Leah Manaema Avene (she/them) is a mother, musician, therapist, broadcaster, facilitator, researcher and educator. Leah’s bloodlines have been shaped by the Pacific Ocean and the islands of Tuvalu through her father’s line and the landscapes of Ireland through her mother’s. Leah was raised on unceded Kulin Nations lands along the coastline of Waddawurrung / Wathaurong Country (South coast of Victoria). Leah’s work focuses on nurturing the strengths of culture, ancestry, land, body, community and deeply shared values to transform harmful power dynamics in bodies, relationships and systems.

Leah holds a Masters in Relational Gestalt Psychotherapy and has been mentored into anti-oppressive practice and First Nations-led organisational reform by award-winning Inupiat filmmaker, educator and facilitator Rachel Naninaaq Edwardson and award-winning Tamil-Australian lawyer, educator and Cultural Safety strategist David Vadiveloo. Leah refined this practice throughout their time leading culturally safe education reform in the Victorian Youth Justice Precincts, as a teacher, staff trainer and in senior school leadership. Leah currently holds a research position as Indigenous Pedagogy Lead at the Wilin Center for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development, where their academic research focuses on Indigenous knowledge, language and art as holistic, integrative healing processes.

Leah broadcasts on 3RRR (Mixed Medicine / The Score), writes and performs music and poetry, and practices community cultural arts as a weaver and maker.

Rachel Naninaaq Edwardson

Born and raised in the Arctic, Rachel’s Iñupiaq, Sami and Norwegian ancestors continue to provide guidance and grounding for her work. Rachel has worked across Alaska and Australia and her work in Film and Impact on projects like In My Blood It Runs and the History of the Iñupiaq series helped to bring much-needed tools to the industry for anti-oppressive collaboration on film, media and arts projects and Impact work. Rachel and her partner, David Vadiveloo, have led the development, design and implementation of CSRC. She has facilitated and designed the community collaboration and individual and group practitioner development on multiple education, arts and health reform initiatives and writes and speaks on issues of First Nations sovereignty and cultural rights. Rachel also has worked in project design and materials design and creation for multiple reform initiatives in Film, Media and the Arts, Education and Community Development initiatives.  As an award-winning filmmaker and impact producer, Rachel’s creative work has been selected for the Sundance’s Ford Fellowship and nominated for a Peabody. 

David Selvarajah Vadiveloo

Born and raised in Australia with his Tamil and Australian Scottish/Irish family, David lives in the Arctic with Rachel Naŋinaaq Edwardson and their three children. David has spent 30 years working with and for communities across the globe as a land rights lawyer, human rights advocate, educator and filmmaker. David worked as a lawyer for the Central Land Council on the landmark Mbarntwe Native Title claim and as an advisor to the Federal Race Discrimination Commission, he drafted the 1996 State of the Nation Report to Federal Parliament. David has worked in education reform since 1989, establishing and delivering alternative education programs in both urban and remote community settings and First Nations youth in Australia, Canada and the United States. Over the past 15 years, he and Naŋinaaq developed and facilitated their CSRC model for education, arts, health and corporate agencies. From 2016-20 he led Culturally Responsive Practice reform for schools in the Victorian youth prison system and is currently reforming the educational landscape of the largest school district in the United States, as Superintendent of the North Slope Borough School District in the Arctic circle. David’s company Community Prophet’s has also produced multiple award-winning drama and documentary films pioneering the CSRC model of Film and TV development.

Tiriki Onus

Tiriki Onus is a Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung artist, academic and Head of the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development at the University of Melbourne and co-director of the university’s Research Unit in Indigenous Arts and Culture. He is a successful visual artist, curator, performance artist and opera singer. His first operatic role was in the premiere of Deborah Cheetham’s Pecan Summer in October 2010, which he reprised in 2011, and 2012 for the Melbourne and Perth runs. He received the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust’s Harold Blair Opera Scholarship in 2012 and 2013. Most recently, Tiriki co-directed the feature documentary Ablaze which premiered at the 2021 Melbourne International Film Festival to great acclaim. The documentary uncovers a film made 70 years ago by Tiriki’s grandfather, William Bill Onus, an important leader in the Aboriginal rights movement.