Our kiin
Meet our core collective of storytellers
Emele Ugavule
Emele Ugavule is a Tokelauan Uvean Fijian storyteller. Her research and practice area of interest is Oceanic Indigenous-led storytelling, exploring the themes of temporality, memory, kinship and knowledge transmission.
A graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, she has worked with various artists and organisations across Australia and the Pacific including Warner Music, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Sydney Opera House, Netflix ANZ & Mad Ones Films, Culture Factory, Playwriting Australia, Mangere Arts Centre, Monkey Baa Theatre Co, La Boite Theatre Co, Belvoir St, Sydney Theatre Co, Arts Centre Melbourne, Art Gallery of NSW, Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture & Pacific Studies. Emele is the host of the Unravel & Solwata Kin podcasts, Creative director of Talanoa and the founder of Studio Kiin, an Indigenous-led creative studio and collective where story sovereignty, kinship and healing is priority.
She is a recipient of fellowships from the International Institute of Modern Letters, Creative Australia and Creative NZ, Create NSW, Think + Do Foundation, Critical Path and Playwriting Australia, and is an alumni of the Fibre Fale Tautai leadership camp. As an orator, Emele has been a Toi Hourua keynote speaker at the Aotearoa Digital Arts Network Symposium in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, and has presented at events including the United Nations AI For Good summit in Zurich, Switzerland and Nuit Blanche in Tkaronto.
Emele has tutored at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and the National Institute of Dramatic Arts and currently she is a senior tutor at Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa: NZ Drama School (Acting).
Linda Iriza
Linda Iriza lives and works in Kwinana, Walyalup, Boorloo and across many other borders in the hopes of a borderless liberated world.
Linda Iriza is a Rwandan people weaver, creative producer and artist currently living on Nyoongar Boodjar. Her work centres African youth and continues to create community projects that bring them together physically and digitally. She does this through collectives like Soul Alphabet, where they support young Black and Brown creatives through events, art exhibitions, workshops and various other projects.
In recent years, she has also grown an interest in honouring her ancestors by digging deeper into Rwandan historical archives. In 2020, she launched a project called Amateka Series which aims at curating experiences that nurture a culture of collective learning. The project has held virtual history live conferences and workshops that bring together Rwandans across the world and in the past they’ve had up to 190 attendees streaming from so called Australia, Aotearoa, Rwanda, South Africa, UK, Canada and more.
Her passion for creating spaces for young Africans goes beyond borders; as she founded Nuru Tours which is an ethical travel project that works to connect the African diaspora to Africa. She has worked with Fremantle Arts Centre, Community Arts Network, West Australian Music,Talanoa, Perth Festival and the Ministry of youth and culture in Rwanda. Iriza is interested in learning more about the art of storytelling, indegnous approaches to anti-colonial resistance, afropresentism and intersectional feminist work.
Elsie Andrewes
Elsie is a Fijian (Navala, Nakoroboya, Ba) / Pākeha digital artist and illustrator based in Whangārei, Aotearoa/New Zealand. Her works are rooted in her Pacific heritage, with a focus on exploring themes of identity, natural heritage and more recently impacts of climate change to these regions. Her creative practice is informed by current events locally and globally, as well as having a keen interest in myths and legends, and science fiction. Elsie is the in-house illustrator and graphic designer for Studio Kiin. She has been commissioned by Huia Publishers, the World Bank, Propel Youth Arts WA, RTR FM, Talanoa, and Witness Performance.
