Singer and songwriter

As part of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s upcoming 35th anniversary season, East Arnhem Land ocean and waterway custodian Rrawun Maymuru will perform Water, an original piece that he composed with musician Nick Wales.

“When two cultures come together to create something there are always challenges but when we break through those challenges, the outcome is always a highlight,” says Maymuru. It’s his first appearance with the orchestra and the first time his traditional Yolŋu language will be performed in a Baroque setting.

Presented alongside a complete rendition of Handel’s Water Music masterpiece, the composition premieres in a concert experience billed as a celebration of the spiritual and cultural significance of water to the Yolŋu people and a reminder of our collective responsibility to cherish and protect it. “Water is part of the land, its flow is something we follow,” says Maymuru. “For us it is the giver of life; Mother Earth is the boss lady.”

Water Music will be performed at Melbourne Recital Centre, 9 to 12 October 2025; and City Recital Hall, Sydney, 14 to 18 October 2025.

Artist, poet and filmmaker

Despite having released a new collection of poetry, Mark the Dawn, in August and a feature-length re-envisioning of archival works made by and about First Nations Australian people called Winhanganha (“remember, know, think” in Wiradjuri language) late last year, Jazz Money is not stopping to rest. For the Wiradjuri descendant and award-winning poet, artist and filmmaker, a prolific output is merely the impetus to create more and explore and experiment further with new mediums. Case in point: their recent steel and LED solar light sculpture, Only Country Lasts Forever, installed on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin as part of the 2024 Canberra Art Biennial. And the immersive audio installation, on display until 2 February 2025 at Sydney’s Mosman Art Gallery, inspired by the anthem Money wrote for the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir, This is How We Love.

Curator, writer and broadcaster

“I didn’t grow up with a lot of creative opportunities,” says Micheal Do. “It wasn’t until I picked up a book, when I properly listened to music and started looking deeply at art that I felt I finally began to understand the world and my place in it.” Do, who grew up in Sydney’s west to migrant parents, hasn’t let go of the feeling since, which goes some way to explaining his commitment to opening up the sometimes intimidating art world.

Witness his role as senior curator of contemporary art at the Sydney Opera House, where Do is responsible for initiatives such as local and international artist talks. For his programming of talks at Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, he drew on culture-movers and thought-shapers across the country in conversations that examined art through the lenses of fashion, theatre, collecting and current affairs. He’s also wrapped a five-week season on ABC Radio National The Art Show as presenter, is serving as a curatorial advisor to the National Art School Galleries and is gearing up for the annual Lighting of the Sails at the Opera House as part of Vivid Sydney in May 2025.

“I want to offer this gift [of creativity and the arts] to other people,” he says. “I never cut myself off to rigid and rote templates of how to do things. I want to use the entire palette – every tool, every means – to build culture and tell stories.”

Actress

When the much-anticipated fourth season of Netflix series Bridgerton finally airs, Australian actress Yerin Ha will cement her status as one of the world’s most exciting young talents. Joining the Regency-era romance as servant girl Sophie Baek, illegitimate daughter of an earl, her story has a Cinderella twist in a love affair with leading man Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson).

“I hope, just as with any character I portray, that there is a sense of truth and people see Sophie – someone who still craves and yearns for love despite all of her trauma and neglect,” says Ha, who also appeared in psychological horror film Sissy and sci-fi TV series Dune: Prophecy and Halo. “I think every human wants and desires to be loved so that’s my focus and I hope the audience will be able to see that.”

Ha, who was born in Sydney to Korean parents, is particularly proud of representing the multiculturalism of her home country, a place she believes instilled her creativity and desire to tell human stories. “We live on a beautiful land with such a rich history of First Nations peoples sharing stories and using storytelling to pass down knowledge. I hope we can continue to shine light on that.”

Dancer and Poet

Dance Clan, an initiative by acclaimed First Nations performance company Bangarra Dance Theatre, fosters the talents of new generations of storytellers and creatives via an annual series of works designed to showcase emerging artists. In a first this year, Gamilaroi and Tongan man Daniel Mateo stars in a film he also choreographed. Co-directed by Mateo’s program mentor, Cass Mortimer Eipper, Brown Boys represents an evolution for Mateo, who used the opportunity to combine dance with his poetry practice.

