Tracker – Daniel Riley Creative Development Biographies

Daniel Riley (Wiradjuri) – Concept/Choreographer/Co-Director: Daniel is a choreographer, dancer, teacher, creative and producer from the Wiradjuri nation of Western NSW, who has had an extensive, and critically acclaimed career as a dancer (Leigh Warren & Dancers, Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, New Movement Collective, Bangarra Dance Theatre and Chunky Move), and choreographer (QL2 Dance, Queensland University of Technology, Third Row Dance Company, Louisville Ballet USA, Sydney Dance Company, Bangarra Dance Theatre and Dancenorth). Daniel is independently creating his own work, whilst being involved in an Executive Leadership Program through ILBIJERRI Theatre Company, where he is learning executive and leadership skills to lead an arts organisation in the future. Daniel teaches Contemporary dance technique and leads a First Nations Mentoring program at the Victorian College of the Arts and sits on the Board of Chunky Move.

Rachael Maza AM (Meriam Mer/Yidinji) – Co-Director: Rachael is one of Australia’ s most recognisable faces of the Australian flm, television and theatre industry with performance credits including the AFI award-winning Radiance and the stage production of The Sapphires. Her performances have been acknowledged with a Green Room Award and a Sydney Theatre Critics Circle Award. She has also worked as a presenter for ABC Message Stick and as an acting coach on flms such as the multi-award-winning Rabbit Proof Fence. Rachael directed Stolen (1992) for ILBIJERRI Theatre Company, before becoming Artistic Director in 2009. Since then directing Sisters of Gelam (2009), V The Crown (2010), Foley (2011), Beautiful One Day (2012), Which Way Home (2016) and Black Ties (2020). Rachael currently sits on the board of the Australia Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Circus Oz Indigenous Advisory Panel, Australian Opera Indigenous Advisory Panel and the Green Room Awards Theatre Company Panel.

Ursula Yovich (An-Burra) – Writer: Ursula is a singer, song-writer, actor, playwright and story teller from Darwin and Maningrida. As an actor Ursula has worked for all of Australia’s leading theatre companies, and has been recognised with numerous awards and nominations, most recently winning two Helpmann Awards and receiving a Green Room Award nomination for Barbara and The Camp Dogs. She featured in the frst Aboriginal opera, Pecan Summer, wrote and starred in her own one-woman cabaret, Magpie Blues, and recently co-wrote and starred in Barbara and The Camp Dogs and The Man with the Iron Neck. She has toured Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada with the musicians of Black Arm Band in Dirtsong, and also performed with Barefoot Divas. Notable feature flm credits include Top End Wedding, Australia, Goldstone and Jindabyne. Ursula is also a familiar face to television audiences in Australia, with roles in: Wakefeld, Wanted, The Code, The Gods of Wheat Street and .

Jonathan Jones (Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi) – Designer: Jonathan works across a range of mediums, from printmaking and drawing to sculpture and flm. He creates sit-specifc installations and interventions into space that use light, subtle shadow and the repetition of shape and form to explore Aboriginal practices, relationships and ideas. At the heart of his practise is the act of collaborating and many projects have seen him work with artists and communities. For several years Jones has worked with his Wiradjuri language through the support of and collaboration with Uncle Stan Grant Senior, on projects including the Wagga Wagga weaving welcome, 2013, with Wagga Wagga weavers, installed at Wagga Wagga Regional Airport; guguma guriin (black stump), 2015, at Performance Space, Sydney; guwiinyguliya yirgabiyi ngay yuwin.gu gulbalangidyal ngunhi (they made a solitude and called it peace), 2015, at the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery; barrangal dyara (skin and bones), 2016, Kaldor Public Art Projects; and Defying empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial, 2017, National Gallery of Australia.

