Tai Snaith is an artist, author and broadcaster living and working on unceded Wurundjeri land.

Her multi-disciplinary work celebrates the intersection of stories, collections, people and place. She is interested in how objects like books, vessels and other utilitarian items can be powerful tools to illustrate the times we live in as well as the past. How, like literature, objects can convey a deep emotional point of view and energy. Tai also has a longstanding love of animals and interest in biodiversity. She has 6 published books with Thames and Hudson, which all use animals as a way for children to connect with ideas of place, self, mindfulness and environmental action.

Tai has artwork held in both private and public collections including Artbank, City of Banyule, NGA and State Library of Victoria as well as recently commissioned series for Andaz Prague and a current public sculpture commission for the Great Victorian Rail Trail. Tai has an ongoing podcast of conversations called ‘A World of One’s Own’ originally commissioned by ACCA, which is now in its third season. Tai also has 6 books published with Thames and Hudson Australia with her most recent book ‘Wonders Under the Sun’ was released in September 2022.

Amani Haydar is an artist, lawyer, mum and advocate for women's health and safety based in Western Sydney. Amani's writing and illustrations have been published in ABC News Online and SBS Life and her self-portrait Insert Headline Here was a finalist in the 2018 Archibald Prize.

Amani uses visual art and writing to explore the personal and political dimensions of abuse, loss, identity and resilience.

Kirli Saunders (OAM) is a proud Gunai Woman and award-winning author, multidisciplinary artist and consultant. An experienced speaker and facilitator advocating for the environment and equality, Kirli was the NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year (2020). In 2022, she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her contribution to the arts, particularly literature.

Kirli has partnered with global organisations including Google, Fender, Sydney Opera House, Qantas and Spotify, Mecca and Aesop to celebrate stories and cultivate change. Her celebrated books among others include Bindi, Kindred, Our Dreaming and forthcoming Returning (2023, Magabala).

Her play, Going Home, directed by Shari Sebbens will take the stage in 2024, with a second development in 2023. She is also writing her anticipated novel, Yaraman assisted by AUSCO.

"I am endlessly fascinated by…art and creativity. From the big (&) dazzling… through to…small & private… both are essential for our collective wellbeing"

For 20 years, Eliza’s public ventures have explored the combined benefits of creativity, art and psychology on individual, community and organisational wellbeing. 

Roles include; Inaugural Artistic Director of Art Month Sydney, Arts & Psychology Lecturer at UNSWADA and AFTRS, Author of Lazing on a Sunday Crafternoon (published internationally by A&U) and now Director of Third Place Studio (a rural community art and wellbeing initiative). 

For over 30 years, Eliza has also engaged in private, personal ‘art as therapy’ practice - inspired by an introduction to the benefits during lengthy childhood hospitalisation.

"We [artists] retell, we speculate, we investigate, we chronicle, we create, we instigate, we fabricate, we activate, we procrastinate, and we decorate"

Wellington-based artist Telly Tuita was born in Tonga in 1980 and immigrated to Sydney at age nine. Living in Australia for most of his life, Tuita’s disconnect from his Tongan heritage has long informed his practice. 

Exploring his cultural identity in a global and technological world and complex relationship with his ancestral home, this has led him to form a distinct visual language of hybrid aesthetics, 'Tongpop', born from the artist’s love of bright bold hues, alongside traditional Tongan ngatu patterns and religious iconography.

Scouring second-hand shops and dollar stores, Tuita creates assemblages of thrifted homewares and holiday trinkets with a playful pop colour palette. The works serve as a reminder of unique cultural practices and deities that have been lost over time, here they are reinvented through Tuita’s lens. Tuita creates a new narrative for the found objects, recasting them as relics of the modern age.

Telly Tuita completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at Western Sydney University (1999-2003) before undertaking a Bachelor of Art Education at the University of New South Wales (2004). In 2011, Tuita completed a Master’s in Special Education through the University of Sydney.