Tandanya Board Members
Aaron Ken (Interim Chair)
Aaron Ken is the Program Manager for Wali Wiru at the South Australian Housing Trust and leads dedicated Wali Wiru teams in Port Augusta and Adelaide to provide cultural safety for tenants while building cultural acumen. Aaron has held several positions with the South Australian Housing Trust from 2020 including being a principal project officer, a Wali Wiru practitioner and program manager. Aaron is also the Chairperson of the Iwiri Aboriginal Corporation, a member-based Aboriginal Corporation for Adelaide Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara people that seeks to strengthen the Aṉangu community through providing social support programs, cultural and arts activities and employment opportunities. With extensive experience working and investing in strengthening Aboriginal educational and community engagement, Aaron is committed to supporting youth empowerment and increasing the knowledge of Aboriginal Communities.
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.
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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.
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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.
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Celia Coulthard
Celia Coulthard is an Adnyamathanha woman and mother. She is Programming Executive, First Nations at Adelaide Festival Centre, creator and creative producer of OUR WORDS, a member of Arts SA’s inaugural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategy Panel, a board member for Artlink Magazine, an avid reader and occasional practitioner of paper and word-based art.
Tapaya Edwards
Tapaya is a young man of exceptional skill and knowledge of inma and Tjukurpa that traverse the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands. From a young age, Tapaya showed aptitude and interest in learning the language and rhythm of inma, his dancing skills delighted senior Anangu. Tapaya was taught inma of the Maku (witchetty grub) by his grandfather at Mimili and his grandmothers at Amata instructed him in the songs and dances of Ngintaka (perentile lizard) and the male role of Wati Nyiru in the Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters) Inm. Tapaya is a sought-after cultural advisor and interpreter across the region. He has represented Anangu in national conferences, and exhibitions and performances internationally, most recently in Berlin for the opening of Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters at the Humboldt Forum and in Paris for Le Chant Aborigène des Sept Sœurs (The Seven Sisters Story).
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Tapaya Edwards holds a Board position with The Alinytjara Wilurara (AW) Landscape Board, Australia's only all-Aboriginal landscape board dedicated to conserving traditional Aboriginal use and occupation of South Australia's AW region.
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In 2021, was awarded the Stephen Gardlarbadi Goldsmith Memorial Ruby Award in 2021 for his cultural and artistic work in the arts in South Australia.
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.
Daniel Riley
Daniel, a Wiradjuri man from Western NSW, is the current Artistic Director of Australian Dance Theatre (ADT). He is the sixth Artistic Director in the company’s 59-year history, and the first Blak artist lead the organisation. He also currently sits on the Board of Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, is an Honorary Fellow through the Faculty of Fine Arts (Dance) at University of Melbourne and sits on the inaugural First Nations Board at Creative Australia. He has previously sat on the Boards of Chunky Move as a Member and as a Board Associate at A New Approach (ANA), Australias leading cultural think tank.
He began his contemporary dance journey at QL2 (previously Quantum Leap), ACT and since graduating from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 2006 has danced for Leigh Warren & Dancers (2005-2006), New Movement Collective UK (2014), Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre UK (2014), Chunky Move (2019), Australian Dance Theatre (2022-2023) and was a senior artist with Bangarra Dance Theatre (2007-2018).
Other arts organisations he has worked for are: ILBIJERRI Theatre Company as Associate Producer (2019-2020), and Creative Associate (2020-2021), Moogahlin Performing Arts as a mentor (2021) and was a Board Director for Chunky Move (2019-2022). In 2020 he was appointed as a Lecturer in Contemporary Dance at the University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts, where he launched and led Kummarge, a self-determined mentoring program for First Nations dance students.
Daniel’s choreographic credits include Australian Dance Theatre: The Third (2022), SAVAGE (2022), Tracker (2023, in partnership with ILBIJERRI Theatre Company), THE HUM (2023, in collaboration with The Australian Ballet), Marrow (2024), Victorian College of the Arts: WAX (2021), RISE (2020), Louisville Ballet, USA: Tonal (2020), Sacred Shifts (2015), Melbourne International Arts Festival: Tanderrum (2019), Dancenorth: Communal Table (2019), Bangarra Dance Theatre: Dark Emu (2018), Miyagan (2016), BLAK (2013), Riley (2010), Sydney Dance Company: Reign (2015), Third Row Dance Company UK (2014), QL2 Dance: Hit the Floor Together (2013, 2018), QUT: Twelve Ascensions (2013), Thirteen Ascensions (Twelve Ascension Rework) (2018).
His film credits as Director and Choreographer include: mulunma – Inside Within (2021) for RISING: Melbourne & Yirramboi, and ACT V (2021) for The Australian Ballet’s Bodytorque Digital 2021. As performer: Dan Sultan: Under Your Skin, Stephen Page (Bangarra Dance Theatre): Spear in which he worked as Director’s Attachment.
He has been nominated at the Australian Dance Awards (2010, 2013) and for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Deadly Awards (2010, 2012 & 2013). Daniel is highly experienced in conducting masterclasses, facilitating workshops and teaching professional company class for a range of organisations, educational institutions and dance companies across Australia and around the world.
Rhoda Roberts
A Widjabul /Wia:bal woman from the Bundjalung territories, Rhoda is an experienced motivated and versatile arts executive, with a diverse range of international and national industry practice within commercial, community and non-profit organisations, festivals and events. The former Head Of First Nations Programming Sydney Opera House, Rhoda is currently the Curator: Parrtjima Festival, Alice Springs, Festival Director, Boomerang Dreaming Festival, the First Nations Creative Director for the Northern Rivers Performing Arts (NORPA), First Nations Consultant NIDA , The Elder in Residence SBS TV, Creative Director Shine On Gimuy Festival and she is the newly appointed Arts Ambassador and consultant for Voyages Indigenous Tourism.
A practicing weaver an actor/producer and director, she continues to work across the Creative industries and is a sought-after consultant, speaker and performer in theatre, film, television, and radio.
Caleena Sansbury
Caleena Sansbury is a proud Ngarrindjeri, Narungga and Kaurna woman. She is also a proud mother to her four-year-old son. Caleena’s interests as a
performance artist draws from cultural and contemporary dance, theatre,
storytelling and choreographing. She is a graduate from NAISDA Dance College.
Caleena has worked nationally and internationally with companies and
choreographers: Vicki Van Hout in; Long Grass & Les Festivities Lubrufier, Thomas E. S. Kelly; [MIS]CONCEIVE, Karul Projects; SSHIFFT, Insite Arts; Our Corks Bubs & Saltbush, Polyglot Theatre; Tangled and Legs On the Wall; The Man With The Iron Neck. Caleena performed in Taree Sansbury’s work as performer in mi:wi that toured to South Australia with Country Arts SA and Vitalstatistix. Recently performing in the show Guuranda as a dancer and puppeteer on the show that premiered in the Adelaide Festival 2024.
Caleena worked as a producer at Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2018 and
helped produce the event Blak Futures for Adelaide Festival 2024. Currently
she is the program coordinator of the First Nations Dance Program at The Mill.