Tandanya Board Members
Lee-Ann Tjunypa Buckskin, Chairperson
Lee-Ann Tjunypa Buckskin is from South Australia and is a Narungga, Wirangu, Wotjobaluk with family ties to Kaurna of the Adelaide region.
She has a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of South Australia. Lee-Ann is well known throughout the Australian and international Indigenous and arts communities and has worked across many major events and festivals including Adelaide Fringe, Adelaide Festival and Brisbane Festival of Arts. She has been at the forefront of developing and delivering strong Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts and cultural programs for public audiences in Australia.
In 2005, she was awarded the prestigious and internationally recognised Sidney Myer Facilitator Prize. She is the recipient of three Ruby Awards in South Australia. She was a key designer for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander War Memorial, for South Australia and opened by the Governor General Quentin Bryce in 2013. The project won the Ruby Award for Best Work. In 2016 she was awarded the Ruby Award the Geoff Crowhurst Memorial Award for her sustained contribution to the arts and community cultural development in South Australia. In 2021 Lee-Ann was honoured with the Stevie Gadlarbarti Goldsmith Memorial Award.
Lee-Ann was the federal appointed Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board, and Deputy Chair of the Australia Council for the Arts. She was an advisory member of The Art Gallery of South Australia for Tarnanthi. She has served as an independent board director of Ku Arts. Lee-Ann has consulted and advised on many film scripts and was the Aboriginal Strategy Executive for the South Australian Film Corporation who led the First Nations Screen Strategy 2015 to 2025. Lee-Ann currently holds the position as Assistant Director, Program and Strategy, Tarrkarri Centre for First Nations Culture, Lot Fourteen.
Lilla Berry
Lilla is a Yankunytjatjara woman, artist, arts worker and producer who has worked in the arts sector for over 9 years. She is currently the Aboriginal Arts Programs Manager at Carclew, and has contributed to a wide range of programming. Lilla also has an active independent dance practice and independent roles as a producer.
In 2017, she formed the Aboriginal cultural contemporary dance company Of Desert and Sea, alongside her fellow dance ensemble members. As producer she secured funding, partnerships and performance opportunities, including performances and workshops at WOMADelaide, Art Gallery of South Australia, Dance Rites at the Sydney Opera House. Lilla produced ODAS’ debut show and season of Beautiful during Tarnanthi in 2019, as well as her first screen credit, producing Sansbury Sisters as part of the Deadly Family Portraits Initiative with South Australian Film Corp and ABC iView.
Lilla completed a residency as part of The Mill’s Collaboration and Mentorship Residency program in 2021, which resulted in an exhibition titled STRNG WMN as part of Tarnanthi, which she curated and contributed too, alongside other First Nation artists. Lilla received the Emerging Producer Award at the 2021 South Australian Screen Awards. Her most recent film credit was producing the NITV, Screen Australia and SAFC commissioned short documentary, Black Empire, as part of the Curious Australia Initiative, which aired in 2022. She is currently completing a Bachelor of Creative Arts at The University of Adelaide.
Ellen Bertani
Ellen Bertani is a Kokatha and Ballardong woman who was raised on Kaurna Yarta and currently resides in Naarm (Melbourne). Ellen recently finished a degree in Indigenous Studies and Politics and currently works at the University of Melbourne on the evaluation of a national Indigenous education curriculum project. Ellen has extensive experience working at universities in Indigenous Student Support roles but refocused her professional pathway to contribute to systems level change for Aboriginal peoples. After the tragic loss of several immediate family members close together as a young adult, Ellen became passionate about utilising the site of Indigenous policy to respond to the needs and aspirations of Aboriginal communities and to contribute to the wellbeing of Aboriginal peoples. She is motivated by the desire to create a kinder and fairer world for future generations of her family and community.
In 2022, Ellen served as the undergraduate representative on the University of Melbourne’s Indigenous Strategy Committee. In 2023, she was selected to attend an Indigenous Policy Seminar on ‘Renewing Indigenous Economies’ at Stanford University in California. Ellen has also had the opportunity to develop her knowledge on Indigenous policy through her participation in a ‘First Nations in Foreign Policy’ seminar offered by DFAT and YAIA.
Eddie Newchurch
Eddie is a Narungga man with ties to many other Aboriginal groups across SA and interstate. He was born and raised in Point Pearce on the Yorke Peninsula, where he still lives. He is the elected Chairperson of Point Pearce Aboriginal Council, and was amongst Aboriginal leaders recognised with 2020 Premier’s NAIDOC Awards for their efforts to keep their communities free of COVID-19. In the same year, Eddie received the NAIDOC Elder of the Year Award from the SA NAIDOC Committee. He is a Board member of the SA Aboriginal Lands Trust, which holds land in trust on behalf of all Aboriginal people in the state. Eddie also works with Thirrili’s SA COVID-19 Virtual Support Network which provides suicide prevention and other support services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in SA.