Speaker 1: Welcome to First things first, I'm brooked. Let my pronouns
Speaker 1: are sen.
Speaker 2: I'm Maddie meals and my pronouns are he and him.
Speaker 2: And before we get started, we'd like to acknowledge the
Speaker 2: custodians of the land on which we record and for
Speaker 2: us today it's the Gaddigel people of the Urination. But
Speaker 2: we also have a very special guest on today's episode.
Speaker 2: It's one of those EPs where we get to interview
Speaker 2: someone deadly and today it is the Mista Travis Cardona.
Speaker 3: Yeah, good, thanks for having.
Speaker 4: Me, Thanks for coming in.
Speaker 2: Well, who's your mob are you from? Let's kick it
Speaker 2: off with that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that used to be mild. Yeah, so Travis Cardooner,
Speaker 3: My mob's Mullock from the Northern Territory, so born and
Speaker 3: bred on Larychie Country. And yeah, it's really nice to
Speaker 3: be here today in the studios at Nova. Just seen
Speaker 3: Tribal Warrior over there on.
Speaker 2: The side, so it's a pretty good view from here. Hey. Well,
Speaker 2: the people that probably can't see it from the listening
Speaker 2: in their airports, but we sit right beside Pimont Bay
Speaker 2: and we look out of the water. So yeah, Trouble Warriors,
Speaker 2: would you call it.
Speaker 3: A cruise ship. It's a tour ship. Yeah, the two
Speaker 3: was around the harbor, but no, it's beautiful spot. So
Speaker 3: thanks for having me, guys, Yes.
Speaker 4: So welcome of course.
Speaker 3: Well I just want to put this out there.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm so glad that we can have you
Speaker 2: on this pod because you actually gave me my first
Speaker 2: ever presenting job. So now it feels like a full
Speaker 2: circle moment where I'm like hosting you, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, Like this is a bit surreal for me.
Speaker 4: But well, what was that job? Can I ask?
Speaker 2: It was?
Speaker 3: At first?
Speaker 2: It was just like an ad hoc Facebook live gig.
Speaker 3: Really, yeah, do you want me to tell the stories?
Speaker 3: I love it. I think it was like twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3: It was the first time at an ITV we've done
Speaker 3: a Facebook live live broadcast from Mardi Gras. And it
Speaker 3: was the empty First Nation's float, which was made up
Speaker 3: of all these mobs from Darwin and everyone from like
Speaker 3: Crystal Love, Miscellaneous, cousin Josie Baker. It was just like
Speaker 3: all the black excellence from the LGBTI community that came
Speaker 3: down for it and Miscellaneous, who's also my cousin, Ben
Speaker 3: Gratz shout Out was supposed to be hosting, but because
Speaker 3: it's so loud and the first time we've ever done
Speaker 3: at Facebook live broadcast with a backpack, so we wore
Speaker 3: a satellite backpack on our back and remember was following me,
Speaker 3: and we had and I had the microphone and I
Speaker 3: was passing to Miscellaneius. Anyway, she lost her voice, so
Speaker 3: I ended up having to take over and I was exhausted.
Speaker 3: And I saw this person with lots of energy actually
Speaker 3: dancing with my cousin, Warren McGrath, wearing very little clothing
Speaker 3: and sounds like and I was like, hey, do you
Speaker 3: want to hold the hold the micro a bit? And
Speaker 3: so I remember Maddy grabbed the microphone and skipped along
Speaker 3: Mardi Gras and was talking to people asking him how
Speaker 3: that Marti gra is nappy Marti Gras. And I thought
Speaker 3: to myself, I'm going to get this guy next year.
Speaker 3: So I was like twenty eighteen, Maddi Webb and Johnny
Speaker 3: Jeffrey shout Out came on and did that Mardi Gras
Speaker 3: tour and then Mardi Gras broadcast to Facebook and we
Speaker 3: were the first to do it as an ITV like
Speaker 3: SBS had the major broadcast deal. But we were the
Speaker 3: first just to go live and just be with the
Speaker 3: mob and be with all the community on ground, and
Speaker 3: it was just it was a fun time, right.
Speaker 2: It was so fun. I never knew what you were
Speaker 2: going to expect. Yeah, you know, you never knew what
Speaker 2: to expect. Like you were going up to people and
Speaker 2: some of them, you know, were answering, you know, is
Speaker 2: live so like it live TV, Like it's a risky game,
Speaker 2: like you don't know what you're going to get. And
Speaker 2: some of it, like I remember, some people were just
Speaker 2: so lit, you know, like it's Mardi gru People were
Speaker 2: just off their face. But it was that energy of celebration, euphoria.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 2: It was a good time. But the next year was
Speaker 2: more planned and I loved it. Yeah yeah, but so
Speaker 2: thanks thanks Trav.