James Henry (Yuwaalaraay, Yorta Yorta) – Composer: James has worked as singer/songwriter, engineer and musical director. His diverse skill set has seen him perform as a guitarist on the Black Arm Band tour of the UK, and as a choir member and guitarist as part of Archie Roach’s Into the Bloodstream tour. His composition skills have attracted commissions from City of Melbourne to compose for experimental medias. James was musical director of Tanderrum for the 2014 Melbourne Festival, and AFL’s Dreamtime at the ‘G. He has also worked with ILBIJERRI as sound designer for the 2017 touring production of Coranderrk, and most recently as AV designer for Black Ties. Jennifer Medway – Dramaturg: Jennifer has been the Literary Associate of Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) since 2017 and a practising dramaturg for the past ten years. She has held positions such as: Resident Dramaturg at ATYP, Studio Artist at Grifn Theatre, Co-Artistic Director of the Crack Theatre Festival, Associate Artist-Dramaturgy at Belvoir and Literary Assistant also at Belvoir. Jennifer also works as a freelance dramaturg for independent and mainstage theatre companies and script assessor working on major playwriting prizes across the country.

Waangenga Blanco (Pajinka wik & Meriam Mer) – Performer: Waangenga is a dancer, choreographer and actor, who after graduating from NAISDA joined Bangarra Dance Theatre for thirteen years. With diverse moonlighting in TVC, virtual reality flm, feature flm, music videos and dance flm, Waangenga has toured globally and nationally for over a decade. His unwavering passion for his craft led him to choreograph I.B.I.S for Bangarra's 2015 National Tour. His awards include: Australian Dance Award for 'Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer' 2015, Green Room Award for Outstanding Male Dancer 2014, and a Helpmann Award for Best Male Dancer 2019.

Dalara Williams (Wiradjuri/Gumbaynggirr) – Performer: Dalara graduated from NIDA in 2017 and made her feature flm debut in ’s Top End Wedding, and will next be seen in Victoria Wharfe McIntyre’s THE FLOOD. Her television credits include Get Krack!n and the third and fourth series of Black Comedy for the ABC. Dalara’s short flm credits include Last Drin’s at Frida’s which premiered at the 2017 Sydney Film Festival and ORIGINS. Her stage credits include Black Ties for ILBIJERRI Theatre Company, Rainbow’s End for Darlinghurst Theatre Company, Winyaboga Yurringa for Belvoir, Blackie Blackie Brown for Sydney Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre.

Dion Williams (Wiradjuri/Wokaman) – Performer: Dion played the lead role of Ruben in Jada Alberts’ Brothers Wreck at the Malthouse and Adelaide’s State Theatre and has previously starred in Black Diggers / The Longest Memory for Complete Works Theatre Company. He played Marlon in Chris Lilley’s Angry Boys, and in 2017 he was a runner up in Melbourne Comedy Festival’s stand up competition Deadly Funny. He held a recurring role in the primetime drama The Time of Our Lives and was a lead guest in Redfern Now, both for the ABC. He also played a lead role in the Nine Network’s mini-series Gallipoli, and most recently in ILBIJERRI and Te Rehia’s Black Ties.

Gary Watling (Wiradjuri) – Performer/Musician: Gary is a musician, composer, educator and a proud Wiradjuri man. After completing a Bachelor in Contemporary Music at Southern Cross University in 2010, Gary moved to Melbourne to pursue further study and completed his Bachelor in Music Performance (Degree with Honours) from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2011 and a Master of Music (Performance Teaching) from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music in 2013. Gary is also a dedicated educator and has completed a Master in Secondary Teaching.

Tamara Bouman (First Nations) – Performer: Tamara graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) from the VCA in 2019. Tamara has worked with choreographer's Sarah-Jayne Howard, Stephanie Lake, Rheannon Port, Sue Healey, Larissa McGowan and Alistair MacIndoe. She has performed for the Stephanie Lake Company’s work Colossus (2018 & 2019), Sarah Aiken and Rebecca Jensens work What Am I Supposed To Do? (WAISTD). Tamara is using dance as her way of connecting with her cultural identity.