Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Friday 19 February
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
In the opening address for the inaugural Blak & Bright Festival, Anita Heiss ‘unpacks the Blak’ – presenting 20 reasons why you should read Indigenous literature. She’s joined by two of our finest Indigenous actors, reading excerpts from 20 Blak books. Join us for a funny and challenging, rapid-fire event.
Featuring Anita Heiss, Pauline Whyman and Greg Fryer.
Featuring
Anita Heiss
Anita Heiss is the author of non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women's fiction, poetry, social commentary and travel articles. She is a Lifetime Ambassador of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and a proud member of the Wiradjuri nation of central NSW. Anita was a finalist in the 2012 Human Rights Awards and the 2013 Australian of the Year Awards. She lives in Brisbane.
Anita has won four Deadly Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Literature, for her novels Not Meeting Mr Right, Manhattan Dreaming and Paris Dreaming and for the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature.
Pauline Whyman
Pauline Whyman is a proud Yorta Yorta and Kulin Nations woman.
Pauline’s work as an actor, writer and director includes verbatim theatre for La Mama’s Minutes of Evidence, proudly playing roles of the women of Coranderrk and their fight for structural justice. She played the role of Aunty Cath for the Australian/Canadian TV series Hard Rock Medical, and Miss Prism in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest for Black Swan State Theatre Company. In her Australian feature film debut, she played Skinny in Beck Cole’s feature film Here I Am.
She has dedicated much of the past 20 years to development, co-devising and performing theatre and film projects in Melbourne, Victoria and across the country. She has toured nationally and internationally, with some of her career highlights including Stolen (Ilbijerri/Malthouse Theatre), Windmill Baby (Yirra Yaarkin), Fever and Up The Ladder (Melbourne Workers Theatre), The Birthday Party (Melbourne Theatre Company) and Stolen, Blacked Up and The Cherry Pickers (Sydney Theatre Company). She has appeared in numerous TV series and short films including The Secret Life of Us, Whatever Happened To That Guy, Harry’s War and The Order.
In recent years, Pauline has begun writing and directing for stage and film. She wrote and directed an SBS-TV short film based on an event from her childhood, called Back Seat, to much acclaim.
Pauline is a two-time Victorian Indigenous Performing Arts Award recipient – ‘Bob Maza Memorial Award’ for Outstanding Contribution to Indigenous Theatre and ‘Jack Charles Award’ for Best Achievement by an Indigenous Theatre Practitioner.