“The Pacesetters Creatives Archives project was like self-determined archiving, with a good model of reciprocal conversation between two creatives. I have a love of archiving in whatever form, and this was a special opportunity to work with Saleh Saqqaf, marking exactly 30 years since we first met and worked with the beginnings of Taqa Theatre. Our part of the project took triple time; working collaboratively and bilingually, scoping stories and concepts, gathering far more ideas than we recorded. Translations and transcriptions were another layer in the archiving adventure, as our conversations moved between English and Arabic, with code-switching in between. Shukran / Thanks to Diversity Arts for initiating a Project that contributes to inter-generational awareness, documenting our contemporary cultural heritage on our own terms.”
Read Alissar’s interview with Saleh Saqqaf and Saleh’s interview with Alissar
“When I first became a writer in 2008, I looked for others like me so I could learn from their journeys. I was fortunate to find the work of the poet and essayist Boey Kim Cheng. Over the years, I watched as Boey tirelessly laid down the groundwork for an Asian Australian literary community through founding a literary journal, his editorship of groundbreaking poetry anthologies, as well as continuing to produce original poetry, fiction, and literary criticism. I felt like his endeavours were often overlooked by the Australian literary community. The Pacesetters program allowed for an in-depth conversation with Boey about his writing practice and his contribution to Asian diasporic writing. I am really gratified that the interview was published in the Sydney Review of Books, and that Boey’s work is at least recognised and recorded in this way so others may know of and learn from his endeavours. Others who have gone before us make the journey easier, and less lonely. The Pacesetters program helps to map some paths of this journey, so we may better create our own landscapes going forward.”
Read Eileen’s interview with Boey Kim Cheng
Pacesetter Interview Series
During Covid lockdowns from 2020-21, Diversity Arts commissioned 20 intergenerational interviews profiling 20 established creatives as Pacesetters. This first pilot interview series focused on NSW, recording the stories of game-changing established creative practitioners and their contributions across literature, the visual arts, the performing arts, screen and film, community cultural development and more.
These interviews were published in media outlets such as Sydney Review Books, Rolling Stone Australia, Audrey Journal, The Australian, Australian Photography Magazine, Mutual Art, Aussie Theatre, The Philippines Times, IndoMedia and Neo Kosmos. All interviews can also be viewed on our Creative Lives page.
Find out more about the project background here.
Space for Critical Dialogue: A Conversation with Arab-Australian veteran arts worker, Alissar Chidiac
By Saleh Saqqaf
“In sitting down for a formal chat with my old friend and collaborator, Alissar Chidiac, I had one critical question in mind. How, despite four decades of obstacles—chief among them a global pandemic with incessant shutdowns in cultural sectors—is she still involved with the arts?”
Nurture the Community, Nurture the Country Revered Classical Indian dancer Anandavalli in conversation with her son, writer and director S. Shakthidharan
By S. Shakthidharan
“Cast an eye over Anandavalli’s CV, and you will assume she has pursued dance with a single-minded passion since she was a child. However, those close to my mother know she has steadily turned dance, initially foisted upon her, into her greatest strength.”
Our Asian Fairy Godmother; Or, Why Annette Shun Wah Should be Australian Of the Year
By Melissa Lee Speyer
“[Representation] matters for inclusion. You feel that you’re left out, you don’t belong, because there’s no one that looks at you, or lives like you, or has experiences like you.”
READ ON SYDNEY REVIEW OF BOOKS
Many Shells in a Windy Place: An Interview with Boey Kim Cheng
By Eileen Chong
“These anthologies are both the first of their kind in the global literary landscape: the first Asian Australian anthology of poetry, and the first Asian diasporic anthology of poetry across national borders.”
READ ON SYDNEY REVIEW OF BOOKS
The Shaping of a Storyteller: An Interview with Edison Yongai
By Hawanatu Bangura
“As we adjusted to life in Australia, we left behind a brutal civil war that claimed thousands of lives. Yongai and a group of fellow exiled Sierra Leonean journalists captured this in a documentary entitled Darkness Over Paradise, which was widely acclaimed both in Australia and overseas.”
