'in-between', and she regularly records oral histories with the National Library. Her work has appeared in diverse publications including for example: POLITICO, Overland Literary Journal, ABC docu-series Makers of Modern Australia and academic publications. 

Artwork for Kimberley Moulton

Kimberley Moulton

Kimberley Moulton is a Yorta Yorta woman and Adjunct Curator Indigenous Art, Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational, Tate, London, and Senior Curator at RISING, Melbourne’s international arts festival. Kimberley is a respected creative practitioner in her field through her restorative curatorial and writing practice which has transformed spaces of the historical archive and contemporary curation. Dedicated to new relational curatorial methodology and First Peoples-led research placing community voice and culture at the core of her work, her practice is located in histories and futures at the intersection of historical collections, place, community and contemporary practice. Her work aims to rethink global art histories and extend what exhibitions and research in and out of institutions can be for Indigenous communities and artists more broadly. Kimberley has extensively published on curatorial practice and Indigenous art. Recent curatorial projects include MOVING OBJECTS (2021, RISING), Tri-nations Triennial naadohbii: To Draw Water (co-curated, Museums Victoria, Pātaka Art + Museum, Aotearoa New Zealand, and WAG-Qaumajuq, Canada, 2021–23), and the award-winning More Than a Tarrang (tree): Memory, Material and Cultural Agency (Melbourne Museum, 2023). Kimberley was the inaugural curator for the First Peoples Melbourne Art Trams project profiling First Peoples artists in one of the state’s largest public arts projects (2021 and 2025). In 2023 Kimberley curated Shadow Spirit for RISING, presenting 14 new large-scale commissions from First Peoples artists across Australia at the historic rooms of Flinders Street Station. She is a PhD candidate in curatorial practice with the Wominjeka Djeembana Research Lab, Monash University, Melbourne; Deputy Chair of the Board, Shepparton Art Museum; and a Director on the Board for the not-for-profit Adam Briggs Foundation. In 2023 Kimberley was appointed a Curator Emeritus at Museums Victoria.

Get Directions

The Lawler

140 Southbank Boulevard

Southbank, Victoria 3006