Blak & Bright: Change the Date? A Hypothetical

Brisbane born Yvette Henry Holt heralds from the Bidjara, Yiman and Wakaman Nations of Queensland. A multi-national award-winning poet, academic, editor, stand-up comedienne and photographer of Central Australian desert landscapes, Yvette has lived and worked in the greater region of the Australian Central Deserts for ten years. 

Her debut publication titled Anonymous Premonition (UQP 2008) won the Queensland Premier David Unaipon Award 2005, Scanlon Prize for Poetry NSW 2008, Victorian Premier’s Prize for Indigenous Writing 2008 and the RAKA Kate Challis Award 2010. In 2018 Yvette’s poem titled mother’s native tongue, an ode to all who have a parent living with dementia, was Highly Commended for the Queensland Poetry Oodgeroo Noonuccal Prize. Yvette’s poetry has been widely anthologised and translated in several languages both in print and online.

Gregory Phillips is from the Waanyi and Jaru peoples, and comes from Cloncurry and Mount Isa. He is a medical anthropologist, with thirty years’ experience in leading change in cultural safety, healing and decolonisation.
Gregory is Chief Executive Officer of ABSTARR Consulting, is a Professor of First People’s Health, and serves on several boards and committees, including chairing the Ebony Institute, the Cathy Freeman Foundation and AHPRA’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health strategy group.

Dr Liza-Mare Syron is an actor, director, producer, teacher and academic. She is a founding member and Co-Artistic Director of Moogahlin Performing Arts. Previous positions include Head of Theatre (Eora College), Senior Cultural Arts Officer (Arts NSW) and Research Fellow (Macquarie University).

Jason Tamiru is a proud Yorta Yorta man passionate about his people and culture. He has worked with many of Melbourne’s most iconic performing arts companies, museums and festivals. As a producer he supports his people’s creativity by building frameworks that complement cultural expressions. Jason is influenced by anything and everything that stimulates his spirit and soul, and he works to inspire the same passion amongst his community and peers.