Creative Team
Discover the amazing talents involved in this cultural adventure
2025 Creatives
Gracieuse Amah-Lead Artist & Director& Producer
With French, Beninese and Togolese heritage Gracieuse Amah is the Founder of Kwabo Events and Kwabo Festival, Creative Director, Producer in participatory and cross art form performances, French Intellectual Property Lawyer, Community dancer and choreographer. Placing community, representation and education at the centre of her artistry, Gracieuse uses arts to promote social justice, cultural dialogue and holistic wellbeing.
Julie Ann Minaai
Originally from Honolulu, Hawaii, Julie Ann Minaai is an international award-winning dancer, choreographer, rehearsal director, teacher and artist of Japanese heritage. She has trained in both the US and UK, and completed her MA in Contemporary Dance from the London Contemporary Dance School. Julie spent 12 years in the UK and was recognised as an Artist of Exceptional Promise by the Arts Council England. She has toured internationally (UK, US, Norway, Israel, China, South Korea, Colombia & Peru) performing and creating works. Her experience spans into dance, theatre, opera, film, tv, musicals and live performances. Since moving to Australia in 2021, she has worked with Meryl Tankard AO, Elena Kats-Chernin AO, Regis Lansac OAM, Form Dance Project, Configuration Company, Bronwyn Kidd, Bella Waru, Jackie Sheppard, REMUSE Designs, Noriko Tadano, Wadaiko Rindo, L2R Dance and MAV (RESONANCE 2023, Art Souk 2024). In 2023, Julie received the City of Melbourne’s Annual Arts Grant and was resident artist at the Bowery Theatre, Brimbank and Immigration Museum. Julie teaches at the University of Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), Chunky Move and Lucy Guerin Inc. Her interdisciplinary practice explores stories of immigration, ancestral memory and cultural identity from a diasporic Japanese lens.
Lucky Lartey
Sydney-based dancer and choreographer at the forefront of exploring intercultural dance practices as part of the contemporary dance space in Australia. Born in Ghana (West Africa), Lucky’s dance and choreographic work draws on a rich history of traditional rhythms and dances whilst engaging with contemporary movement practices and contemporary art forms.
Tariro Mavondo
Tariro is a multifaceted artist known for her somatic poetry and leadership in the arts, advocating for cultural equity and unity. She has facilitated creative workshops and led arts organizations, aiming to foster post-humanist thinking. Tariro's accolades include an ARIA nomination and an APRA AMCOS award. She has performed at numerous poetry festivals and been published in notable anthologies. After a year of global exploration, she returned to co-direct theatrical productions in Australia.
Thabani Tshuma
Thabani Tshuma is a multi-award-winning Zimbabwean writer and performance poet. His work can be found in publications such as Dichotomi magazine, Cordite Poetry Review, CUBBY ART, and ABC ArtWorks’ SLAMMED segment. Thabani is co-curator of Thin Red Lines and his debut collection, 'The Gospel of Unmade Creation', released in 2023 through Recent Work Press.
LionaTatafu
Founder & Choir Director for Halo Vocal Ensemble & Halo Vocal Academy Session Singer Vocal Mentor based in Melbourne. HALO Vocal Ensemble features a diverse line up of artists from different communities across Melbourne to perform collaboratively & simultaneously on one stage. The ensemble put a modern spin on the definition of choir, bringing a new sound to the masses. The transcendent performances of HALO Vocal Ensemble bring together the favourite voices of the city in a collaborative and collective space. With each ethereal harmony, the combined energy, and talent create a memorable experience for audiences.
Nighty Okot
Nighty Okot is a Melbourne based Wedding and Portrait photographer, who works closely with her community to capture meaningful moments, as well as mentoring other photographers. Some projects that Nighty’s worked on include:
• The Next Step 2025 - Youth leadership using Photographic Art (Co-facilitator)
• Black Wealth Connect - Women's Summit 2024
• Equatoria Day 2024
• Ma’di Conference 2024
• Bridging Voices Through Food - Vic Health
• Artist to Artist - South Sudanese Minds
2023 Creatives
GRACIEUSE AMAH- Founder and Creative Director of Kwabo Events
With French, Beninese and Togolese (West Africa) heritage, Gracieuse also know as Grace is the Creative Director, Community leader and Choreographer of Kwabo Events. She founded this social enterprise to promote the benefits of African dance culture and practice for individuals’ holistic wellbeing. Specialised in performance, live and visual arts, Grace is a passionate dancer of African dances (Traditional and Modern) since the age of 8. Known for her infectious enthusiasm and energy, she has performed internationally in Australia and France and started to deliver weekly African dance workshops in 2002. Using arts as a medium, Grace advocates for social inclusion, gender and cultural equity, interculturalism, womens’ and youth empowerment. Her drive to give back to the community and make a positive impact in individuals’ lives nurtures all her programs. Her projects range from national music and dance festivals, international youth empowerment congress, civic volunteering programs, to community dance workshops.
VANESSA CRAMPEL- Founder of Artness & Co
Vanessa is of French Caribbean cultural background, born and raised in France, Paris. Her career started in the fashion industry as a hairstylist.
Early in her career at age 17, Vanessa had a passion for people, beauty and fun. She soon found herself in her element and strived for 19 years in diverse roles such as junior hairstylist, hairstylist educator, to manager to lead hair stylist creative of high ranking franchise . Which led her to be a key worker behind the scene and further sharpen her love for beauty and social connection from street hairstyle to catwalks (fashion shows & runways) to theaters.
During those years Vanessa traveled abroad in Montréal, Canada which led her to gather great communication skills development and capacity to Broaden her love of services to the communities. She also developed valuable skills such as management, networking, planning, coordinating, actively listening, budgeting, and connecting with diverse cultural communities.
Not only she loved beauty and aesthetic but she loved a show and found herself conveyed into modeling experiences herself. Showcasing diverse international and avant garde emerging artists. Her passion kept on going to Sydney Australia, where she yet again empowered herself throughout diverse arrays and connectedness.
Vanessa went through a significant phase of transformation and changed career about 6 years ago to become a social worker. From caterpillar to butterfly! She rised to share she lived experiences with community members most in needs, as she felt naturally compelled to her redirect purpose, community services.
Vanessa worked to strive for education and empowerment, prior the completion her Diploma of Community Services, she started by volunteering within the Aboriginal Peoples community to working in residential care worker to support young vulnerable women, to youth homelessness support services. Which led her to presently be working as a Youth Support Officer facilitating youth participation program that promotes connection for young people 12-25 years of age.
On her spare time Vanessa loves to spend it creating diverse art healing forms, primarily writing on her autobiography, poems and paintings, meditating, journaling, dancing and more. She finds herself embodied and ever evolving for balance, motion and looking forward to expand her arrays of services to the community.
2020 Creatives
GRACIEUSE AMAH – Dancer & Creative Director
For over 10 years, Grace has worked as Event Manager, Curator, Intellectual Property Lawyer and Community Leader Activist in the entertainment industry. Specialised in performance, live and visual arts forms, Grace is herself a passionate dancer of salsa and African dances since the young age of 8. She has performed internationally in Australia and France and started to deliver weekly African dance workshops since 2002.
TARIRO MAVONDO - Performing Artist & Writer
Tariro Mavondo is a multi-disciplinary artist and performer born in Zimbabwe raised in Frankston. As an actor she has worked with Red Stitch, Black Swan Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare, Metanoia Theatre, The Street Theatre Canberra, RL Productions, Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Co, Belvoir and Riverside Theatre. Tariro also works across film and television (Other People’s Problems ABC, Winners and Losers, Shakespeare Republic, Sisters) and won best actress for her role in Arrivals at the NYC Picture Start Film Festival and best performance in Home at the Dungog Film Festival.
Tariro graduated with a Bachelor of Dramatic Arts from Victorian College of the Arts, where she was awarded the Irene Mitchell Award in 2011. Tariro is an awarding winning spoken word artist. Her piece ‘The Dangers of a Single Story’ will be part of an anthology ‘Growing Up African in Australia’ published by Black Inc Books (2019). Tariro received scholarships to attend Expressive Arts Therapy training (Tamalpa Institute, California 2015, 2016), Decoloniality Summer School (University SA, Pretoria South Africa, 2017), and Decolonising Knowledge and Power Summer School (Center of Study and Investigation for Decolonial Dialogues, Barcelona 2019). Tariro is the founder of Africa’s Got Talent Australia and a Co-Founder of Centre of Poetics and Justice. She is currently performing in Bell Shakespeare’s production of Titus Andronicus until September.
ATONG ATEM - Visual Artist & Writer
Atong Atem is an Ethiopian born, South Sudanese artist and writer living in Narrm/ Melbourne.
Atem works primarily with photography and video and drawings to explore migrant narratives, postcolonial practices in the African diaspora and the exploration of identity through portraiture.
Atem explores concepts of home and identity through a critical and sentimental lens and references the works of photographers Malick Sidibe and Seydou Keita and science fiction writers such as Octavia Butler as tools for navigating liminal spaces.
Atem has exhibited her work across Australia, including MUMA Monash, Gertrude Contemporary, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and Internationally at Red Hook Labs in New York, Vogue Fashion Fair in Milan and Unseen Amsterdam art fair.
Atem was the recipient of the inaugural National Gallery of Victoria and MECCA M-Power scholarship in 2018 as well as the Brisbane Powerhouse Melt Portrait Prize in 2017
