Johanna Featherstone
Secretary

Johanna Featherstone founded Red Room Poetry in 2003 and was the organisation’s artistic director until 2015. In that time Johanna established a national poetry education program for schools and Correctional Centres in NSW, at which she continues to facilitate poetry workshops. Her poetry features in journals and anthologies, including Best Australian Poems (Black Inc) and her chapbook Felt was released in 2010 by Vagabond Press with her second collection, featuring poems, prose and art criticism is forthcoming. (2020).

Johanna is honorary associate of The University of Sydney’s School Arts and Media and a regular peer assessor on literature panels for the Australia Council, Create NSW. Her work as a judge has included the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, JB Fairfax Award for Rural and Regional Journalism and the Marten Bequest Traveling Scholarship. Johanna received a fellowship from the St James Ethics Center (2008) during which time she worked in a mine, studied Tagore and began her journey as a yogi; she teaches the Iyengar method. Much of Johanna’s time is spent adventuring with family including 4 and 6 year old girls and as a Director of the Oranges & Sardines Foundation and Belvoir Theatre. 

Johanna is a co-director of Oranges & Sardines, her family foundation.

David Ryding
Treasurer

David is the Director of the Melbourne UNESCO City of Literature Office, a role that works in partnership with the City of Melbourne and Creative Victoria in elevating Melbourne’s status as a UNESCO City of Literature.

His previous work includes Program Manager – Early Career Artists at the Australia Council for the Arts, Executive Director at the NSW Writers Centre, Director at the Emerging Writers’ Festival, Artistic Director at Mainstreet Theatre Company, and Associate Director at Barking Gecko Theatre.

Jane Harrison


Jane Harrison is descended from the Muruwari people of NSW. Her first play Stolen had productions across Australia and toured internationally. She was co-winner of the 2012 RAKA Kate Challis Award for Stolen. Rainbow’s End (2003) has had numerous productions and won the 2012 Drovers Award for best touring production. The Visitors play (2020) premiered at Sydney Festival and won the Sydney Critics Award for Best New Australian Work for 2021. It had a new production at the Sydney Opera House in 2023.

Her novel Becoming Kirrali Lewis won the 2014 Black & Write! Prize, and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. She was the Festival Director of Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival (2016, 2019, 2022, 2024) until August 2024.

Krista Dunstan GAICD


Krista is a Nyoongar woman from South West Wagyl Kaip, has a Bachelor of Laws and a double Masters of International Relations and a Masters of International Law from the University of Western Australia (UWA). Krista is studying an Executive Certificate in Public Policy at Harvard and an MBA at UWA.
Krista has 13 years experience across strategic stakeholder engagement, commercial projects, economic development, advocacy and international relations. Krista is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Director of the Indigenous Arts Foundation.

Krista is also a writer and was shortlisted in the WA Premier’s Book Awards in 2020 for The Daisy Utemorrah Award for Unpublished Indigenous Junior and YA Fiction.

Angelina Hurley


Angelina Hurley is a writer from Brisbane, of Gooreng Gooreng and Mununjali descent on her father’s side (renowned Aboriginal visual artist Ron Hurley) and Birriah and Gamilaraay descent on her mother’s side. With over 35 years of experience in First Nations Arts, Education, and Community Cultural Development, her writing debuted with the short film Aunty Maggie and the Womba Wakgun (2009). Awarded the 2011 American-Australian Fulbright Indigenous Scholar, she studied at NYU’s Tisch School of Arts. She recently submitted her PhD at Griffith University Film School, writing a set of scripts for an Aboriginal comedy television series Reconciliation Rescue and an exegesis titled Reconciliation Rescue: An Original Blak Comedy Series and Aboriginal Cultural Perspectives on Humour. Her work spans across various mediums including short films, documentaries, and numerous journals, magazines, and online publications. She is presently a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Griffith Universities Creative Arts Research Institute (CARI).

Mark Stapleton


Mark Stapleton leads the Arcadia Syndicate, providing strategic design and management of Indigenous, arts and community services and programs. As an ally, partner, collaborator, facilitator his primary proposition is success by working cross culturally in project management and administration, consultation, policy development and research.

Nardi Simpson


Nardi Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay storyteller from New South Wales’ (NSW) northwest freshwater plains. As a member of Indigenous duo Stiff Gins, Nardi has travelled nationally and internationally for the past 22 years. She is also a founding member of Freshwater, an all-female vocal ensemble formed to revive the language and singing traditions of NSW river communities.

Nardi is a graduate of Ngarra-Burria First Peoples Composers and is currently undertaking a PhD through the Australian National University’s School of Music in Composition. Nardi is the current musical director of Barayagal, a cross-cultural choir based at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. In 2021, Nardi was First Nations artist in residence at the Sydney Conservatorium and with Ensemble Offspring.
Nardi’s debut novel, Song of the Crocodile, won the 2017 Black&Write! Fellowship and the ALS Gold Medal, and was longlisted for the 2021 Stella Prize and Miles Franklin Literary Award. Nardi currently lives in Sydney and continues to be heavily involved in the teaching and sharing of culture in both her Sydney and Yuwaalaraay communities. The Belburd is her second novel.