Speaker 4: But knockdown memory lane.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not talking about me. You know, you've had
Speaker 2: a pretty stellar career. You know, you started off at
Speaker 2: acting school and now you're back there. A bit of
Speaker 2: a full circle moment for you, Right, What are you
Speaker 2: doing over at NIDER.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm the director of First Nations and Outreach.
Speaker 3: It was only that was never there when I studied
Speaker 3: at nighter back in two thousand and six to two
Speaker 3: thousand and eight. So I did the three year BFA
Speaker 3: acting course and the unit that we have now is
Speaker 3: the First Nations unit. We have Uncle Matthew Doyle who's
Speaker 3: an unclean resident, Annie Road Roberts who's an advisor. We
Speaker 3: have Andre Daniel who's a human woman who's our project coordinator,
Speaker 3: and then me who looks after everything the team does
Speaker 3: external stakeholders and internal with all the students and First
Speaker 3: Nations clients. And yeah, like it's a it's quite an
Speaker 3: exciting thing because when I studied at night, we didn't
Speaker 3: really have any First Nation support. Yeah, and it was
Speaker 3: just us that the First Nation students that were there.
Speaker 3: So Miranda Tapsell, Sharry Seven's main white guy, Simon, all
Speaker 3: of us were in the same cohort together.
Speaker 2: What a cohort?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So yeah, and their careers went great and I
Speaker 3: ended up working at NV. Well there's a story to why.
Speaker 3: But I think you know, we've done a lot in
Speaker 3: a small space of time. We've had a First Nation's
Speaker 3: approach to the curriculum where we've brought in what it
Speaker 3: is is getting students to understand what connection to country
Speaker 3: is and that it's not just a First nation's thing.
Speaker 3: Like all people all around the world do have a
Speaker 3: connection to wherever they are. They might have been born there.
Speaker 3: You know that warm hug that you get when or
Speaker 3: that smell that sort of draws you into that place
Speaker 3: you grew up in. That is a connection to country.
Speaker 3: Everyone has that, And so we're trying to get our students,
Speaker 3: who are mainly artists, understanding that, like it's a real thing,
Speaker 3: and hopefully that gives them, you know, respect and empathy
Speaker 3: and understanding not just for First Nations people, but the
Speaker 3: environment as well, and understanding that within the environment around us,
Speaker 3: there's stories everywhere. So one thing I like to always
Speaker 3: talk about is Centennial Park. There's a series of ponds
Speaker 3: or through there, and there's these eels that live in
Speaker 3: these ponds and they're really sacred to the dreg and
Speaker 3: Duryl people and Bigical and Gradigald people. Those eels have
Speaker 3: survived living in this giant city, you know, this place
Speaker 3: that was built on top of their wetlands. And the
Speaker 3: wetlands used to run from Centennial Park all the way
Speaker 3: out to Botany Bay, and that's why they built a
Speaker 3: whole series of golf courses because back in the day
Speaker 3: people like, oh, it's just swamp lands, so let's just
Speaker 3: turn into golf courses. But the water still moves through there,
Speaker 3: and these eels still migrate through those wetlands, make their
Speaker 3: way through drains behind Nier and all the way out
Speaker 3: to Botany Bay, where they swim to New Caledonia. Wow,
Speaker 3: which is like and cloms a way offshore, right. They
Speaker 3: swim there and breed, and then their little babies, little
Speaker 3: translucent little slug things, swim all the way back and
Speaker 3: get to Centennial Park and then they grow again.
Speaker 2: For like wow.
Speaker 3: Like, so we teach our students like that's the story
Speaker 3: of survival and resilience but also amazement, and it's all
Speaker 3: there's there's things everywhere. Yeah, you know, Disney will make
Speaker 3: a eel cartoon about it, obviously finding nemo El.
Speaker 2: I mean, but yeah, I know of those stories, and
Speaker 2: I like, I worked with Maddie Uncle Maddie Doyle on
Speaker 2: a couple of those stories when I was doing the
Speaker 2: tour of the Harbor Bridge for the Borrower Climbing. So
Speaker 2: I remember hearing that, hearing those things and just being
Speaker 2: like wow, like thousands and thousands of thousands of like
Speaker 2: years of storytelling, you know, like and culture practice that
Speaker 2: I feel like, if you even look at the city
Speaker 2: as a whole, it's like a blueprint built on what's
Speaker 2: already been here, you know what I mean. So I
Speaker 2: love that, like not even just First Nations kids, but
Speaker 2: young people who were going into night or they don't
Speaker 2: have to be young.
