The Indigenous Arts & Culture Program exists to provide, support and consider the growth of an active youth arts arena that’s designed specifically for the cultural needs of young Indigenous South Australians.
Lee-Ann Buckskin-Manager
Lee-Ann Buckskin is a Narungga, Wirangu woman from South Australia who is well known throughout the Indigenous and arts communities. Lee-Ann has worked with the 1996 and 1998 Adelaide Fringe, 1996 Festival of the Sun, 2002 Adelaide Festival of Arts and the Adelaide Festival Centre as well as the Yeperenye Festival (Alice Springs) 2001. Most recently Lee-Ann was Program Coordinator for the Indigenous Program of the 2004 Adelaide Festival of Arts.
Lee-Ann’s current position is with Carclew Youth Arts Centre in Adelaide as Manager, Indigenous Arts and Cultural Program. She recently produced Blak Nite South Australia’s leading Indigenous Youth Arts showcase as part of the 2005 Come Out Festival. Carclew Youth Arts Centre has a strong Indigenous-programming component, and her role, as Manager will see Lee-Ann overseeing the Indigenous Program and working closely with the South Australian Indigenous and arts communities.
Lee-Ann has a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of South Australia and is currently enrolled in postgraduate studies in Arts and Cultural Business Management at Uni SA. In 2002, Lee-Ann was selected as a future Indigenous leader and graduated from the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre Program (Canberra).
Most recently, Lee-Ann was the Deputy Chair of the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute – Tandanya and was appointed as Co-chair to the Adelaide City Council Reconciliation Committee.
In 2003, Lee-Ann was the winner of the inaugural Gladys Elphick Award for her work in raising the profile of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts and culture in South Australia. The late Gladys Elphick was a Kaurna elder who spearheaded the formation of the Council of Aboriginal Women of SA.
In 2005, Lee-Ann was awarded the prestigious internationally recognised Sidney Myer Facilitator Prize. The Prize recognises Lee-Ann’s tremendous contribution to Indigenous arts in this country.
Marg Crompton-Project Manager
Marg grew up in Brisbane and has worked and played in Performing Arts for 22 years. She has extensive experience as a stage manager for numerous companies including QTC, MTC, ADT, STCSA, Gordon Frost and AFCT.
Since moving to Adelaide she has moved into production & event management for Adelaide Fringe, Adelaide Festival, WOMADelaide, Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Come Out Festival and the Australian Performing Arts Market. She has taught stage management at TAFE SA - Adelaide Centre for the Arts.
Marg is currently Project Manager for the Indigenous Arts & Culture Program at Carclew Youth Arts. The current project is APY Lands – Celebrating Healthy Communities. Her other highlights in Indigenous Performing Arts have been Wodliparri at Adelaide Festival Centre, production managing three Blak Nite events (co-production with Come Out Festival) and five trips to the APY Lands on the current Carclew project.
She believes the Arts help reflect our lives in a clearer focus and she loves to help everyone set free their “inner artist”.
She is married with two boys, a dog and three chooks and is currently the Chair of the local Primary School Council.
Renee Johnson-Assistant Coordinator
Renee Johnson was born and bred in South Australia with her Indigenous roots extending to the Daly River in the Northern Territory. She is a Malak Malak woman from the Marathial language group. Renee grew up in the arts through both her parents successful involvement in the areas of theatre and writing and the S.A.F.C. At age 19 she gained employment as a trainee within Nunkuwarrin Yunti Community Centre at the Aboriginal Sobriety Group and went on to work there for a further 4 years. It was while working there she undertook a Graduate Certificate in Health (Community Mental Health) at Flinders University of S.A which she successfully completed in 2001.
Since then, she has worked on the 2002 Fringe Opening Parade and in 2004-5 underwent 1st year studies in a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, Media and Culture at Uni SA with a specific interest in filmaking. In 2006 she gained employment for a year at the Odeon Theatre as part of Carclew Youth Arts and has been working with the Indigenous Arts and Culture Program since April 2007 to date. From July 2007 she was also contracted over a period of 6 months by Relationships Australia as sole filmmaker for the APY Land’s Youth Worker Induction DVD.
Kristen Khan-Assistant Coordinator-APY Lands Project
Kristen Khan is the latest member to join the Indigenous arts and Culture Team here at Carclew Youth Arts.Kristen moved from a small opal-mining town Coober Pedy, where she spent her younger days growing up. She is a proud Yankunjatjarra and Antikarinya woman who was born in Port Augusta SA. She completed year 12 at Lefevre High School in 2003 and went on to do an Arts Administration Traineeship with Kurruru Indigenous Youth Performing Arts who took her on fulltime as an Assistant Youth Coordinator and then Project Officer.She performed with the Kurruru Dance Ensemble in many events which included the 2003 & 2004 Croc Festivals, the National NAIDOC Ball in 2005 and various Indigenous Events around SA.Through Kurruru she got the opportunity to bring out her passion for film making and editing and produced small movies and clips. She was mentored through the film making process by professional film artist Jeni-Lee participating in a unique Kurruru educational resource project called The Carousel Club.She was also on the Steering Committee for Carclew’s Blaknite Event in 2005 & 2007.She is really looking forward to working on the APY Lands Project at Carclew and is excited about the opportunities and experiences it will give her.
APY Lands – Working towards Celebrating Healthy Communities
Indigenous Arts and Culture Program has received funding from the Commonwealth Fund the Alcohol Rehabilitation and Education Foundation (AERF) and Arts SA to conduct a series of artistic and cultural workshops and programs on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands (APY) working with young people and the Youth Sheds over a two-year period.
The APY Lands project seeks to address alcohol and substance misuse (and other contemporary social issues) affecting 12 to 20 year olds in the APY Lands through the intervention programs of arts and cultural workshops with a focus on education, health and wellbeing. While the focus will be on young people who are engaged in or at risk of engaging in alcohol and substance misuse, the workshop program will be multi-layered. We will work with the appointed Youth Workers to run the programs and activities and build upon the artistic and cultural recommendations made from our consultations with the local communities throughout 2005/06. These recommendations include how to initiate an idea and to develop and run an artistic and cultural workshop, school holiday activities, delivering mural and dance workshops as well as intergenerational workshops with community elders in 2007/08.
