Artist
Abdul-Rahman is a Perth-based contemporary artist working primarily in sculpture and installation. Using his experience as a Muslim Australian of mixed cultural heritage as a starting point, he explores social, political and spiritual aspects of cultural identity. As a storyteller, Abdul-Rahman combines the emotive power of animal archetypes with immersive installation and traditional craftsmanship to tell old tales in new ways.
Since graduating from Curtin University in 2012, he has exhibited at major art institutes around Australia and undertaken residencies, research and projects in China, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Indonesia and New Zealand. He was recognised alongside his brother Abdul Abdullah with the inaugural Western Australia Multicultural Recognition Award for the Visual Arts in 2016.
Abdullah lives with his wife Anna Louise Richardson on a cattle property in Perth’s southern suburbs. They share a large studio surrounded by nature, family and art.
Alan Harvey
Musician + Neuroscientist
Alan’s main experimental neuroscience interests are in trauma, transplantation, gene therapy and regeneration, his research primarily focused on understanding the growth of circuits in the visual system and spinal cord, and how best to protect and repair these circuits after injury.
He is passionate about music, and over the past half-century he has performed in choirs, as a solo artist and in various folk and rock bands. In 2017, his book "Music, Evolution, and the Harmony of Souls" was published by Oxford University Press, bringing together his musical and neuroscientific interests, exploring music throughout human evolution and emphasising its importance for human welfare.
Alicia Curtis
Philanthropy enabler
Anas Ghadouani
Anas is passionate about all aspects of water engineering and management. With more than 20 years of experience, which took has taken him all over the world while researching water in a wide and diverse range of environments, Anas has developed a unique, integrated and solution-focused approach for the study of water issues.
He has won multiple awards and is an active contributor to public discourse about water related issues, via mainstream and social media. Anas provides expert advice to numerous organisations in Australia and around the world and also serves on the editorial boards of the journals Hydrology and Earth System Sciences and Frontiers.
Anas is currently a Professor and Programme Chair of Environmental Engineering at The University of Western Australia.
Charlie Bass
Entrepreneurship Facilitator
Charlie is Founder and Chairman of the charitable organisation CERI, the Centre for Entrepreneurial Research & Innovation. CERI works with post-graduates and researchers across all WA universities and research institutes to instil an entrepreneurial mindset and provide the mentoring and knowledge that will foster a start-up culture in high-knowledge and high-value industries in WA.
Emma Gibbens
Emma works as the Community Engagement
and Activation Specialist at CGM
Communications, a West Australian-owned
strategic communications consulting firm.
Emma has nine years’ experience in political
campaigning across the United States and
around the world.
Emma helps individuals and organisations
connect, engage, and activate any audience.
Working one-on-one or in large groups, she
brings stories and people-centred messages
to the fore. In this role she served as Field
Director for WA Labor for the 2016 Federal
Election and the 2017 State Election. Most
recently she was the WA State Coordinator
for Australians for Marriage Equality Postal
Survey Campaign 2017.
Esther Onek
Esther was born in South Sudan, part of the Acholi tribe. Due South Sudan’s instability her family fled to a Kenyan refugee camp for seven years.
Arriving in Australia aged 10, and knowing no English, Esther ultimately obtained a Bachelor of Social Work. Esther now works with The Women’s Health and Family Services as a Multicultural Women’s Domestic Violence Advocate.
Esther enjoys playing soccer and plays for the Jaguar’s Women’s Football Team.
Architect
Fred is an urban designer from Perth, Western Australia, and an advocate for progressive thinking about the future of our cities. Fred applies his passion for well-functioning cities to a variety of projects including the Western Australian Planning Commission, Artsource, the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (which he chairs) and his own architectural practice.
Sleep researcher
Ian combines scientific research and operational leadership to work with industry and elite sports to manage fatigue and maximise productivity and performance. He has worked on projects all over the world including Mozambique, South Africa, Canada, USA, Australia and Mongolia. He also works with elite athletes in the Australian Institute of Sport, Western Force, Greater Western Sydney Giants and Perth Lynx.
Jesse Oliver
Poet
Jesse is a spoken word artist and proof of the power of poetry for positive change.
Jesse found that poetry opened discussions about his experiences of homelessness, gender transition and mental illness. Overcoming a personal struggle with social anxiety, Jesse moved from stuttering and shaking his way through his first performances to establishing himself on the national stage. In the poetry community Jesse encountered many marginalised voices. Inspired by these voices and compelled by the uncertainty and fear of the times, Jesse turned his attention outward with a new poetic message and called for a revolution of love.
Jesse has featured on platforms such as the National Young Writers’ Festival, the Emerging Writers’ Festival, and the Digital Writers’ Festival. In 2017 won the Australian National Poetry Slam Championships.
Josh Byrne
Environmental Scientist and Television Presenter
Activator
Kelli is an artist and co-founder of tactical media art group pvi collective, based in Perth, Western Australia. Formed in 1998, pvi create playfully subversive and participatory artworks that creatively disrupt everyday life in public spaces.
Musician
Lucy Peach is a stadium-folk-pop singer song-writer and sexual health educator. Using science, stories and songs, this ‘Period Preacher' believes it’s time we had a new ‘Talk’.
Noelle Martin
Law Reform Activist
Noelle Martin went from victim to survivor to law reform activist for the criminalisation of image-based sexual abuse. She fights to dismantle the shame and taboo around women’s sexuality and the hyper-sexualisation of women’s bodies. She has fought for the criminalisation of image-based abuse in New South Wales and continues to lobby the Commonwealth Government to enact specific criminal laws to combat image-based abuse.
Noelle is completing her Bachelor’s degree in Law/Arts, majoring in philosophy at Macquarie University, Sydney. Born and raised in Perth she was the 2010 Western Australia’s Women’s Chess Champion, and has worked as a chess teacher during her university studies.
Futurist
Ray researches adoption rates of technology, disruptive technology including automation, robotics, and additive manufacturing and the impact of social media on markets. He is changing the narrative around climate change and technology, and is recognised by SustMeme and Onalytica as one of the top 100 Global Influencers in Social Media on Climate Change and Energy.
As Adjunct Professor at The University of Western Australia, Ray provides advice to UWA on sustainability and comments on behalf of UWA on climate change and sustainability. He is also Managing Director of the advisory firm Future Smart Strategies, Board Member of Western Australia’s remote energy services provider Horizon Power, Partner and Director of the cleantech business Sun Brilliance Power, Blue Leader of the Singapore-based Blue by Design and Director of the bioenergy startup BioTek Fuels Pty Ltd.
Scott Ludlam
Former Australian Senator
Scott is a former Australian Greens Senator representing Western Australia from 2008 to 2017. He was the Greens national spokesperson for cities, communications, nuclear issues, foreign affairs and defence.
Prior to his time in Parliament he was an artist, graphic designer, anti-nuclear campaigner and political adviser.
Sheila Humphries
Artist