“Being a dancer is something I do with the company and poetry has been a medium for me to have to myself, that’s unique to me, but it just made sense to put them together,” he says. “It’s been special seeing where they marry and bleed into one another.”

The project was also a chance to push the boundaries for the wider company, where dancers typically create works that are intended to be performed on stage. “For me it was about making sure everything was set before we went into filming and then there’s all of the video editing that happens after,” says Mateo. “It’s been a beautiful journey with lots of learning.”

Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Dance Clan is at Studio Theatre at Bangarra, Sydney, until 14 December 2024. Mateo will appear in national touring productions throughout 2025.

Writer and actress

Gumbaynggirr and Wiradjuri creative Dalara Williams’s new play, Big Girls Don’t Cry, encapsulates a particular time and place in history that the playwright, actress and lifelong resident of Sydney’s Redfern is consistently drawn to. “We like to tell [First Nations] stories from rural and regional Australia but nothing about urban life, about the experience of being an Aboriginal person living in the city,” she says.

The play, set in 1960s Redfern, follows three young women and the joy and excitement of their lives – despite employment being precarious and harassment pervasive – on the cusp of change in the lead-up to the biggest night of the year, the Deb Ball. “Redfern has been the driving force of Aboriginal activism and political movements – it all started from Redfern and its history has encompassed all Aboriginal people across this continent.”

Big Girls Don’t Cry plays at Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney, 5 to 27 April 2025.

Artist

Its reliance on variable elements, such as water, heat and breath, means that perfection is near impossible in the craft of glassblowing. Adelaide-based glass artist Liam Fleming, however, is happy to embrace the imperfect. His practice actively pushes against rigidity in form, the brightly coloured sculptures slumping and warping as if they’re inflatables with the air sucked out, a technique achieved by working with the melting point to create sculptural forms.

Fleming began blowing glass in his teens, honing his craft in the glass studios of South Australian workshops before exhibiting at design festivals in Milan and London. The artist’s unique skill is well-timed, with the renaissance of traditional handicrafts in contemporary art – his most recent series, presented by Sabbia Gallery at Sydney Contemporary, swiftly sold out.

Illustrator, designer and animator

Sydney-born Chinese-Australian Chris Yee couldn’t be prouder to represent Western Sydney. Traditionally overlooked as lacking the creative chops of the inner city, the region is benefiting from long-term government and private investment, plus an array of cultural initiatives, including the forthcoming opening of Powerhouse Parramatta. It’s helping shape a very different centre, one with an incredibly diverse demographic.

“I grew up in Eastwood and Parramatta is our big city so it’s so cool that it’s coming to life now, 15 or 20 years after all these plans began,” says Yee. A major part of the artist’s practice is representing the Asian-Australian diaspora. He has created a mural for McDonald’s and a digital artwork for the Parramatta Eels rugby league club as part of its 2024 Lunar New Year celebrations. He’s now putting the final touches on soon-to-be-unveiled works for Parramatta City’s 2025 Lunar New Year festival as its lead artist.

“It’s cool that these organisations are tapping into local creatives. For me it’s personal, it’s about the nuances of the suburbs and what makes them a special part of greater Australia. I want to champion and spotlight the stories of our cities.”

Choreographer

“I’m highly collaborative with the dancers I work with,” says Melanie Lane, noting the disparate physicality brought by the ballet dancers, female bodybuilders, exotic dancers and children’s performers she’s choreographed. “I’m fascinated by how they translate ideas into movement and I can learn so much from what they have to offer.”

Following a recent major work with Sydney Dance Company, Love Lock, Lane is deep in development mode on several new projects with the likes of Australasian Dance Collective, Asia TOPA and contemporary dance company Chunky Move, where she’s choreographer in residence.

Are there other athletes the Australian/Javanese creative would like to work with? “For some reason, in my head I just saw synchronised swimmers,” she muses. “There are so many people that perform with their bodies in so many different ways.”