HOUSE ARREST

Alexis West Alexis West is a Birra Gubba, Wakka Wakka, South Sea Islander, and Anglo Australian woman who has lived on Permangk and Kaurna Country for over 25 years. A writer, director, performer, and collaborator, she has worked with companies such as No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability, State Theatre Company South Australia, Act Now Theatre, and Slingsby Theatre Company. Her film work includes writing and directing for NITV’s Around the Traps and contributing to the award-winning documentary King’s Seal. Her poetry and stories have been published in Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, Mindshare, Ora Nui, and Poetiks. A mentor for Act Now Theatre’s First Nations Pathway Program since 2016, Alexis is passionate about amplifying First Nations and underrepresented voices. She co-wrote Sista Girl, touring with Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company in 2024, and her new work, Culture Slap, will feature in their 2025 program. Alexis was recently hazed into A Daylight Connections Theatre Collective with Eulogy at Yellamundie Festival. Alexis was a 5-star Uber rating passenger. Kamarra Bell-Wykes Kamarra Bell-Wykes (Yagera/Butchulla) is a theatre maker and arts specialist working across professional, academic, and community arts sectors, currently serving as Queensland Theatre’s resident First Nations dramaturge. Kamarra served as ILBIJERRI Theatre’s Education Manager and Creative Director from 2014–2019 and was a Malthouse Resident Artist from 2020–2022. In 2022, Kamarra joined forces with Carly Sheppard as co-artistic directors of A Daylight Connection, a motley crew of independent theatre-makers dedicated to smashing performance binaries. Their credits include Chase (Malthouse/Hot House), A Nighttime Travesty (Yirramboi/Asia TOPA/Malthouse), and Eclipse (Rising), a collaboration with First Nation queens Cerulean and Stone Motherless Cold. In 2021, Kamarra was awarded the Patrick White Award for Whose Gonna Love ‘Em? I Am That I Am (FCAC/ILBIJERRI). She has co-authored a range of award-winning arts education resources, including Teaching First Nations Drama Concepts in the Classroom and Healing Stories – Australian First Nations Theatre for Health Equity. Kamarra’s other significant theatre credits include A Wake – A Woke Mob (MTC/ILBIJERRI), Romeo and Julie (Red Stitch), Because the Night (Malthouse), The Score, Scar Trees, Viral, North West of Nowhere, Body Armour, Chopped Liver, Shrunken Iris (ILBIJERRI), Crying Shame (Next Wave), Mother’s Tongue (Yirra Yaakin), and assistant director on 37 (MTC).