Speaker 3: These days, do they.
Speaker 2: They can be anyone.
Speaker 3: No, yeah, I'm going through night.
Speaker 2: I get that next level of experience because I went
Speaker 2: to Wapera and I did the original theater of course,
Speaker 2: and I remember that there was a disconnection between us
Speaker 2: and the rest of the school for sure, the campus,
Speaker 2: but it feels like it's all sort.
Speaker 3: Of yeah, and we do it too to remove that
Speaker 3: cultural load when we were at night back then, you know,
Speaker 3: back in the day, if there was anything First Nations
Speaker 3: topic that came up, all eyes came on.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, that reminds me of school.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I was like a nineteen year old kid
Speaker 3: from Darwin that just was like I just wanted to
Speaker 3: be a Stormtroopers.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't know anything really, you know, like I
Speaker 5: knew where I grew up and my mob is and
Speaker 5: you know, I love going fishing and hunting and all
Speaker 5: that stuff, but like I don't know, politics and stuff.
Speaker 1: Still so much pressure, hey, like responsibility put on you
Speaker 1: at at certain ages. I know throughout my life, like yeah,
Speaker 1: they'd be like, oh yeah, you know this one brooked it.
Speaker 2: I'm like yeah.
Speaker 1: And I moved from Canalvin to Perth, so I was
Speaker 1: still finding myself. I went from being in a community
Speaker 1: like having my family surrounded by me to be the.
Speaker 4: Only black person in the white family.
Speaker 1: So I was like, I don't know these stories and
Speaker 1: it was an until later, I guess, going to university
Speaker 1: and then you knowing that I was educated.
Speaker 4: But those stories are so sacred, Like I feel.
Speaker 1: Like we don't acknowledge how the transference like down from
Speaker 1: you know, our generation, like how sacred they are. And
Speaker 1: I love that. I guess now working in like film
Speaker 1: and TV, that we're seeing a lot more of it
Speaker 1: so we can share it and we're not having that
Speaker 1: responsibility to tell it and do justice. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: well you can actually watch some things now, like yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's the beauty of storytelling. But then again
Speaker 1: they still are sacred and we have to like protect them.
Speaker 4: I think as.
Speaker 3: Well, it's really good that ABC SBS organizations like that,
Speaker 3: they have really strong cultural advisory strategies within their commissioning process. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so a lot of the stuff being made today, you know,
Speaker 3: you have to have a first nation's cultural advisor that's
Speaker 3: connected to that area or was working with that community
Speaker 3: and traditional miners to tell stories. And so that's what
Speaker 3: we try to you know, do within Nighter as well.
Speaker 3: So you know, we know that for me, even uncle out,
Speaker 3: we don't have mission to tell other people's stories, but
Speaker 3: if we can just provide a safe space for Indigenous
Speaker 3: and non Indigenous students to explore, but they don't have
Speaker 3: to have the answers. It's just how do you explore
Speaker 3: what stories are out there in a respectful way and
Speaker 3: that you're not putting your artistic interpretation and on to
Speaker 3: change anything, and you're just doing it in a way
Speaker 3: just to learn so you can have respect. The most
Speaker 3: important thing about most stories is just respecting the country
Speaker 3: and the environment and the language. And like you were
Speaker 3: saying before that the thousands of years of it going on,
Speaker 3: you know it was ever written down.
Speaker 1: That's what we are and we're so grateful that we've
Speaker 1: got the podcast to like yearn about these things, but
Speaker 1: like the depth and storytelling and also like different perspectives
Speaker 1: and everyone has like every time sometimes we interview people
Speaker 1: and it's.
Speaker 4: Like you learn so much in that hour that like, yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Don't take for granted. I think it's so nice. You've
Speaker 1: been in acting for quite a while. Was it inspired
Speaker 1: by stories that you went into acting or was it
Speaker 1: something that you like you said you wanted to be
Speaker 1: a storm trooper.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think like it all started, you know. So
Speaker 3: when I was in primary school, I was just in
Speaker 3: trouble all the time, and my grades went very good,
Speaker 3: and they had a drama activity one day. There was
Speaker 3: a drama activity about Jesus and they're all asleep on
Speaker 3: the boat, and I just remembered that my character was
Speaker 3: supposed to be asleep on the boat.
