Writers Residency

Writers Residency

First Nations Early Career Writers

First Nations Early Career Writers

Gabrielle de Vietri and Maddee Clark speaking at Beyond diversity: Building global cities at MPavilion 2018. Photo by Vinisha Mulani.

Presented in partnership with Footscray Community Arts, the First Nations Early Career Writers residency was a three-month-long program that aimed to enhance the practices of emerging practitioners.

Running from Monday 3 August to Sunday 1 November 2020, the residency provided material, practical and creative support to these important voices at a critical time in this country’s history.

The opportunity included desk space for the duration of the residency at Footscray Community Arts Centre (FCAC), a monthly meeting at FCAC with the other writers and mentors to share ideas, editorial support from writers Bridget Caldwell and Maddee Clark, and a fee of $2,000 awarded to each writer.

Each of the writers in the residency created one long form essay in response to one of the MPavilion program themes: ‘Re-emerge: A Remix’, ‘IRL: Exploring Social Space’, ‘Preservation: Propagating Knowledge’, ‘1+1: Who are we together?’, and ‘Space: Experiments in time’.

 

ABOUT THE ORGANISATIONS AND mentors

MPavilion is an annual architectural commission combined with an innovative cross-disciplinary festival. Within this space, MPavilion delivers an ambitious summer program of free public talks and events at the leading edge of international creative practice.

Footscray Community Arts Centre (FCAC) is an independent creative precinct in the western suburbs of Melbourne. It’s a place for artistic vibrancy, new work, big ideas and important conversations. Our programs focus on the nexus between creativity and social justice. We platform and prioritise the voices of artists from Indigenous, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse, disability and LGBTQIA+ communities. Our year-round program offers unique performances, exhibitions, collaborative art workshops and community events.

Bridget Caldwell is a Jingili Mudburra writer and editor currently based in Narrm/Birraranga. She works as co-editor for Archer Magazine as well as literary journal The Lifted Brow. She was previously managing editor for Blak Brow, a Black Women’s Collective edition of The Lifted Brow.

Maddee Clark is a Yugambeh writer, editor, curator, and former participant in MPavilion’s First Nations Early Career Writers residency. They have been published by Overland, Artlink, Next Wave, and NITV and are one of Un Magazine‘s co-editors from 2018 to 2019. Maddee is also a Ph.D candidate at the University of Melbourne, writing on Indigenous Futurism and race, and has taught and consulted across the university’s Bachelor of Arts (Extended) program for Indigenous students.

 

This project was supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.