Retelling indigenous histories through dance: interview with Jasmin Sheppard

by Suzy Wrong Three separate works are featured in Bangarra Dance Theatre’s new show, OUR: Land People Stories, each with a distinct flavour but unified by discipline, culture and history. Independently striking in style, they tell different stories of the Indigenous experience through the medium of dance at its most progressive and adventurous. The first… Read More

Proving myself as an artist: From Indigenous to contemporary stages

by Suzy Wrong Like most people of colour in the Western world, Ngaiire’s identity is attached to various places around the globe. Having lived in Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia in her formative years, and then travelling extensively further afield with her music career, Ngaiire is no longer just the little girl with… Read More

Koen West is the first Aboriginal superhero to emerge on our screens

by Suzy Wrong Cleverman is a superhero story, similar in style and format to many predecessors of the genre, but unique in its cultural context. Koen West is the first Aboriginal superhero to emerge on our screens, bringing along with him a wealth of tales and philosophies from Australia’s Indigenous communities. Conceptualised by Ryan Griffen,… Read More

Sachin Joab’s performance in ‘Disgraced’ shows that Australia needs to foreground its actors of colour

by Suzy Wrong  Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced drops bombs at regular intervals to unnerve, to disarm and, most of all, to confront. It is a response to the undeniable horrors around us that involves no sugar-coating, and no rose-tinted glasses. We can all agree that everything is not quite coming up… Read More

Australia’s Eurovision entry subverts its sentimental links to Europe

by Suzy Wrong This week sees Australia participating in the Eurovision Song Contest again after last year’s first official entry. Fans of the event may remember our appearance in the competition the year before, making it three in a row, which might seem more than slightly strange for a country 14,000 kilometres away from Europe. It… Read More

What is a “real Australian”? Peter Drew’s art forces us to reconsider Aussie identities

by Suzy Wrong A photograph of Monga Khan was taken in 1916, under the White Australia policy restricting immigration from non-English speaking countries. For the first half of the 20th century, Australia adopted that official line of racism, even extending those regulations to Aboriginal people who had left and then wished to return. Exemptions were, however,… Read More

Australia’s Mainstream Media is Waging A War Against ‘Non-white’ Celebrities

by Suzy Wrong   The Logie Awards is Australia’s annual celebration of excellence and popularity in the television industry. Like many showbiz ceremonies, the Logies is both distinguished and, in spite of its long 57-year history, widely derided. Television affects all our lives, and whether willingly or begrudgingly, we pay attention to the event every… Read More

Visible Ordinariness: the journey towards protection, acceptance and equality for trans people

Or: Clear and Present Transgender by Suzy Wrong Visibility for many trans people is a conundrum. Unlike our genderqueer compatriots, we often work for ideas of gender that seem to be about, above all, conformity and normality, which in turn implies a certain ordinariness and social invisibility. In early stages of our individual transitions, we… Read More