In partnership with Headland Writer’s Festival and South East Arts, Four Winds are hosting a First Nations Women Artists’ Panel discussing Creativity and Country. The literary panel will be followed by a Stiff Gins performance inside the Windsong Pavilion on September 14.
This Concert is proudly supported by South East Arts
Join writer and Stiff Gins singer-songwriter Nardi Simpson, poet and visual artist Judith Crispin and Four Winds First Nations Creative Director, Artist and Djinama Yilaga Founder Cheryl Overton for a fascinating discussion on Creativity and Country – facilitated by local poet and percussionist & Deputy Chair of SE Arts, Gabrielle Journey Jones.
The panel will explore how the artists draw creative inspiration from their connection to Country delving into Nardi’s latest book The Belburd, a lyrical and masterfully woven novel about women, creation, belonging and the precious fragility of a life. Cheryl’s work with the Djinima Yilaga Choir and her innovative cultural initiative – Barragga Yangga, that celebrates the reclamation the Dhurga language through song and story as well as her extensive visual arts practice, and the Judith Crispin’s upcoming release of the Dingo’s Noctuary, an illustrated verse novel combining poetry, prose, and hand-drawn maps, plant pressings, and animal portraits that was included in the Lunar Codex time capsule sent to the moon.
The event will be followed by delicious bushfoods inspired lunch provided by Eastwoods Bermagui at 12.30PM and a chance to mingle with the artists prior to the Stiff Gins concert at 2PM.
RSVP
Meet the Artists
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NARDI SIMPSON
Nardi Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay storyteller from New South Wales’ (NSW) northwest freshwater plains. As a member of Indigenous duo Stiff Gins, Nardi has travelled nationally and internationally for the past 22 years. She is also a founding member of Freshwater, an all-female vocal ensemble formed to revive the language and singing traditions of NSW river communities.
Nardi is a graduate of Ngarra-Burria First Peoples Composers and is currently undertaking a PhD through the Australian National University’s School of Music in Composition. Nardi is the current musical director of Barayagal, a cross-cultural choir based at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Nardi’s debut novel, Song of the Crocodile, won the 2017 Black&Write! Fellowship and the ALS Gold Medal, and was longlisted for the 2021 Stella Prize and Miles Franklin Literary Award. The Belburd is her second novel. Nardi currently lives in Sydney and continues to be heavily involved in the teaching and sharing of culture in both her Sydney and Yuwaalaraay communities.
JUDITH CRISPIN
Judith Nangala Crispin is a poet and visual artist living and working on Yuin/Walbunga country near Braidwood. Judith has published collections of poetry with Puncher & Wattmann (Newcastle) and Daylight Books (NY) Her highly anticipated third book The Dingo’s Noctuary set against a backdrop of Australia’s central deserts and exploring themes of identity, belonging, and the fragile threads that connect all living beings will be released in October. Her poetry has been performed by Kings College Choir, nominated for a Pushcart, shortlisted for the Peter Porter Poetry Prize and won the Blake Poetry Prize. Judith’s visual art focuses on Lumachrome glass printing, a technique she has developed through layering analogue methods such as lumen printing, chemigram and cliché-verre.
CHERYL Overton
Cheryl Overton is a leading artist from the South Coast. Her mother’s family are Walbanga people from Eurobodalla and the Ngarigo people in the Snowy Mountains region. Her family is also connected to the Wallaga Lake Aboriginal community. Overton has inherited deep cultural knowledge from her family and is a recognised artist and cultural leader for the South Coast region, exhibiting nationally and internationally. In 2019 Cheryl established Djinima Yilaga, an intergenerational choir who perform songs in the Dhurga language, revitalising the language through song.
FACILITATOR GABRIELLE JOURNEY JONES
Gabrielle Journey Jones is a poet, percussionist and event producer born on sovereign Gadigal Land, Sydney, Australia. She is from Māori (Ngāpuhi) and African bloodlines and has lived on the Far South Coast NSW, Djiringanj Country since 2018 with her family. Gabrielle has shared her poetry at local, national and international events for 30 years. She has four collections of poetry published by Ginninderra Press - Spoken Medicine (2017); Etymology of Courage (2021); The Purpose of Truth (2023); and Arrangements (2025), which will be launched at Headland Writers Festival, Tathra in October 2025. Gabrielle is inspired by creative communities which celebrate diversity, activism and inclusion. She has worked collaboratively with over 80 organisations in the past decade delivering poetry, spoken word and drumming performances and workshops. Gabrielle is the Deputy Chair of South East Arts and a Senior Social Worker at NSW Health.
Visit Gabrielle Journey Jones