The Colour Cycle Podcast by Diversity Arts Australia

Breaking Ground: Women in the Arts and Creativity is a special podcast series by Diversity Arts Australia (DARTS), recorded on Burramattagal land of the Darug Nation to mark International Women’s Day 2025. Catch this final part of the day, where you’ll hear some concluding remarks and a range of voices on what people took away from the Breaking Ground gathering for International Women's Day. M...

Breaking Ground: Women in the Arts and Creativity is a special podcast series by Diversity Arts Australia (DARTS), recorded on Burramattagal land of the Darug Nation to mark International Women’s Day 2025. How do we take care of ourselves? Why do so many of us struggle to ask for help, and what might we mean by the idea of resilience? Is it the same as resistance and speaking to power?  For more o...

Breaking Ground: Women in the Arts and Creativity is a special podcast series by Diversity Arts Australia (DARTS), recorded on Burramattagal land of the Darug Nation to mark International Women’s Day 2025. From tackling censorship today to truth-telling, join the panel’s iconic aunties as they take you through strategies to navigate your creative yearning and career—all with a lot of good humour a...

Breaking Ground: Women in the Arts and Creativity is a special podcast series by Diversity Arts Australia (DARTS), recorded on Burramattagal land of the Darug Nation to mark International Women’s Day 2025. This episode looks at the challenges of using the arts to create change -- whether under repressive or democratic regimes.  And how can First Nations artists and artists of colour survive the de...

Breaking Ground: Women in the Arts and Creativity is a special podcast series by Diversity Arts Australia (DARTS), recorded on Burramattagal land of the Darug Nation to mark International Women’s Day 2025. Settle in for compelling conversations about whether we can separate the professional from the personal, why we don’t ask for help, what to do about gatekeepers, and why joy can be an antidote t...

What makes for a good leader?  In this episode we are first joined by creative strategist and Co-CEO of Narrative Muse,  Nigel Lopez-Mcbean. Originally from England and now based in Australia, Nigel pulls upon his years of industry knowledge to give us a masterclass on the importance of diverse leadership.  Later on in the show, we hear from Hilary Carty. As the executive director at Clore Leaders...

This discussion was conducted as part of the “This Is Who We Are” Project. In this episode we are joined by women from across Australia, the US and the U.K connected through their shared passion for Hip-Hop. Hip-Hop has long been a bastion of anti-establishment rhetoric, providing a platform for the voiceless to be heard. The industry veterans you’ll hear talk about the importance of hip-hop in fo...

In this Interview Dr Görkem Acaroğlu is joined by industry veteran and CEO of the Creative Diversity Network in the UK; Deborah Williams OAM. Together they reflect on Deborah's career spanning over thirty years in the arts and how she was able to forge her own path. They examine the importance of diversity in leadership roles and why audiences should see things they don't like. Guests: Deborah Wil...

In this episode we dive into the concept of radical care. Like many of topics we discuss here on the Colour Cycle, care is often unequally distributed across society with traditionally marginalised communities often receiving the least. As people within the arts we ask what can do to help facilitate an environment that feels safe and welcoming to all artists.  To answer these questions, our very o...

We continue here where we left off last time with writer, curator and co-director of Pari Tian Zhang alongside artistic director of the Red Ladder Theater company, Cheryl Martin.  During the pandemic there was a breakdown in the formal structures of care which gave way to unprecedented rates of racism and abuse. Cheryl and Tian reflect on the pandemic's lingering impacts, how it made clear the gap...

The Pacesetters conversations is a project of Diversity Arts Australia documenting and recording trailblazing artists’ work from culturally diverse backgrounds Mayu Kanamori has about 30 years of practice under her belt, establishing herself as a multi-disciplinary artist and heritage interpreter working on site-specific projects across the country. In this interview, she explores her early days a...

The Pacesetters conversations are a project of Diversity Arts Australia documenting and recording trailblazing artists’ work from culturally diverse backgrounds. The interview with Tony Ayers examines how his childhood, cultural identity and family tragedy have shaped his signature approach to storytelling today. Now entering his sixth decade of life, Tony reflects on how he went from orphan to or...

The Pacesetters conversations is a project of Diversity Arts Australia documenting and recording trailblazing artists’ work from culturally diverse backgrounds. When Abdul Abdullah approached Khaled Sabsabi for an interview, Abdul mentioned that there was already a lot of writing by smarter people than himself about Khaled's practice. Abdul wanted to unpack the ideas that Khaled explores in hi...

The Pacesetters conversations is a project of Diversity Arts Australia documenting and recording trailblazing artists’ work from culturally diverse backgrounds. The interview with MC Trey is an overview of her life—from an idyllic childhood in Fiji, rougher teenage years in Western Sydney, becoming a pioneering and successful female rapper in Australia, and her present role as an integral communit...

The Pacesetters conversations is a project of Diversity Arts Australia documenting and recording trailblazing artists’ work from culturally diverse backgrounds. The interview with Kamahl looks at the challenges and triumphs he’s experienced from the racist treatment he received on  Hey Hey It’s Saturday  to reaching the pinnacle of his career at the Invictus Games. It chronicles some of his many a...

How does it feel to be surrounded, supported, and inspired by community? We hear from Sarah Ayoub, a freelance journalist and author of young adult novels including The Yearbook Committee and The Cult of Romance, as well as StoryCaster graduates Annie Brockenhuus-Schack, Sarah Mendoza, and Hannah Lai, a group of passionate creatives exploring the significance of community and collaborative art. Th...

On this episode of DARTS’ StoryCasters-led Colour Cycle podcast, we partner up with Newcastle, NSW-based arts organisation, Octapod, to talk to five regional artists about working in the arts outside metropolitan areas. Western Sydney StoryCaster producer Vir Kaula hosts an important discussion about the strength of the local community and what it’s like being an artist in the Greater Newcastle re...

COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the arts sector, and the music industry in particular. Broadcaster and writer Tanya Ali speaks to three incredibly talented musicians about their work and how the pandemic challenged them to transform their creative processes. Singer and songwriter GLO discusses the creation of her track “Transmute” during one of her state’s many lockdowns and the significa...

Can joy and insights flow from writing, literature, screenwriting and other forms of the craft? Our StoryCasters chat with an eclectic group of storytellers and share stories of their own. StoryCaster producer Sharon Masige shares a reflective piece on her childhood love of books and the importance of finding representation, while Natesha Somasundaram, a playwright, screenwriter and actor, speaks...

Live from the Fearless Curious event, award-winning journalist and media personality, Marc Fennell speaks with StoryCasters podcaster Sharon Masige  about how industry pipelines can be transformed for greater equity. In an equally engaging conversation, Newcastle Art Gallery’s Zana Kobayashi sits down with Storycasters podcaster Vir Kaula to share her experience working in the region’s creati...

Hear from dynamic women unpacking what it means to live a cross-cultural existence in Australia. Live from Boundless Festival, StoryCasters podcaster Connie Khoo chats with acclaimed author Alice Pung about how she experiences intercultural relationships, her outstanding writing journey and more. Broadcaster and writer Tanya Ali also sits down with Yorta Yorta musician ALLARA about pride in her id...

On this compelling new season of DARTS’ Colour Cycle podcast, led by emerging young digital producers from the Storycasters project, our first episode features gripping stories on the ways overseas-born artists have adjusted to Australia’s arts and culture landscape. Storycasters graduate Vir Kaula chats with talent from Newcastle-based arts company Octapod, including writer and comedian Elena Ter...

First aired: 16 March 2022 This episode we’re unpacking intersectionality. What is it? Why is it important, and what does it mean to live an intersectional life? In London, freelancer, editor and novelist Sharmilla Beezmohun (Co-founder of independent literature organisation Speaking Volumes) unpacks the question with Sydney filmmaker Pearl Tan, a lecturer in directing at the Australian Film, Tele...

First aired: 16 March 2022 In this episode, we’re peering a little into our personal lives today with some quick vox pops from artists and creatives. Our question: What is something we learnt about later in life, that we wish somebody in our lives had told us about? It could have come from our mothers, fathers, extended family, or people we came across growing up. UK performance artist Aleasha Cha...

First aired: 16 March 2022 In this episode we’re speaking to three award-winning women of the Hip Hop world across three continents. These pioneers discuss working across regions, why community is integral to Hip Hop, and what resilience means to them. In Australia is MC Trey, a pacesetter in the world of hip hop whose legacy spans 20 years of music about everyday life, love and her Pacific c...