Barragga Yangga

Cheryl Overton (nee Davison) | Creative Director – is a Walbunja, Ngarigo woman, the Founder of Djinama Yilaga Choir, celebrated visual artist and Four Winds First Nations Creative Director. Cheryl has studied and taught visual arts, graphic arts and printmaking. It was these foundations that shaped her life and fostered the artist and storyteller that she has become, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Cheryl is dedicated to her people, committed to healing the rifts caused by Australia’s devastating colonisation and steadfast in honouring her elders’ visions for her people and culture to be united, and strong — reasserting themselves in a world that is in desperate need of this ancient wisdom.

Djinama Yilaga Choir | Lead Performers and Collaborators – is an intergenerational Yuin choir, established in 2019 and led by renowned Walbunga/Ngarigo artist, Cheryl Davison. Including Cheryl, the choir members are Iris White, Tamsin Davison, Shakella Williams, Requia Campbell, Maria Walker, Michelle Davison and Kobi Davison. Djinama Yilaga perform songs in Dhurga language. The choir emerged as a mechanism to revitalise language through song, following a unique pedagogy established by Westpac scholar, Dr Lou Bennett AM. Through the work of Djinama Yilaga, the Dhurga language of the NSW South Coast is being revitalised. Across the continent the members of Djinama Yilaga are proudly highlighting their ancestral tongue and recently the choir toured Poland and America to present their original songs and Yuin culture.

Born in Belgium, Roland Peelman has been active in Australia over 30 years as a conductor, pianist, artistic director and mentor to composers, singers and musicians alike. For his commitment to the creative arts in Australia, he has received numerous accolades, including the 2023 Art Music National Luminary Award. In 2005 he received the NSW Award for “the most outstanding contribution to Australian Music by an individual’ and in 2006 he was named Musician of the Year by the Sydney Morning Herald. He has since featured regularly as one of the most influential people in the Australian arts scene.

Heath Cullen | Composer and Lead Performer/Collaborator – is a singer, songwriter, performer, record producer and independent recording artist, from the rural village of Candelo, New South Wales. Over the past 10 years he has forged an international career, touring and recording in Australia and the US, while remaining based in the regional NSW town where he was raised. He has released three self-produced albums, all through his own label, Five By Nine Recordings: A Storm Was Coming But I Didn’t Feel Nothing (2010); The Still And The Steep (2013, nominated for the Australian Music Prize); and Outsiders (2015), which was named “One of the finest, most inspired Australian rock albums in quite some time… the work of a man well on top of his game” by Rhythms magazine, and garnered rave reviews.

Fred Leone | Composer and Lead Performer/Collaborator – is a respected Butchulla Songman with Aboriginal, Tongan and South Sea Islander heritage. A cultural custodian and musical innovator, Fred is one of a handful entrusted with preserving and performing Butchulla language and song. He’s toured globally for over a decade, sharing stages with Public Enemy, Tinariwen, John Butler and Xavier Rudd, and recently represented Australia at Eurovision 2024 as a guest artist with Electric Fields. Known for blending traditional language, instruments, and stories with hip-hop, soul, and spoken word, Fred is a leading voice in cultural preservation and creative resistance. His debut solo project Yirinda (2024) received critical acclaim, debuting on the ARIA Charts and NPR. Fred is a Sidney Myer Creative Fellow, NAIDOC Brisbane Music Award recipient, and founder of Impossible Odds Records—Queensland’s first Indigenous internationally distributed record label. His multifaceted career includes roles as Indigenous Arts Development Manager at QPAC, Head of Indigenous Languages at State Library of QLD, and curator of major national events. Fred currently serves on the Music Australia Board and continues to shape Australia’s cultural landscape with integrity and innovation.

Stuart Hunter | Barragga Yangga Orchestration & multi award winning Australian composer, producer and pianist Stu Hunter is a genre-defying musician who has worked with a huge cross section of artists and has appeared on over 120 music releases worldwide. His music is described as “intensely emotional and humanely intelligent which often engenders a highly visual response in the listener. A true original” by Radio National. Stu’s latest recording and suite the migration premiered live at the 2016 Sydney Festival featuring 10 of Australia’s finest creative musicians and received a standing ovation. the migration is a soul-searching response to life, love and cultural complexity, and is the third in a series of critically acclaimed suites by Hunter. Driving grooves and lush sonic landscapes form powerful harmonic, complex and deeply emotive melodies at the frontier of modern Australian jazz.

Affinity Quartet’s award-winning performances, international accolades and deep commitment to the string quartet affirm its place as one of Australia’s most celebrated chamber music ensembles. Affinity’s 10th anniversary year has featured debuts at the Rheingau Musik Festival, Germany; Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Finland; and a residency program of 18 performances at the 2025 World Expo Osaka, Japan.

David Harrington, founder of the legendary Kronos Quartet (USA), said recently “It’s time the world gets shaken awake and Affinity can do it!!” and UK-based Australian composer Brett Dean called Affinity “a much needed ‘new Guard’ of Australian chamber music.” During the past decade they have studied chamber music with luminaries including Alban Berg Quartet founder Günter Pichler at the International Institute of Chamber Music, Madrid; Jonathan Brown (Cuarteto Casals); Oliver Wille (Kuss Quartet); members of the Meta4, Alban Berg, and Ebène quartets at the McGill International String Quartet Academy, Montreal; Joel Krosnick (Juilliard Quartet) at the Amsterdam String Quartet Biennale Young Talents Residency; and composer Thomas Adès at the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove, UK.

Affinity Quartet has a reputation for flawless technique and bold interpretations of repertoire spanning the history of Western art music, also for embracing works by Australian composers past and present. Now based in Melbourne and a not-for-profit organisation, Affinity champions Australian chamber music widely while promoting cultural exchange through the art-form.

David Hewitt | Lead Percussionist Stonewave Taiko – is an internationally renowned percussionist, vocalist, composer, improviser, educator and multi-disciplinary performer who received his training in Australia, Japan and the USA. David has lived in the Bega Valley since 2009 where he is active in developing community based music performance and education, primarily as the Artistic Director of Stonewave Taiko, which has included projects with indigenous women’s dance group Djaadjuwan Dancers, TaikOz, YuNiOn, Far South Flamenco, Flip the Script and fLiNg Physical Theatre appearing at National Folk Festival, Cobargo Folk Festival and Four Winds Festival.