Creator Tales

Allirah Fisher is a proud Ewamian, Cobble Cobble, Birri and South-Sea Islander Woman, Sister and Mother. Born and raised in the outer suburbs of Meanjin, Allirah has always had strong passions and values within the social justice and the creative arts realms. Allirah has worked within the Indigenous health, community development and social service spaces while channeling her artistic expression through ceremony, performance, choreography and facilitation. More recently, Allirah is developing her own aspirations as a creative entrepreneur as the Founding member of The First Creatives and Co-Founder of Yir'un-Yalangi Womens Healing. Interconnecting her experience and passion in both social work and creative arts, Allirah creates safe-spaces for First Nations stories and experiences to be shared and explored at a grassroots level to develop artistic work that is transformative for both the storytellers and listeners. With strong values for breaking the cycle of intergenerational trauma, Allirah is using her purpose to empower First Nations communities to move to a place of healing through creative expression and re-claiming of our traditional practices.

French - Brazilian local artist, Melissa Cambon, is multilingual, not only in several spoken languages but also eloquently expresses herself through weaving, singing, writing, illustrating and dancing. Melissa’s artistic practices connects her to her French – Brazilian cultural roots, having been inspired by her grandmother’s many forms of arts and crafts and supported by her father throughout her studies in Art and Design in Guadeloupe (French Caribbean) and Textile Design in Nîmes (France). However, she found the industrial orientation of her formal studies suppressed her personal creativity. Returning to her cultural roots through drawing and music also reconnected to her own intuitive expression and became her medicine. Travelling Australia since her arrival in …. She fell in love with its First Nations people, its amazing landscapes and wildlife, guiding her unfurling life journey of art and connection which has her currently settling and creating in the Sunshine Coast hinterlands.You will find Melissa performing solo or with her band Solua, performing roving with Circus tribe.

Sartika is an Indonesian-Australian vocalist who champions the warmest corners of R&B with her intimate, relatable songwriting. Relocating to Brisbane as an adolescent, she honed her skills by busking at festivals and markets, later working with producers and artsts like Nerve, JK-47 and Jay Orient as well as the local collectives SHOKU, Spare Time and NO.ONE NETWORK. As a solo artist and a member of supergroup BBTK, she has performed at Rabbits Eat Lettuce, Yonder Festival, and countless gigs across Queensland. Online, she has earned a healthy following for her live loop covers of classic R&B songs, where she flexes her additional skills as a producer and multi-instrumentalist. Through her emotive music, Sartika hopes to champion Indonesian culture while also healing and empowering women. A podcast from Kaju Creative, Hosted by Dylan Prins IG rollcall @sartikamusic @kaju_creative @dylanjprins

Growing up on an island population of 2,500 people, Sachém holds both ancestral ties to Noonuccal (Stradbroke Island) and African American with his family roots currently leading to Florida. His story, experience and approach to music are ones that the Australian community has not seen before - reflecting both front-line First Nation / African American perspectives within the Australian environment and a deep understanding of the hip-hop community and its culture. In this conversation, Sachém shares challenges he faced growing up whilst always having to perform on the sports fields. He shows a lot of love here for his partner and creative communities including Tom Thum, Kyle, Nerve & No.One Network, Luka Lesson, Obscure Orchestra, Jimblah and his new home, Elefant Traks and their A+R Jannah.

Aunty Chantay Link is a Gooreng Gooreng, Kabi Kabi woman and Australian South Sea Islander who has grown up in the inner-city suburbs of Meajjin/Brisbane, a proud Brisbane Black. She is passionate about women and family living in violent free homes and communities. Chantay has continued to practice and participate in healing circles on country and have shared this knowledge with other Aboriginal women in finding their pathway living with trauma. "I know there is so much more to learn, and this is a wonderful opportunity to share and learn". She is among four grass-roots First Nations Women who have been invited to attend the 'Healing our Spirit' Global Indigenous Gathering in Canada. They are currently crowdfunding via the link below and Monday nights BAP class. Gofundme First Nations Women travel to Healing Gathering Book a Bring a Plate Class for Monday 17th April here A podcast from Kaju Creative, Hosted by Dylan Prins IG rollcall @chantayella @kaju_creative @dylanjprins

Sitting down this week is Rudy Matoy - a being who’s dedicated his life to healing through many forms but mostly through singing and song writing. From the guidance of his old people Rudy has found himself travelling whilst weaving together language to help him communicate to a broader audience of people and their experiences. Through his music he hopes to apply these lessons and reflect in people the importance of healing through love and 'innerstanding'. We go deep and wide in this episode and have some profound reflections. Rudy's debut single, LOST is out now. Stream LOST here. A podcast from Kaju Creative, Hosted by Dylan Prins IG rollcall

Huda the Goddess is the 2022 Australian Poetry Slam Champion and the subject of the Kaju Creative Documentary "Black Word Rising" which is currently in post production. In this episode, we get a sneak peak into how she never planned to win and deep dive into the journey of being on tour and some of the challenges portrayed in the film. This episode largely plays out as a monologue, as sometimes the only response you can have to Huda is finger snaps or a smiling nod. We end things with an equisite improvised poem that sums up the themes of the conversation.  A podcast from Kaju Creative, Hosted by Dylan Prins IG rollcall @hudathegoddes @kaju_creative @dylanjprins

Today we sit down with Chris Jay - a Reggae Soundsystem founder, community event organiser and facilitator who moved here from the UK many years ago. Chris talks me through a history of soundsystem culture, reggae music, and spins a few vinyls in the conversation including the first record he ever made, back in 1994. A podcast from Kaju Creative, Hosted by Dylan Prins IG rollcall @championsoundaustralia @kaju_creative @dylanjprins