Born and raised on Bundjalung Country, in Fingal Head (Booningbah, Place of the Echidna), Birren-Gali is an Australian music newcomer and a breath of fresh air in the industry.

This, of course, is unsurprising. With a name meaning south wind and a voice that oozes warmth and spirit, Birren's musical journey seemed imminent since childhood.

On the unusually hot spring day that we found ourselves chatting, it was clear this softly-spoken teen had confidence in his chosen path. Sure of himself, but not inflated. In fact, I sensed he would feel far more comfortable simply playing his music for me than talking up his abilities.

His music journey started through listening to his family members sing; for Birren, picking up a guitar at a young age was inevitable. In some ways, music is in his blood."A lot of my aunties and uncles, my family, they all play music - so really, I had no choice!

"It made me feel like that is where I belong…my family is very talented and when we get together it is always entertaining and fun when we jam."

As far as he can remember, he started singing at age six and hasn't stopped since. When I asked him what his family said when he first sang to them, he bashfully replied that they told him it was a gift and to go with it. And go with it, he surely has.

Born during a mighty southerly wind in Booingbah - a good sign in his culture, bringing decent fishing and surf - Birren naturally finds solace and inspiration amongst the ocean waves.

Surfing, love, fishing, dancing and nature is where he finds a sense of calm and creativity,"My inspirations come from the land, the community and life experiences… It's what I see, it's the inspiration from animals and waves."

Birren writes his own music, mostly accompanied by his trusted guitar, but is not one to stray from playing well-known tracks, with some of his favourite musicians including Sam Cooke, Amos Lee and The Teskey Brothers. But, he admits that it's pretty special when an audience knows the lyrics to your songs.

"When I perform one of my own songs, it feels very good to know that my music brings people joy and happiness."

Putting pen to paper for the first time in year 8, I catch a glimpse of Birren's youthfulness when I teasingly ask him if it was, in fact, a love song. He laughs before concluding that yes, it was - but quickly admits to never actually playing it for the girl, that one was just for him.

With a mere 16 years under his belt and a lifetime ahead, Birren is balancing schoolwork, surfing, and staying deeply connected to his family roots - all while honing in on his craft and developing his sound. A sound which, if you've been lucky enough to hear, is transportive, full of emotion and truth - something few can capture at his age.

"I love hanging around with my family and doing a lot of cultural stuff - like cultural dancing, spearfishing and singing.

"My culture means everything to me. [It] keeps me connected with the land and inspires me to create more music".

In recent years, young Indigenous artists in Australia have finally begun to receive the recognition they deserve on the national and the international music scene.

With the likes of The Kid Laroi, Baker Boy and Birren's older cousin, and five-time Aria nominated newcomer, Budjerah, paving the way for Indigenous artists in Australia - the future looks bright for young Birren.

"Seeing young Indigenous artists make it onto the national and international scene is inspiring. Budjerah and JK-47 are both my cousins and from my community. I have had the opportunity to share the stage with them both…I look up to them a lot."

What makes him excited for the future?

Becoming a solo artist and playing his music for people around the world, of course.

Geraldine Hakewill graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2008 and is currently seen as the lead in S2 of Miss Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries, which will be out in 2021.  She can currently be seen in Wakefield, a psychological thriller exploring the fine line between sanity and madness, all with humour and heart.  A BBC/ABC collaboration.

Geraldine was the co-lead in the Channel Seven/Matchbox series Wanted alongside Rebecca Gibney. Her performance in the series garnered her a TV Week Logie Nomination for the prestigious Graham Kennedy Award for the Most Outstanding Newcomer. Wanted has also just been nominated for Most Outstanding Drama at the 2017 International Emmy Awards.  She has also been seen in the US series Camp for NBC Universal/Matchbox Pictures, as well as ABC TV’s Soul Mates (Series 2), Here Come the Habibs (Series 2) and in the ABC medical drama Pulse.

Geraldine has also appeared in many Australian feature films including the lead in Bill Bennett's Uninhabited, John Duigan's Careless Love, Wasted on the Young with Adelaide Clemens, as well as Joe Cinque’s Consolation. Geraldine can be seen in the lead role in the independent Australian feature film The Pretend One, currently enjoying success on the international film festival circuit and will soon be seen in the drama Disclosure.

Geraldine has worked for many of the major theatre companies in Australia, including starring roles for the Sydney Theatre Company in Fury, directed by Andrew Upton, Les Liaisons Dangereuses with Hugo Weaving, and Baal directed by Simon Stone, as well as the recent productions of Chimerica and Disgraced. For Belvoir Street Theatre, Geraldine played Wendy in Ralph Myers’ Peter Pan, which made a highly successful tour to New York in 2013. Geraldine has also worked for Bell Shakespeare in their production of Moliere's Tartuffe, and for Darlinghurst Theatre she starred in The Pride, receiving generous critical acclaim. Most recently she was seen in Melbourne Theatre Company’s Macbeth, as Lady Macbeth alongside Jai Courtney.