Speaker 1: On this is giving me PTSD from another thing to
Speaker 1: bring up the Bible, but I just remember that, and
Speaker 1: my teacher said to me, hey, you did really good there.
Speaker 3: You remember what your part was supposed to do, and
Speaker 3: so I went, oh, okay, So someone compliments that he
Speaker 3: did well. And then this performance troupe came to our
Speaker 3: school a couple maybe a year later, and these these
Speaker 3: guys and women. The three of them. They came up
Speaker 3: on stage and they had all these wigs and costumes
Speaker 3: and they were just being silly and having fun. They
Speaker 3: were like being in drag and everything.
Speaker 6: And then I was like we all had to do that,
Speaker 6: you know, like I normally get in trouble for being
Speaker 6: a cloudy. And then I thought, oh, they said, well
Speaker 6: you should, maybe you want to be an actor one day.
Speaker 3: So I just really enjoyed doing, you know, present like,
Speaker 3: you know, being fun and showing off to people. And
Speaker 3: then I was about fourteen and there was a play
Speaker 3: Richard Franklin wrote that was coming to Darwin and they're
Speaker 3: looking for understudies and it had Aaron Pederson and Durman
Speaker 3: harden Reich in it. Durmod was They were both in
Speaker 3: water acts at the time, and so I sort of
Speaker 3: knew who their names was. And this audition opportunity came
Speaker 3: out and Mom said, you want to go for it.
Speaker 3: So this was like two thy like twenty four years ago, right,
Speaker 3: And I auditioned and I got the role as an understudy.
Speaker 3: And these were hard plays. One was about deaths and custody,
Speaker 3: Harry's War and No Where to Forget yeah, So one
Speaker 3: was about death and custody, which was no way to forget,
Speaker 3: and the other one was about return servicemen from World
Speaker 3: War Two that were first nations that weren't recognized as citizens.
Speaker 3: And so the first ever play I did outside of
Speaker 3: you know, school or whatever was this real hard hitting player.
Speaker 3: I remember being emotionally caught up not understanding about you know,
Speaker 3: suicide in you know, performing these characters and how soldiers
Speaker 3: weren't even allowed to go into the RSL and have
Speaker 3: a beer and they went to fight to get their
Speaker 3: citizenship but they weren't even recognized. So I really got
Speaker 3: thrown in this deep end. But that's where my passion
Speaker 3: came in. I just working with Aaron at such a
Speaker 3: young age. I was like, man, I just want to
Speaker 3: be like him, and he just took me under his
Speaker 3: wing like straight away. You know, it was like a
Speaker 3: big brother, and you know, it's funny, like it was
Speaker 3: a small period, this age of fourteen, but like that
Speaker 3: just changed my whole trajectory of what I wanted to
Speaker 3: do with my life. So I just kept doing youth arts,
Speaker 3: youth theater. That's when I met Miranda. Me and her
Speaker 3: were at Kurrat our youth arts performing in plays and yeah,
Speaker 3: and then we auditioned for NIDA when we were like
Speaker 3: eighteen nineteen. We worked on our like audition pieces together
Speaker 3: Cargret and youth Arts, and here we got in. It
Speaker 3: was crazy.
Speaker 2: So that must have been a big moment though, because
Speaker 2: it's two kids from the same place. That doesn't happen often.
Speaker 2: Like you know, it's such a tight exclusive group that
Speaker 2: gets into Night really, you know what I mean, it's
Speaker 2: like the most talented in the country.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for two of you to get in.
Speaker 2: That must have been amazing for you both.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you're moving from Darwin.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't think I was going to get in.
Speaker 3: And I remember we had to sing, so they asked
Speaker 3: us to do our audition and you had to do
Speaker 3: two auditions, like a Shakespeare and a contemporary and then
Speaker 3: you had to sing something some some silly voice warm
Speaker 3: up thing that I learned while I was doing Yeah
Speaker 3: something really was something in Italian. Yeah that I had
Speaker 3: no idea what it meant, but it's all I could
Speaker 3: come up from.
Speaker 1: Now I kind of like can relate to that only
Speaker 1: in the last year, but that would make no sense
Speaker 1: to me.
Speaker 3: And I'm pretty sure Miranda did like Billy Jean by
Speaker 3: Michael Jackson coming with the one, and but yeah, look
Speaker 3: we got in and it was an amazing experience. Like
Speaker 3: the teaching stuff for NIDER that taught us back then
Speaker 3: are no longer working there anymore, some have passed away.
