The Colour Cycle Podcast by Diversity Arts Australia

The Pacesetters conversations are a project of Diversity Arts Australia documenting and recording trailblazing artists’ work from culturally diverse backgrounds.

The interview with Tony Ayers examines how his childhood, cultural identity and family tragedy have shaped his signature approach to storytelling today. Now entering his sixth decade of life, Tony reflects on how he went from orphan to orator of some of our most compell...

The Pacesetters conversations is a project of Diversity Arts Australia documenting and recording trailblazing artists’ work from culturally diverse backgrounds.

When Abdul Abdullah approached Khaled Sabsabi for an interview, Abdul mentioned that there was already a lot of writing by smarter people than himself about Khaled's practice. Abdul wanted to unpack the ideas that Khaled explores in his work-- especially how he got to...

The Pacesetters conversations is a project of Diversity Arts Australia documenting and recording trailblazing artists’ work from culturally diverse backgrounds.

The interview with MC Trey is an overview of her life—from an idyllic childhood in Fiji, rougher teenage years in Western Sydney, becoming a pioneering and successful female rapper in Australia, and her present role as an integral community advocate for Pacific members of...

The Pacesetters conversations is a project of Diversity Arts Australia documenting and recording trailblazing artists’ work from culturally diverse backgrounds.

The interview with Kamahl looks at the challenges and triumphs he’s experienced from the racist treatment he received on Hey Hey It’s Saturday to reaching the pinnacle of his career at the Invictus Games. It chronicles some of his many achievements and the many incredible...

How does it feel to be surrounded, supported, and inspired by community? We hear from Sarah Ayoub, a freelance journalist and author of young adult novels including The Yearbook Committee and The Cult of Romance, as well as StoryCaster graduates Annie Brockenhuus-Schack, Sarah Mendoza, and Hannah Lai, a group of passionate creatives exploring the significance of community and collaborative art.

This Colour Cycle season is a takeove...

On this episode of DARTS’ StoryCasters-led Colour Cycle podcast, we partner up with Newcastle, NSW-based arts organisation, Octapod, to talk to five regional artists about working in the arts outside metropolitan areas. Western Sydney StoryCaster producer Vir Kaula hosts an important discussion about the strength of the local community and what it’s like being an artist in the Greater Newcastle region.

We’ll meet Octapod talents In...

COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the arts sector, and the music industry in particular. Broadcaster and writer Tanya Ali speaks to three incredibly talented musicians about their work and how the pandemic challenged them to transform their creative processes.

Singer and songwriter GLO discusses the creation of her track “Transmute” during one of her state’s many lockdowns and the significance of the Black Lives Matter movem...

Can joy and insights flow from writing, literature, screenwriting and other forms of the craft? Our StoryCasters chat with an eclectic group of storytellers and share stories of their own.

StoryCaster producer Sharon Masige shares a reflective piece on her childhood love of books and the importance of finding representation, while Natesha Somasundaram, a playwright, screenwriter and actor, speaks with broadcaster Tanya Ali about na...

Live from the Fearless Curious event, award-winning journalist and media personality, Marc Fennell speaks with StoryCasters podcaster Sharon Masige  about how industry pipelines can be transformed for greater equity. In an equally engaging conversation, Newcastle Art Gallery’s Zana Kobayashi sits down with Storycasters podcaster Vir Kaula to share her experience working in the region’s creative sector and the importance of com...

Hear from dynamic women unpacking what it means to live a cross-cultural existence in Australia.

Live from Boundless Festival, StoryCasters podcaster Connie Khoo chats with acclaimed author Alice Pung about how she experiences intercultural relationships, her outstanding writing journey and more. Broadcaster and writer Tanya Ali also sits down with Yorta Yorta musician ALLARA about pride in her identity and making music during a gl...

On this compelling new season of DARTS’ Colour Cycle podcast, led by emerging young digital producers from the Storycasters project, our first episode features gripping stories on the ways overseas-born artists have adjusted to Australia’s arts and culture landscape.

Storycasters graduate Vir Kaula chats with talent from Newcastle-based arts company Octapod, including writer and comedian Elena Terol, painter Cristina Matas and actr...

First aired: 16 March 2022

This episode we’re unpacking intersectionality. What is it? Why is it important, and what does it mean to live an intersectional life?

In London, freelancer, editor and novelist Sharmilla Beezmohun (Co-founder of independent literature organisation Speaking Volumes) unpacks the question with Sydney filmmaker Pearl Tan, a lecturer in directing at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, who is stu...

First aired: 16 March 2022

In this episode, we’re peering a little into our personal lives today with some quick vox pops from artists and creatives. Our question: What is something we learnt about later in life, that we wish somebody in our lives had told us about? It could have come from our mothers, fathers, extended family, or people we came across growing up.

UK performance artist Aleasha Chaunte considers becoming a parent an...

First aired: 16 March 2022

In this episode we’re speaking to three award-winning women of the Hip Hop world across three continents. These pioneers discuss working across regions, why community is integral to Hip Hop, and what resilience means to them.

In Australia is MC Trey, a pacesetter in the world of hip hop whose legacy spans 20 years of music about everyday life, love and her Pacific community. In London is one of the b...

First aired: 16 March 2022

This episode brings together Professor Deborah Cheetham AO, First Nations Creative Chair of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and producer of Australia’s first Indigenous opera, and Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE, founder of the first professional orchestra in Europe to be made up of a majority of Black, Asian and ethnically diverse musicians. These two trailblazing women talk about their decades-long careers, decolo...

First aired: 10 Jan 2022

In 2020, Sydney Arts Management Group (SAMAG) facilitated a panel asking what was the role and responsibility of the creative sector in the fight for racial justice. Hosted by Diversity Arts’ Lena Nahlous, the talk featured leading activists, artists and community leaders, who explored whether we should take the path of reform or instead “blow it all up” and completely rethink our industry structures? Liste...

First aired: 6 Jan 2022

Lena Nahlous interviews poet and theatre producer Zainab Syed, who tells us about how she successfully engaged Muslim communities in Western Australia. The episode focuses on Performing Lines WA’s staging of Layla Majnun, a solo show devised by diverse and emerging artists from WA and featuring US Farsi scholar and storyteller Ustaadh Feraidoon Mojadedi. Zainab reveals how she brought in both Muslim and non-...

First aired: 17 August 2021

Lena Nahlous talks to multidisciplinary artist, activist, Ted x speaker and creative director of FOLK magazine Moreblessing Maturure about fighting erasure, the importance of having spaces to experiment and create, and the need for critics of colour. Spotlight: singer-songwriter and performer Zaya Barroso. Thank you to the Future Women, the City of Parramatta and Parramatta Artist Studios for hosting the...

First aired: 12 August 2021

The creation of physical spaces — theatres, film companies and galleries — is integral to showcasing the work of culturally diverse artists and true pluralism of Australia. This episode explores the need for these spaces, with a particular focus on a diverse creative hub in Adelaide called Nexus Arts. We also ask: what happens when a global pandemic shuts down these critical centres for creation and conn...