Behind the camera, Geraldine is currently executive producing a feature film exploring men’s mental health and grief, which will be shot this year in regional Victoria, written by her fiancé.  She’s also executive produced and starred in a dance film in collaboration with fashion designer Bianca Spender and singer Jane Tyrrell called Shadow/Self, which won best Fashion Film at the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival. Geraldine is also a singer/songwriter and has released an EP.

What’s your preferred medium, TV, Theatre or Film?  And why?
I feel lucky that I've been able to move between all three, because they are all wonderful for different reasons and can all be challenging or limiting in their own way. Theatre is magical because you have that immediate transaction with an audience in real time, but then you also have to generate an immense amount of stamina to go through the same story night after night. It's a marathon. TV can move so quickly that sometimes you don't feel like you've been able to really interrogate a scene as much as you might want to, but it's extraordinary being able to explore a character over multiple seasons and have that job security and relationship with a team of people for years. Independent film feels like the most experimental and freeing to me at the moment and I'd love to do some more soon, both in front of and behind the camera. 

What drew or inspired you and your fiancé to write and produce a movie exploring men’s mental health and grief.  
Mark (my partner) and I have always made and wanted to make our own work. I think we're both very interested and excited by the art of filmmaking as much as we are about acting, and it feels like a natural progression of our interests and skills. It's been fascinating to peer behind the curtain and realise what a mission it is to get a film financed and made. It's a miracle that anything gets made at all, really! As actors you are always the last puzzle piece in place and so we have little knowledge of the slog behind the scenes. I'm very sensitive to that now! This film we are making is an evolving beast and we're excited to share more of it with the world once we are further along in the process. 

What did you learn about yourself while playing Lady Macbeth. No doubt a demanding role.
Playing Lady Macbeth was such an important challenge for me. It took a long time in the rehearsal process for me to feel comfortable in her cruelty and dissociation from the things that she does. I kept wanting to find ways to justify her behaviour and get the audience on side, but it was a good lesson for me to fully embrace her darkness and let go of the need to be liked. This is an ongoing quest for me in life, as I'm sure it is for many people, and Lady M was a great opportunity to have to face that and let it go. I'd love to have another shot at her in about 10 years. There is a part of me that thinks I was too young to play her when I did, but I'm thrilled I got the opportunity. She's a fascinating character, but also frustratingly out of reach at times because she's not in the play very much in relation to how large the mythology around her as a character is! She gets some cracking monologues, but a lot of her big turning points happen off stage. Someone should write an adaptation of Macbeth from her point of view, exploring her back story... There is so much to unpack there. 

You starred and produced Shadow/Self, tell us about the use of dance and fashion and how this collaboration helped tell the story?
This film began as a desire to create something movement based. I often feel more comfortable expressing things with my body than with words, but I was really uncoordinated as a teenager and never learnt to dance. Too embarrassed. In my early 20s, especially at drama school through our movement training, I got more confident and realised I actually adore dance and always have. One of my dear friends, director Laura Scrivano, was also interested in creating a dance film and so we started working on this idea of the Jungian 'shadow' side of our personality and how our fear of this side of ourselves can hold us back, but if we embrace it then it can often be our greatest strength. The fashion element emerged because one of my other close friends, designer Bianca Spender, offered to costume it for us and her clothes really suit dance so well- the way they move on the body, and for this particular film, the way the tones of the fabric complemented each other. We found this great track by Jane Tyrell to choreograph it around with an amazing choreographer Samantha Chester. I asked one of my drama school pals, Elizabeth Blackmore, to dance in it with me and be my 'shadow'.  Everything fell into place in a very organic way, working with women I love and admire, trying to express something about feminine darkness and power in a simple and engaging way. 

What drives you?  
Oh man, probably a need to be loved? Ha! Isn't that what drives everyone at the end of the day? Maybe the desire to leave something of creative worth behind? To add your own paragraph to a bigger collective story? Although, the past few years I find myself being driven by less individualistic ideals and more from a place of wanting my family to be happy and cared for, for my community to be robust, for the environment to remain intact and healthy, for justice and integrity to be things that we still care about as a society. That's probably also being in my 30s and a fairly natural progression as you start to get over yourself a bit. 

Tell us about a career highlight?
I did a production of 'The Rise and Fall of Little Voice' opposite the amazing Caroline O'Connor a couple of years ago- playing the title character. The role was almost entirely sung, I had a monologue at the end of the play, but mostly I was mute except when I sang, and I had to learn to mimic a whole handful of singers like Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Edith Piaf, Billie Holliday and Shirley Bassey... it was nuts. I was so proud of myself for finding their voices, particularly Shirley Bassey's voice which couldn't be further away from my natural singing voice if I tried. It was hard work and challenging in the most rewarding way.  