Speaker 3: But it was what they said was like, you know,
Speaker 3: that was you know the era of NIDER where you know,
Speaker 3: it's changed a lot since then. Yeah, it was very hard.
Speaker 3: It was just very straight up, straightforward. There was no
Speaker 3: mucking around. Yeah, and like today is very professional and
Speaker 3: all of that, but it's just a different time, totaling
Speaker 3: almost eighteen years ago. Yeah, but yeah, look it's that's
Speaker 3: what happened. And then I worked as an actor for
Speaker 3: a while. I did a show with Nikir Lewis This Heaven?
Speaker 3: I did a show with Griffin Theater Company. I've just
Speaker 3: got a role on All Saints. No one probably knows
Speaker 3: what All Saints is anymore. You yeah, yeah, younger generation,
Speaker 3: the youngs a TikTok. Yeah yeah yeah. And then like yeah,
Speaker 3: I was doing a development show with Wesley Innock and
Speaker 3: it was called Black Diggers, and I was like, yes,
Speaker 3: this is going to be awesome. It's about you know,
Speaker 3: First Nations men that went to fight in war, and
Speaker 3: they took all these stories together and it had a
Speaker 3: great cast like Luke Carroll, Main Whitet, David page Ress
Speaker 3: in Peace, you know, And I was about to go
Speaker 3: on this tour and then this other thing came up
Speaker 3: at SBS where they had a one year contract to
Speaker 3: work at SBS and it came with training in screen
Speaker 3: and media and I was like, and you know, it
Speaker 3: was a struggle back then, there wasn't as much First
Speaker 3: Nation's content being made, Like you know, we were all
Speaker 3: of us mob that were in the industry were all
Speaker 3: turning up to the same auditions or going for the
Speaker 3: same roles, and you know, being light skinned as well,
Speaker 3: Like it was really hard to cast me, Like they
Speaker 3: didn't know how to cast us back it was. So
Speaker 3: I took this yeah, one year contract with SBS and
Speaker 3: then yeah, I did a Certificate four and screen of
Speaker 3: media at Metro Screen and ended up becoming a producer
Speaker 3: in the end. I think some of the highlights though
Speaker 3: working at it TV, like the First Nation Fashion Awards.
Speaker 3: It was the height of COVID. They had their inaugural
Speaker 3: First Nation Fashion Awards happening and they had no way
Speaker 3: of putting it on, and so we came up with
Speaker 3: a way where Rachel Hocking was hosting it at the time.
Speaker 3: We did it all from in studio. We set out
Speaker 3: stringers to go shoot a whole bunch of nominees who
Speaker 3: are actually the winners, to tell their story and yeah,
Speaker 3: we put that, you know, we created that. I'm pretty
Speaker 3: sure it was twenty twenty or twenty twenty one. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but you know, that was one of the highlights for
Speaker 3: me of n ITV because it was telling all these
Speaker 3: mob stories and all the great work they're doing, plus
Speaker 3: helping the first nation's fashion industry which is now booming yep,
Speaker 3: and it's so important that, you know, we celebrate art
Speaker 3: and culture, especially through fashion. So it was like a
Speaker 3: massive one of the most exciting things I did. But
Speaker 3: I worked on all of the GAMA Festivals, the National
Speaker 3: Music Awards.
Speaker 1: The funny to go back to typecasting because I feel
Speaker 1: like that's really interesting because with your experience and I
Speaker 1: guess you know, seeing and just hearing you say, like
Speaker 1: you guys were all auditioning for the same roles and
Speaker 1: the same films, and you know how much has it
Speaker 1: evolved in a good way in a bad way?
Speaker 4: Both talk to me about typecasting, like both of you.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not really I'm an actor, like just
Speaker 1: new but I can't really talk it from.
Speaker 2: Like a Black Fellows being pigeonholed. Yeah, I suppose you
Speaker 2: can talk to like how much it's evolved over the Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think it has changed a lot.
Speaker 3: And it's because more First Nations people are the writers, directors,
Speaker 3: producers of content.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, in the last since like twenty thirteen,
Speaker 3: you know, there's been so much work that's been created.
Speaker 3: So people who are casting are getting the brief from
Speaker 3: a First Nation's director and producer and writer, you know,
Speaker 3: and so it's not a non indigenous casting agent working
Speaker 3: with a non indigenous producer like we need this guy
Speaker 3: who fits this Aboriginal wale and what their idea of
Speaker 3: what an Aboriginal person is. You know, we all who
Speaker 3: are a very diverse group of people across a large continent.
