Meet Our Team
Phillip Saunders- Chief Executive Officer
Phillip Saunders is a Bunganditj, Gunditjmara, Narungga man. Phillip has worked as a Barrister and Solicitor, Consultant, over many years. His focus has been on improving justice and wellbeing outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as a former lawyer and on various consultancy projects.
Lee-Ann Tjunypa Buckskin- Chief Executive Officer/ Artistic Director
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.
Julia Tymukas- General Manager
Julia has over thirty year’s extensive arts leadership and management experience working in the cultural sector in the United Kingdom and Australia. This has included establishing and developing the Basingstoke Festival, a three-week ongoing annual arts festival and leading and managing Emergency Exit Arts, a leading UK outdoor and participatory arts organisation.
Prior to that Julia has led South Australian arts organisations such as Community Arts Network Port Community Arts Centre, Port Youth Theatre Workshop, Red Shed Theatre Company, and Junction Theatre Company. She is passionate about the role and value of the arts in building identity and bringing communities together to celebrate, learn, share and take pride in their achievements.
Emma Zakarevicius- Executive Officer
Emma Zakarevicius is an accomplished multi-disciplinary artist and arts administrator who recently returned from living in New York City where she completed a Master of Arts at the New School and a Master of Fine Arts at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. After completing her studies Emma was the Studio Manager for award winning New York design firm Emerson, Wajdowicz Studios renowned for its multi-platform design projects with a focus on social justice, human rights, photojournalism and art.
Prior to moving to New York, Emma worked in the Adelaide arts sector in numerous roles for organisations including the Come Out Festival (now Dream Big), Carclew Youth Arts in association with the Adelaide Festival of Arts (The Graffiti Research Lab) and the ASSIEJ World Congress and Performing Arts Festival for Young People. Emma is passionate about the importance of art as a vehicle for self-expression and believes that art education, particularly for children and young people, is essential to building vibrant, diverse communities.