Distortions of colors run down my face like tears, like dreams blurred away by time. Memories saturated, beating down my body as sweat. I hold you close, staring into your eyes, waiting for something that is locked inside of us that is beating through me. It stares at me, waiting in pain, waiting, suffering, alone. Waiting for a kick, waiting for a punch, waiting to be held for a touch. I’ve known you for a long time, longing to break through. We know what we perceive to be true. How can we break through what is real, what is machine, what is science? What we see are fragments of the imagination, small pieces of desire, pieces of memories, of feelings that belong but cannot be understood. Feelings that we can inhale and breathe out as tears, like sighs. Imagine just being here, breaking free from it all. Everything seems so close and familiar, but you’re so distant like a vague memory that I recognize so well. The colors, the colors, sensual outlining the lines of your body, of my body, defining the anatomy that makes me warm, alive, eternal. I’ll wait for you in conviction. I hold you again close to me, bend you upward in ways that you cannot bear, prevailing, and spit you out. I feel you rushing through my veins, flushing through my muscles, these colors, the color. As a photographer you are always conscious of the machine, of the camera, of the lens, of the exposures and technical aspects of the medium. Here we break through what is taught to us, to create something that reflects what we are feeling inside and break away from those material aspects into something emotional. Creating an image that is free of those limitations, translating what we feel inside. Crystallizing those emotions into images can be more real than reality. They become the experience and become timeless.

- Mario Sorrenti

The plan was to shoot a documentary across Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia, following travelers around who had been traveling for years but never making it back home, roaming about like lost souls. I was in no state to go across Asia. So after 10 days, my body like rubber, my bones and skin destroyed, brain a mess, I decided I had to find a new project. I had made friends with this cool, gentle dude called GO. He had a small bar where I was staying. I was still drinking and smoking weed trying to shut my brain off. I told him I was looking for some special project to do and he said he knew an area in Krabi in the jungle where kids where doing Muay Thai, Thai kickboxing.

The next night we took the boat back to town, hired a motor bike and drove out of town to the area where these kids were training. By the time we got there, the light was getting low. I could see this area in the woods where I saw a beat up ring with a small fluorescent light hanging in one corner. As we walked in more, I saw this kid of about 3-4 years old kicking a tree trunk repeatedly, a boy pulling up a paint can full of concrete with his teeth, others working out with limited equipment, guys standing around the ring shouting and smoking. A boy and a guy were in the ring, the kid kicking the guy’s pad making loads of grunting noises, sweat running down his body. GO introduced me to this guy I believed to be the main trainer. He was totally cool with me hanging around and taking pictures.

After 3 nights I felt I needed to process the film. I wasn’t sure the camera was working. The lens was hard to focus and also to wind back the film. I dropped the film off in town, went back 2 days later. As I went in I asked the guy at the front of the shop for my film. He said “NO GOOD! NO GOOD!” I was like “What, where is it?” He pointed to the machine it was laid over. I asked if we could run it through so I could see. It had a small screen as it went through. I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was like watching images in motion, the way the photos where moving, blurring reminded me of abstract paintings and memories. The boys and these moments captured felt spiritual, like I could see their colorful souls. That’s what I thought. I was so excited to see this. I gave the dude a big hug, asked him to cut up the negs and sleeve them up. He must of thought I was a nutter.

I went back and stayed with the boys for the next 3 weeks watching them train, fight and eventually went with them to the big arena where they go fight other kids from different areas for money so they can help feed their families. I was told if the boys weren’t into fighting, a lot of the kids in the area would get into drugs, crime and some cases, prostitution instead.

I was focusing on a few boys ages 13 to 16, watching them most nights after school. Their dedication and love for Muay Thai, the way they moved, the speed and accuracy, the power these kids had in their muscles, constantly moving about in the ring, never ending it seemed, kicking, kicking, a stream of noises and grunts, their trainers pushing them so hard I could see the pain in their faces, but also laughter and grace as they moved and worked.

Their faces and bodies with scars on them, the drive and gentleness they all possessed, helping each other, massaging each other, rubbing each other’s hard working arms, legs with tiger balm and oil, backs of necks and head massages, was all so beautiful to see. Really made me look at myself and how I had been fucking up for the last 9 years. How lucky I was with the life I was living and not appreciating it at all. Missing my own kids so much, how I had failed them in so many ways, even though I was there for them I wasn’t there enough! I had been clean for 3 weeks for the first time since I could remember. I was really starting to get back to who I really was, seeing these kids having to beat the shit out of each other to go fight in the big arenas, not just for money but for the love of dreams to move forward and on, towards being the best in their weight in the country.

These kids took me in and made me feel a part of their family. Such a special, transformative month I spent in Thailand.

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