Artist and Elder in Residence Programs
The Small Giants Artist and Elder in Residence Programs are an invitation for creatives, changemakers and wisdom keepers in our community to join us at The White House for an extended period. While sharing a workspace with our team, they connect more deeply with us, share thoughts and ideas, and showcase their practice in a nurturing and supportive environment.
Through championing the power of creatives and changemakers as they explore and develop their ideas, we hope to co-create a more hopeful future. This future is deeply connected with the human experience — an essential component of human flourishing — fostering empathy, promoting self-expression, and enriching our lives with meaning and beauty.
Elder in Residence
N'arweet Carolyn Briggs
N'arweet Carolyn Briggs is a Boon Wurrung senior elder and is the chairperson and founder of the Boon Wurrung Foundation.
A descendant of the First Peoples of Melbourne, the Yaluk-ut Weelam clan of the Boon Wurrung, N’arweet is the great-granddaughter of Louisa Briggs, a Boon Wurrung woman born near Melbourne in the 1830’s.
N’arwee thas been involved in developing and supporting opportunities for Indigenous youth and Boon Wurrung culture for over 40 years. In 2005, she established the Boon Wurrung Foundation, which has been responsible for significant work in cultural research, including the restoration of the Boon Wurrung language. The Foundation also helps connect Aboriginal youth to their heritage.
N'arweet plays a key role in our Commitment to Indigenous Australia and we are grateful that she shares her wisdom and knowledge with us as we work towards the Next Economy.
Jess Hitchcock
Artist in Residence Alumni
Jess Hitchcock is an Indigenous singer-songwriter, award-winning opera singer and composer. Her powerful voice and passion for storytelling are revealed in captivating performances, be that with her own band, or when she joins forces with Australian music legends or performing arts companies such as Bangarra Dance Theatre, Victorian Opera, Opera Queensland and Short Black Opera.
Jess shared her musical journey with us in “Singing the sun up”, originally published in Dumbo Feather issue #67 exploring Music.
Monique diMattina
Monique diMattina understands how music casts spells, how it engulfs us on a whole-body level. A pianist, singer-songwriter, composer and educator, she spent 10 years living in New York on a Fullbright scholarship in her twenties, observing and learning from the greats while fine-tuning her own style, which today swings from jazz to classical to roots, depending on her appetite at the time.
Monique is sass and joy and love and sophistication, wrapped up in a clever quip and a yearning to connect. For her, global fame isn’t the pull, it’s playing at the local jazz bar for the baker up the road, and knowing that her music lands somewhere, like sunlight reaches a flower.
Nathan Scolaro spoke to Monique in Dumbo Feather issue #67, read their conversation in “Monique diMattina composes beauty”.
Lydia Fairhall
Lydia’s Fairhall’s professional background is in executive arts leadership, festival curation and producing for theatre and film, in both urban and remote communities.
Lydia is a Worimi woman, born on Bundjalung country, now living in Gubbi Gubbi Country. She has lived many lives in this one life, from experiencing trauma in early life to art-filled, soulful adult life as a mother, producer, executive, singer/songwriter and custodian of ancient wisdom, Lydia is the embodiment of compassionate resilience.
Today she facilitates conscious leadership, spiritual direction and next economy transitions for both companies and individuals.
Lydia is part of much of our work, she’s a Guardian of Purpose, a guide in the Mastery of Business & Empathy, was featured on the cover of Dumbo Feather issue #60, Belonging, and has contributed to a number of issues of the magazine. Her reflection on “Holding Space for a New Creative Process” (co-written with Leanne de Souza) is a must read.
Bobby Alu
Bobby Alu is a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. His mantra is:
Move. And be moved. Find your flow and go about each day to the rhythm of your own making.
It’s been a long-time personal and musical mission.
Bobby’s tunes have a way of sneaking into the subconscious and taking up residence with smooth harmonies, rhythms inspired by a strong family lineage of Polynesian performance.
During our time together, we invited Bobby to reflect on his experience during the Covid-19 Pandemic, read his story in Being an Artist in 2020.
Lucy Peach
Lucy Peach is a long-time champion of the power of the menstrual cycle who published Period Queen (she’s also a folk singer and a talented performer).
Lucy was featured in Dumbo Feather issue #65, sharing a conversation with Berry Liberman on rest and the cycles that we are both part of and are part of us. We loved the way Lucy talked about the period as the invitation that is present in each stage of that cycle, so we also published their conversation on the Dumbo Feather podcast.
Joel Havea
Joel Havea is a man of many talents. A skilled songwriter, natural singer, unique guitarist and an overall engaging performer whose eclectic style reflects his roots as a true world citizen — he was born to a Tongan father and a Dutch mother in the island capital of Nuku’alofa and was raised in the rich cultural landscape of Melbourne.
Joel’s music asks the question, “What does it mean to be at home?”, the experience is different for everyone, but that feeling is one we all recognise — listening to old Tongan music has always transported him to that place.
Andrea Kirwin
Andrea Kirwin is an Australian-Fijian Artist/Producer with a retro soulful sound and a knack for storytelling. She writes and arranges her songs by weaving melodies and lyrics together with purpose and passion much like the way her Fijian grandmother used to weave pandanus mats in the village on the island of Matuku, Lau. Andrea's sound can be described as an earthy blend of folk, roots, reggae, blues, funk and soul and she waxes and wanes between her more gentler folk/soul tunes as a solo artist, and her upbeat groove based songs that she performs with her talented band.
Robert K Champion
Robert K Champion moves audiences with his haunting guitar music and compelling stories of life, love and loss.
A Gubrun, Kokatha and Mirning man now living and making music in Melbourne, Robert performs original compositions, a combination of country ballads and melodic songs.
Robert has toured nationally as a solo artist as well as with his band The MERRg and as part of other collectives and performing acts such as the Desert Fringe Super Band, the Stray Blacks and more.
Interested in becoming an artist residency?
This invitational program is open to artists, activists, changemakers, musicians and poets, storytellers, wisdom keepers writers and thinkers.
If you think you’d be a good fit, email us and register your interest, we’d love to hear from you!