Natasha Ratuva
Natasha Ratuva (she/her) is a Fiji (Kadavu vasu i Bua) born and raised multi-disciplinary creative based in Wairarapa, Aotearoa, NZ. Natasha applies the mediums of photography, digital art, poetry, gardening and Taukei traditional practices to ground her learnings and observations as Pasifika diaspora in New Zealand, Aotearoa. Often colour and the human anatomy is harnessed within her digital practice as tools of archiving memory, each hue and form embodying a story or cultural principle. Recently, Natasha has brought masi (indigenous Fijian barkcloth) to the forefront of her creative practice. Using natural pigments and dyes to carefully hand paint traditional patterns and contemporary compositions onto masi, Natasha reimagines and expands expressions of her Taukei identity and culture. She has collaborated with NZ fashion magazined, NZ fashion labels, musicians, short films and music video projects including VIVA, Layplan, Sweepstake Winners, Harris Tapper & Campbell Luke.
Makanaka Tuwe
Makanaka Tuwe is a Zimbabwean Storyteller, Researcher, Educator and Cultural Producer. She has worked in the non-for-profit corporate and education sectors and championed grassroots organisations and initiatives including some that she has co-created alongside communities.
She is currently nurturing Sesa Mathlo Apothecary, a movement that flows at the intersections of embodied self care, collective wellness and social justice. The initiatives and offerings in the apothecary are based on the recommendations of a study that Makanaka conducted for her Masters.
Currently based in Tāmaki Makaurau, when she’s not overseeing Sesa Mathlo Apothecary, she can be found planning the next Afrodaze session or writing for publications about culture and the experiences of third culture kids.
Amy Zhang
Amy Zhang is a dancer, choreographer and movement director specialising in street dance. Completely immersed in the global street dance scene, Amy has taught, choreographed and performed nationally and internationally.
Spanning physical and digital spaces, Amy’s practise explores the intersection of cultural nuance and storytelling through experimenting with the merging of street style foundations and contemporary frameworks.
Amy has created, performed and undertaken residencies with Supercell, City of Sydney, First Draft, The Hayes Theatre, Critical Path, Diversity Arts, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Brisbane Festival, Metro Arts and Vitalstatistix.
Arieta Rika
Arieta Rika is a Fijian and Tongan woman, born and living in Dharug Country, Western Sydney. As a storyteller, Arieta specialises in writing and producing Pacific stories, particularly for digital channels such as virtual reality, applications, web, social media, and podcasts.
In 2015, Arieta founded Talanoa, an independent digital storytelling platform for Oceanic people. Since then, Arieta has written for projects across the Pacific, particularly in Fiji including a virtual reality climate change film, a world-first education program for Fijian children.
Arieta currently leads Governance and Communication at the NSW Department of Education’s Before and After School Care team.
Iya Ware
Iya Ware is a Kala Lagaw Ya woman from Waiben and Mer Island of the Torres Straits. She was raised on Gadigal Land (Sydney) and started dancing traditional Island dances across NSW and QLD at the age of seven.
Iya is a multidisciplinary artist working as an emerging writer, producer and actor. Iya’s first professional acting role was with Belvoir St Theatre in Te Molimau which skyrocketed her love for performing. A few years ago, she moved to Boorloo (Perth) to study at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).
Iya graduated with the Certificate IV in Aboriginal Performance in 2020 and a Diploma of Screen Performance in 2021.
Nduta Gathoga
Nduta wa Gathoga, hailing from Kenya, is a multifaceted artist, project producer, community arts worker and performer with a profound commitment to human rights and community engagement. With a Masters degree in Human Rights from Curtin University, Perth (Boorloo), Nduta has seamlessly woven her expertise into the realms of Government Institutions, International Organizations, Non-Profits and various community initiatives in Kenya, Australia and South Korea.
At the intersection of her passion for human rights and the transformative power of the arts, Nduta sees the potential for art to be a compelling tool in sustainable human rights advocacy. For her, art transcends temporal, linguistic and geographic boundaries, serving as a universal language that can unite people from diverse backgrounds.
Nduta’s work is marked by a deep-rooted belief in the potency of indigenous languages, culture and intangible cultural heritage. As an advocate for their revitalization, protection and preservation, she strives to incorporate sustainable practices into the communities she engages with. Through her projects, Nduta seeks to not only create art but also foster dialogue, understanding and empowerment within and between communities.
