QPAC and Council on the Ageing Queensland Partner Up for ‘Drawn Together’ Event Marking Seniors Day 2020

About the Speakers and Performers

Dame Quentin Bryce AD CVO

QPAC and Council on the Ageing Queensland Partner Up for 'Drawn Together' Event Marking Seniors Day 2020 1
Provided by QPAC

Ms Quentin Bryce has enjoyed a rich and distinguished career as an academic, lawyer, community and human rights advocate, senior public officer, university college principal, and vice-regal representative in Queensland and for Australia.

Across her career she has worked with women, families and young people while extending her influence across broad and diverse spectrums, including the rural, regional, aged, indigenous, migrant, and disability sectors.

Ms Bryce remains a pioneer in contemporary Australian society, with more than fifty years of experience in reform, community building and leadership.

Aunty Dolleen Wall

QPAC and Council on the Ageing Queensland Partner Up for 'Drawn Together' Event Marking Seniors Day 2020 2
Provided by QPAC

A Senior Woman from the Dauwa Clan of the Kabi Nation (western Mary River catchment in South East Queensland).

For over 30 years Colleen has worked in the Queensland Arts & Cultural industries and now focuses on First Nation cultural protection and maintenance. Her knowledge and interpretation of Aboriginal Land Law and the value of cultural balance between First Nation Grandmother’s Law and non-indigenous Law is essential in her work. Colleen is an artist and paints the stories from her country. It is these stories and paintings that she uses to teach children and carers about their responsibilities within Grandmother’s Law.

Colleen was Chair of Queensland South Native Title Services (QSNTS) for almost 10 years. Within this position Colleen hosted the Queensland Representative Body Alliance and was a Member of National Native Title Council. Colleen had constant contact with all levels of government, all Registered Native Title Service Providers and Representative Bodies as well the National Native Title Tribunal around Native Title issues.

Through these processes she had access to a network of Senior First Nation Women across Australia and she is slowly linking them into a coordinated process to assist finding ‘right country for kids’ and ‘right family for kids’ to reduce the over representation of First Nation children and youth in out-of-home care. This process works to reunify them with their family or kin thus delivering outcomes within ‘Closing the Gap’ and Queensland Government’s Changing Tracks Action Plan.

Colleen is currently the Elder in Residence at Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) and contracted to write their First Nation’s Engagement Strategy with a suite of Protocols that protect the cultural Intellectual property rights of First Nation performers, arts works and playwrights. She was co-opted as Elder in Residence for Pacific Arts Association Symposium held at the South Bank Cultural Precinct (25-28 March 2019). From this position Colleen works with Playlab and La Boite in an advisory capacity around dealing with the reliving of intergenerational trauma of Truth Telling.

David Williams

QPAC and Council on the Ageing Queensland Partner Up for 'Drawn Together' Event Marking Seniors Day 2020 3
Provided by QPAC

A proud Wakka Wakkaman born in Rockhampton, David is an internationally renowned didgeridoo performer having spent the last 15 years performing locally, nationally and internationally. Classically trained from an early age in Piano and Trombone, David had chosen a career path later in life that was reflective of his upbringing, learning traditional songs from his grandmother and a strong influence from his uncles and aunties, of sharing and celebrating the culture of his people.

David’s skills as a didgeridoo player have taken him around the world performing in various markets in Europe, North and South America, and Asia with a highlight performing at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to an estimated audience of 4 billion people and the Gallipoli ANZAC Dawn service opening in 2016. Through David’s didgeridoo performances, he aims to further educate and encourage a wider understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal culture.

Fez Faanana

QPAC and Council on the Ageing Queensland Partner Up for 'Drawn Together' Event Marking Seniors Day 2020 4
Provided by QPAC

Fez is well known for creating accessible, ground-breaking, physically dynamic, risqué and contemporary performance that infuses his Pacific bloodline, political bite, gender juggling, visual spectacle and tongue-in-cheek.

Fez is also Shivannah. He-she is the host and MC, choreographer, creative director, performer, collaborator and co- creator along with an all-male circus burlesque gender bending cast. As an independent artist, collaborator and arts worker/educator, Fez has toured extensively throughout Australia and internationally through Canada, the Pacific, the UK and the USA.

He has featured in various cabarets, co-productions and commissioned works including Melbourne Comedy Festival, Melbourne International Festival, Sydney Biennale, Sydney Festival, Harbor Front Centre Toronto, Big Sky Works & Galapagos Art Space New York, Performance Space Sydney, Duckie Royal Vauxhall London and the Sydney Opera House
Studio.

He has also independently produced and programmed work for Brisbane Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival as well as the Brisbane Powerhouse.

Babushka

QPAC and Council on the Ageing Queensland Partner Up for 'Drawn Together' Event Marking Seniors Day 2020 5
Provided by QPAC

Boasting slick vocals, quirky comedy and unapologetic sass, this Matilda award-winning cabaret group takes on everything from Mozart to Guns’n’Roses with dangerously delectable arrangements.

Babushka combines The Andrews Sisters, a splash of Kate Bush and serves it on ice with a wink of Absolutely Fabulous.

This dynamic trio have toured extensively throughout Queensland with previous shows, Happily Ever After, Doll and I Can Keep A Secret, to sell-out houses and critical acclaim.

The Brat Pack

The Brat Pack are a bunch of boys who are bright, energetic, enthusiastic and share an absolute love of Tap. These talented dancers are bringing tap dance back from the hoofers era of tapping from the likes of ‘Bill ‘Bo-Jangles’ Robinson’, ‘Sammy Davis Jnr’, & ‘The Nicholas Brothers’ and get their inspiration from ‘Dein Perry’s Tap Dogs’, ‘Gregory Hines’ & ‘Savion Glover’.

The Brat Pack are modernising and reinventing Tap once again without losing the original form of rhythm based, fun and energetic dance.

The boys’ style is as diverse as they are themselves and the troup is extraordinarily rhythmically and musically clever within their growing knowledge and abilities.

Aged from 14 to 19, The Brat Pack’s incredible talents will keep you entertained and on the edge of your seat.

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