where we come from
Moogahlin Performing Arts was formed on Gadigal country in Redfern N.S.W in November 2007, by a group of First Peoples performance artists, educators and community workers. Bunuba man Frederick Copperwaite, Murriwarri woman Lily Shearer, and Biripai woman Liza-Mare Syron established the company at the request of the late Kevin Smith who wished to bring performing arts back to the community of Redfern, in honour of the founding members of the National Black Theatre.
Moogahlin Performing Arts was incorporated in 2009, with Redfern Community Centre and Gadigal Information Service hosting us until we became a resident company of Carriageworks in 2014. In 2015 the Co-Founders stepped down from the Board to become Co-Artistic Directors, and joined by Yorta Yorta theatre maker Andrea James from 2015 – 2016 to form a peer-based Artistic Directorship model utilising cultural principles to provide a supportive, yet critical and interrogative framework for the discussion and development of new work.
Moogahlin’s first production was the third instalment of the PACT led project Gathering Ground in 2010 at the Block in Redfern Sydney, a community performance development project. Since that time our program has grown to include three key festivals, the Yellamundie National First Peoples Playwriting Festival, Baiame’s Nguungu Festival in Brewarrina, and Koori Gras with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, as well as several new work developments and artist and sector development initiatives.
WHAT WE DO
Our vision is transformation through cultural arts. We exist to:
Develop and produce distinctive cross-cultural and interdisciplinary new performance work by First Peoples for First Peoples.
Support emerging and established First Peoples practitioners to develop, create and produce innovative and stimulating work.
Empower our communities through audience engagement and community development.
Provide sector leadership by fostering new talent in key creative, administrative, and production roles.
how we do it
Our uniqueness as a company is in our philosophy and approach to making work, in which we uphold interconnected First Peoples values of:
Respect - we respect the diversity of First Peoples experiences, languages, land, water, air, practices, and lore.
Responsibility - we are in a leadership role and have responsibilities to create opportunities, give voice to those who have none, create culturally safe spaces, and contribute to legacy of intergenerational relationships around storytelling and knowledge sharing.
Relationships - our approach is heavily based on building relationships through our strategic partnership model. We understand that sustainable partnerships require trust, time, and patience - with individual artists, communities, other arts organisations around the continent, or with First Peoples from other countries.
Reciprocity - we create cultural arts exchange opportunities with community & artists locally, nationally, and internationally. It is always about the collective benefit of all involved.
Relevance - we engage in critical discourse from a First Peoples worldview, seeking community feedback on our work and seeking community engagement in all levels of creation.