OUR PEOPLE

Chair

Briggs is a Yorta Yorta man and Australian rapper, lyricist, hip hop artist, writer, presenter, author and actor.

Briggs became well known as a solo rapper before co-founding the hip hop duo A.B. Original in 2016. In the live arena, he has supported international artists such as 50 Cent, Ice Cube, Ice-T and KRS-One and worked with The Hilltop Hoods, Midnight Oil, Paul Kelly and Henry Rollins. A.B. Original were recently crowned APRA’s 2018 Songwriters of the Year and in 2017 won the ARIAs for Best Independent Release and Best Urban Album and Triple J’s J Award for Album of the Year for their album Reclaim Australia.

Extending his career beyond music, Briggs has written on the Netflix animated series Disenchantment from the creators of The Simpsons and Futurama, wrote and performed in all three seasons of the sketch comedy series Black Comedy, played the role of Maliyan in the drama series Cleverman, was a regular on the Stan original series The Other Guy, appeared as a guest on Get Krack!n and is a regular on The Weekly with Charlie Pickering as well as The Yearly with Charlie Pickering.

In 2017, Briggs was named the GQ Agenda Setter of the Year.
Briggs released his first children’s book, Our Home, Our Heartbeat in 2020.

Deputy Chair

Mark Thomson is a Yorta Yorta and Wurundjeri man with Irish and Scottish heritage. Mark is a multi-functional Indigenous executive with management experience across corporate, government and Indigenous community sectors.

Having extensive experience in Reconciliation Action Plan development and mentoring and youth development Mark also spent ten years as Chairman of the Board for Worawa Aboriginal College, Worawa caters for Aboriginal girls in years 7-12 and provides a curriculum, student management and learning environment that offers a real alternative to mainstream educational institutions.

Specialised attention and PersonalisedLearning Plans address the individual needs of Worawa students and ensure each student has the opportunity to progress academically, socially, emotionally, culturally and spiritually. In his time at Worawa Mark provided strong leadership, governance protocols and cultural guidance to the college Executive and fellow Directors.

Director

Inala is a Yawuru woman (Rubibi/Broome, WA); She grew up in South West Victoria on Gunditjmara land and has lived on the land of the Kulin Nations in Narrm/Melbourne for over 25 years. Inala has a Bachelor of Arts (Drama/Dance) and a Masters in Human Rights Law and is committed to social justice. She’s currently employed at the University of Melbourne as the Director of Murrup Barak, the Melbourne Institute for Indigenous Development.

Inala is highly skilled in public speaking, artist support, workplace planning, policy, strategy and engagement, and brings a rights-based approach to her work. With a background in the Arts, Inala understands the aspirations and needs of artists and arts workers, gained in part through performing on stage, film and television, and working on a range of festivals including Melbourne Fringe, Yaluk-ut Weelam Ngargee, and the Port Fairy Folk Festival.

She spent three years in the Victorian public sector, and has been in the higher education sector for over ten years. Highlights include being a finalist in the IPAA Indigenous Young Leaders awards (2009), and two Monash Vice-Chancellor’s Social Inclusion awards (2015/2016). Inala is the president-elect (2022) of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Consortium (NATSIHEC) and a regular contributor at the ABC (News Breakfast, The Drum). In addition to Adam Briggs, Inala is a Director on a range of other not-for-profit boards including Jesuit Social Services, Culture is Life, and Munarra Ltd.

Director

Kimberley Moulton is a Yorta Yorta woman originally from Shepparton, she is a curator, writer and currently Senior Curator South-Eastern Aboriginal Collections at Museums Victoria and an Artistic Associate for RISING Festival Melbourne. Kimberley has held curatorial and community arts development roles at Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Melbourne Museum for over ten years. Her international exhibitions include where the water moves where it rests at Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum USA (2015), lead curator for Mandela: My Life, an exhibition on Nelson Mandela at Melbourne Museum in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation Johannesburg (2018) and co-curator for Naadohbii: To Draw Water, the inaugural Tri-Nations Indigenous Triennial for the Winnipeg Art Gallery Canada (2021).

Independently Kimberley has written extensively for publications worldwide and held curatorial and writing research fellowships across Europe, UK, U.S.A, South Asia and North America. Kimberley has curated exhibitions across Australia including Next Matriarch at ACE Open Adelaide for TARNANTHI Festival (2017) and Mother Tongue at Gertrude Contemporary (2018).

In 2019 Kimberley received the Power Institute National Indigenous Art Writing Award and in 2020 was the co-editor for Artlink Indigenous 40.2. She is Alumni of the Wesfarmers Indigenous Leadership Program National Gallery of Australia and along with her role on the Adam Briggs board she is Deputy Chair of the board at Shepparton Art Museum and member of the board for the International Art Critics Association- Australia. Kimberley is currently a PhD Candidate at Monash University Melbourne.

Director

Reko Rennie is a interdisciplinary artist who explores his Aboriginal identity through contemporary media. Through his art, Rennie provokes discussion surrounding Indigenous culture and identity in contemporary urban environments. Largely autobiographical, his commanding works combine the iconography of his Kamilaroi heritage with stylistic elements of graffiti.

Merging traditional diamond-shaped designs, hand-drawn symbols and repetitive patterning to subvert romantic ideologies of Aboriginal identity. Reko has exhibited extensively over the last two decades and his work is collected in major art institutions nationally and internationally. His most recent exhibition of work includes Station Gallery Sydney, Over The Influence Gallery, Miami, USA, National Gallery Australia,  National Gallery of Victoria, Art Basel Hong Kong and 57th Venice Biennale, Venice Italy.

Reko is a leading voice in contemporary First Nations art in Australia and globally and along with his arts practice he is passionate in mentoring next generation of artists in the sector.

Director

Steven Rothfield is committed to social justice for the First Nations peoples. Since his retirement from a long career in general management, management consultancy, IT and finance, he has worked as a volunteer with Indigenous leaders on over 30 projects covering a range of community development areas including economic development, employment, education, governance, arts, sports and cultural development.

He is currently on the Boards of the Kaiela Institute, Dungala Kaiela Foundation, and the Australians Investing In Women.

He has a Commerce degree, an MBA (Melbourne) and a CPA, and is also passionate about underwater marine life and photography.