Instagram and Screen Australia support First Nations creators in navigating full-time creative careers

Posted on 25 July 2024

The First Nations creators were back for the second day of the Screen Australia and Instagram program at Meta HQ in Sydney on Wednesday.

The creatives soaked up all the training, knowledge and mentoring on offer, and Mediaweek was given exclusive access.

First Nations Creator Alumni Panel

Creators from the First Nations program gathered for a panel session hosted by Dr. Jess Byrne, Screen Australia’s development and investment manager, First Nations.

The panel featured Kaylene Langford, founder and editor of StartUp Creative, content creator Meissa Mason, singer, actor, and performer Naarah, and filmmaker Jahvis Loveday.

The speakers offered insights from their time in the First Nations Creators program, shared their experiences navigating full-time creative careers that led to their individual successes, and provided advice for this year’s participants.

Reflecting on the program’s impact, Naarah, who graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London and recently made her West End debut, said, “I got empowered as a creative when I first went for this.”

Langford, who has led the business incubator StartUp Creative for the past 10 years, said she initially had doubts about joining the program due to her background in business and events.

“I got to a point where I was like, this is a skill I can learn and add to,” she said. “I had the success [but] I needed to update my skills and find ways to promote my book and podcast. For me, it was really about learning how to create content that other people could share and keep my profile relevant.”

“We’ve all grown up singing and dancing and painting,” said Loveday, discussing his inherent relationship with creativity. “There are so many different ways and forms of telling stories, and I think this is just another way of doing it. That’s why it gels with me and why we’re really good at it because we’ve already grown up doing it.

“For me, especially, it’s film because it involves all of that, and the same with Instagram and creating.”

Meissa echoed Loveday’s passion-driven “content not curation” stance, giving the example of her educational Aboriginal Comic Book Heroes series, which she started in 2021 on her social platform to highlight Aboriginal Australian comic book heroes like the character Eden Fesi (aka Manifold).

“I started the Aboriginal Comic Book Heroes series just because I like them,” she said. “I was surprised to find so many Black Fellas in comics. I started learning about Aboriginal comic book heroes when I first saw Manifold, which is actually made by Black fellas, then I started looking into it more.”

The series was eventually picked up by DC, and Meissa went on to work with the IP giant on their movies for a year.

Said Meissa: “Even if you think no one’s looking or no one cares, make content that you like.”

Meet the Cast: First Nations actors hit the stage in Hamilton

Hamilton is returning to Australian stages in 2024, with three Indigenous cast members taking part in Meta’s First Nations Creator Program. Speaking to the participants at Meta’s Sydney headquarters, the actors shared a bit about the characters they’re playing in the hit musical.

Callan Purcell: “Aaron Burr is the guy you love to hate. He’s the one who shoots Hamilton – that’s not a spoiler, he says it in the first song. This guy grapples with whether he’s doing the right thing with his life, and he’s kind of bound down by society and by his family and what he thinks he should have to do, as opposed to what he wants to do in life.

Googoorewon Knox: “George Washington in the show, he was like the rock, one of the most powerful figures in the show. The only one who matches him in that sense is King George, but even King George is made a fool of because he’s such an Englishman. So to get into that role, the main direction I’ve been getting is ‘do less,’ because the less you do the more you speak without speaking.”

Tainga Savage: “John Laurens is lots of fun to play in the first act – he’s someone who is fighting for the revolution, he wants change, he wants things to happen. He wants that to happen for the next black battalion, for the next generation of coloured soldiers and fighters. We’ve been fighting for so long and we’re still fighting, telling stories. It’s a privilege to be able to tell that story, in that character, in my way on the stage.”