We are Blacktown
We are Blacktown
Portraits of Blacktown community leaders and people working for change. You'll hear from a doctor who is sounding the alarm about how dangerous heat can be for human health, a basketball coach whose players have made it to the big league, a Dharug traditional owner whose art and stories are telling the true history of the area's first people, and many more Blacktown legends. Experience stories…Social links:
Leanne Redpath
Leanne Redpath is a Dharug artist, educator and book illustrator. She is also connected to the Burubiranggal, Warmuli and many other family groups across Sydney and NSW. Leanne started painting with her mother as a young child. She is the author of Cooee Mittigar and Sharing, children’s books creat…
06:22
Mayor Chagai
Mayor Chagai is the founder and head coach of Savannah Pride, a basketball club that mentors and connects young people through sport. Savannah Pride is a grassroots youth organisation that draws on the South Sudanese community’s passion for basketball to foster community harmony. At six years old,…
06:19
Kim Loo
Kim Loo is a doctor who has worked in the Blacktown LGA for 35 years. She is committed to highlighting the evidence around social, environmental and commercial determinants of health. She is a tireless advocate for climate justice. Kim is a fourth-generation Australian with a Malaysian Chinese c…
05:19
Hemanta Acharya
Hemanta Acharya has worked as a clinical nurse specialist and mentor to graduate nurses. She is also a talented football player who played for Australia in FIFA's Football for Hope Festival, held during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Hemanta was born in a refugee camp in Nepal after her family…
07:04
Kelly Anderson
Kelly Anderson is a Dhungatti and Gumbaynggirr woman who lives on Dharug land. Participating in the Too Deadly for Diabetes lifestyle program, Kelly overcame type 2 pre-diabetes, high cholesterol and blood pressure, bursitis, chronic pain and mental ill-health. She’s shared her success with her fam…
05:38
Kaz Therese
Kaz Therese is an interdisciplinary artist working across theatre, visual arts and dance, with a practice grounded in performance, activism and community building. They are an award-winning theatre director, programmer and cultural leader. Kaz’s work has often involved the activation of new spa…
07:38
Esky Escandor
Esky Escandor is a multidisciplinary artist and community worker. He is the rapper in Worlds Collide, a seven-piece Western Sydney band with a wild, polyphonic sound. Esky is a renowned comedian whose talent shines in the documentary film In Search of the White Deer, written and directed in collabo…
07:43
Maryam Zahid
Maryam Zahid is an award-wining Afghan-Australian human rights champion, diversity and inclusion practitioner, self-taught artist and social commentator. Maryam Zahid is the founder of Afghan Women on the Move, an organisation that supports the health, mental wellbeing, individual growth and deve…
05:58
Angelica Ojinnaka-Psillakis
Angelica is a global youth affairs leader, advocate, researcher and speaker. She served as the Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations in 2022 and is the current Oceania Youth Advisory Representative to the World Federation of United Nations Associations. Her work as a Convenor of …
06:45
Stephen Gapps
Stephen Gapps is an award-winning public historian whose work investigates the Frontier Wars and seeks their recognition as Australia’s first wars. He is the author of The Sydney Wars 1788-1817 and Gudyarra: The First Wiradyuri War – The Bathurst War, 1822-4. Stephen grew up on Kastelan Street, …
06:34