READ ON SYDNEY REVIEW OF BOOKS
A new birth in Fadia’s life keeps multiple fires burning
By James Elazzi
“That we aren’t viewed as the ‘Other’, we are not a spectacle…we want that equality, (however that is measured) I don’t think we are there yet. Not ticking boxes. We need more diverse producers.”
I hope to have one last curtain call | Interview with Kamahl
By Sunil Badami
“I’d say, first of all, be honest to yourself, and find if you have anything that you believe in so strongly that you would give your life for it and pursue that dream, however impossible it may seem.”
Fending For Peace: Khaled Sabsabi In Conversation with Abdul Abdullah
By Abdul Abdullah
“You do the work because it’s something burning inside you, to be able to express. Then the rest will fall into place.”
The Show Must Go On | Lex Marinos OAM
By Cecelia Cmielewski
“Australia’s on-screen cultural diversity may have marginally improved in decades since, but Mr Marinos notes “it has been capricious and could evaporate tomorrow.”
Capturing Starlight: An interview with Lindy Lee
By Tian Zhang
“Which is the unhappiness you were prepared to live with? If I didn’t try to be an artist, then I would regret that for the rest of my life.”
Unfolding Nikkei Australian stories: work of Mayu Kanamori
By Yuki Kawakami
“Mayu’s work challenged racial stereotypes and she sought to provide nuanced representations of Japanese people in their various subcultures.”
READ ON THE SYDNEY REVIEW OF BOOKS
Life, Love, & Legacy: An Interview With MC Trey
By Simone Amelia Jordan
“We all come from very strong lines of women that have made things possible for us and continue to walk with us.”
The Art of Creating with Paschal Daantos Berry in conversation with Valerie Berry
By Valerie Berry
“Being part of one of the most colonised diasporas, I’ve had to do a lot of work to ensure that I wasn’t yielding to problematic ways of behaving inherent in a highly colonised culture because that sits within you as an individual.”
Sumud: A conversation with Paula Abood
By Dr Roanna Gonsalves
“One of the most important principles of community cultural work is that community are in control and lead and forge the creative vision and the cultural production itself.”
READ ON THE SYDNEY REVIEW OF BOOKS
Alissar Chidiac in conversation with Saleh Saqqaf
By Alissar Chidiac
“We as Arabs, the last stronghold for us is language, there is nothing but it. We have to keep telling our stories, we have to continue our culture through our language. That’s why I always insisted, when I was working in theatre, to enjoy working in bilingual theatre, speaking Arabic and English.”
From Down Under to The Source: An Interview with Simone Amelia Jordan
By L-FRESH THE LION
“I’m aware of my place within the culture as an international fan. I revere and support the originators and use whatever platform I have as an advocate.”
READ ON THE ROLLINGSTONE MAGAZINE
A conversation with Tony Ayres
By Patrick Abboud
“Because I felt and I still feel that these stories are vastly underrepresented on screens. So I look into that territory and the stories always tend to be about the complications of being human, the messiness of it.”
READ ON THE SYDNEY REVIEW OF BOOKS
One Night In Jakarta: Indonesia’s Beloved Rock Star Sawung Jabo Reflects On His Legacy
By Kean Wong
“The shows are still spoken about today as a pivotal event when Indonesian culture changed for the better, fleetingly liberated by rock music and inadvertently loosening the constraints of the New Order military regime’s decades of authoritarian rule.”
Linking Memories Through The Generations: At Home With Australia’s Leading Social Photographer, William Yang
By Teik-Kim Pok
“But I think that probably is a legacy that I’m leaving behind, and largely it’s a legacy that I had to fund myself. No one paid me to do that, although I do make works and I do sell photographs. It’s quite hard to sell a photograph, but I’ve survived.”
READ ON AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY