Brink Productions’ First Nations Fellowship supports First Nations theatre makers to take the time they need to imagine, develop, lead, and create new performance work in collaboration with Create SA. 

Built on the development of relationships and cultural care, the Fellowship creates space for artists to explore theatrical ideas, work in community, lead projects, and build trust in ways that honour their stories, creative processes, and individual needs.

Rather than focusing on quick outcomes, the Fellowship values listening, creative time, and sustained support and mentorship. Fellows receive tailored dramaturgy, bespoke opportunities to connect with industry partners, and pathways toward future development, presentation, or commissioning—guided by each artist’s long-term ambitions.

Our inaugural fellows, Sonya Rankine and Jannali Jones, have spent the past two years developing new performance works in close collaboration with Artistic Director Stephen Nicolazzo. 

These works have moved through multiple phases of development; from seeding to drafting to creative development and readings with performers and creative teams.

During this time, Sonia Rankine has created Lakun Mi:Mini, a musical song cycle that weaves together her personal story with songs of protest, poetry, rhythm and blues, jazz, and the live creation of a traditional weave on stage. She has, through the fellowship been able to collaborate with song writers and musicians to compose all of the original songs through a series of regional and metro based workshops. The artists Sonya has been collaborating with include First Nations artists Nancy Bates, Allara-Briggs Paterson and Phil Noel. 

Jannali Jones is writing a full-length play, 67, set in Adelaide during the 1967 Referendum. The work is an intimate gay love story and noir-inspired thriller for three performers, exploring the charged relationship between a Black man advocating for the ‘Yes’ vote and another who remains uncertain about whether white Australia can truly support his community. As desire, politics, and mystery intertwine—alongside a search for a missing sister—the play unfolds as a tense, erotic, and emotionally gripping theatrical journey. Jannali has had the opportunity to hear drafts of the play read by an incredible group of First Nations actors, including Zach Blampied (Stan’s Invisible Boys), Lila Maguire (ABC’s Goolagong) and Corey Saylor-Brunskill (Malthouse Theatre’s Whose Gonna Love em?).

Through the First Nations Fellowship, Brink aims to:

• Support the creation of new First Nations performance work
• Strengthen professional pathways for First Nations theatre artists
• Build meaningful relationships between artists, communities, and presenters
• Embed cultural responsibility and accountability within Brink’s artistic program

At its heart, the Fellowship is about time, trust, respect, creative freedom, and meaningful creative relationships—an investment in First Nations artists and the stories that will help shape the future of Australian theatre.