Speaker 2: How many times would you have heard can you sound
Speaker 2: more community like.
Speaker 4: An actual thing?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: I think in the past it has been. It's where
Speaker 2: you walk into an auditions space and they're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: but you don't sound Aboriginal, can you sound more community?
Speaker 2: And it's like, well, what community are you talking about?
Speaker 2: And our friends know this too well, like you know,
Speaker 2: light skin like Sharis Evans, you know.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I can imagine her experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like it's just I think you're right, it has changed.
Speaker 2: But I also think there's accountability now. Yeah, mother more
Speaker 2: confident to be vocal about their experiences as.
Speaker 4: Well to call it out.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I guess that's what my interest is.
Speaker 1: I guess for future young people who want to go
Speaker 1: into acting, like how to sort of have enough confidence
Speaker 1: to be like, oh, actually, like sorry, not like you're
Speaker 1: not for me, you.
Speaker 2: Know, Like, yeah, it's tricky though, because you want you
Speaker 2: want the job. You know, you want the job.
Speaker 1: Fine line to work like, because I've never really fit
Speaker 1: into like I've always been challenged on my looks, Like
Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm going to be typecasted for.
Speaker 4: I have no idea.
Speaker 2: I think it's like an important thing that only recently
Speaker 2: I had this conversation with my new management. I said,
Speaker 2: I don't want to be boxed into a lane. I
Speaker 2: don't want to just be given first nations roles like.
Speaker 4: I don't want to feel like that too.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, Like even when I came down from Darwen
Speaker 3: to Naida, when I was a young guy, like you know,
Speaker 3: there was a tick the box that you're Aboriginal, And
Speaker 3: back then to us was like, why are you making
Speaker 3: me tick this box all the time? Like I am Aboriginal?
Speaker 3: What do I have to do? I have to prove this?
Speaker 3: And I guess it was a statistics thing back then,
Speaker 3: but we didn't know like nowadays, like yeah, just so
Speaker 3: we you know, we do that too.
Speaker 4: So we know statistics.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I guess, yeah, And but back then it
Speaker 3: was it was weird, like well, I'm just dude from Darwn.
Speaker 3: Yeah I'm Aboriginal, but you know, I'd love to play anything,
Speaker 3: you know. But I think that's the thing, like the
Speaker 3: identity of this country is starting to really understand that
Speaker 3: we are a multi mix of peoples from all around
Speaker 3: the world and this idea that was just an Anglo
Speaker 3: society and then the Aboriginal people lived here. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: then there was multicultural. That's not true. There was multi
Speaker 3: There was people from all all countries around the whole
Speaker 3: world coming here since before even the first flee you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. So yeah, there's trade routess, you know,
Speaker 3: the average people in like East Arnham and across we're
Speaker 3: trading with Maccassens who were probably people of Muslim heritage
Speaker 3: well before the Dutch landed and well before the French
Speaker 3: landed here. So I think it's a thing now with
Speaker 3: the going back to the industry and going back to
Speaker 3: typecasting and performances and how you fit and how you look.
Speaker 3: You know, we're living in a world where it should
Speaker 3: just be about do you fit the story and do
Speaker 3: you fit the text? And can you fit the truth
Speaker 3: of it? And that's why I love sci fi, Because
Speaker 3: sci fi you can have someone who is the captain
Speaker 3: and the Japanese and the first mate is someone who
Speaker 3: has an African accent or whatever. No one questions it.
Speaker 3: It's just they're the people on this giant spaceship, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. And so now in this modern
Speaker 3: day world and these big cities, that's how we do look,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, Like the people around here
Speaker 3: from all different backgrounds total. Twenty years ago, you know,
Speaker 3: the guy playing your producer, they might have made it
Speaker 3: a white guy, you know what I mean, was a film,
Speaker 3: But nowadays it's you know, there's people of all different
Speaker 3: backgrounds and cultures working within this country, so it's quite exciting.
Speaker 3: Like and I always think about, you know, should I
Speaker 3: go back to acting, because now I can play the dad,
Speaker 3: the angry teenager and the industry is just booming because
Speaker 3: so much and there's so much content like Netflix, Stand,
Speaker 3: Amazon Prime, ABC, SBS Channel nineteen that so much content
Speaker 3: is being created totally, and they're all looking for people
Speaker 3: with different looks. Do you know what I mean, cookie
Speaker 3: cutter anymore? Yeah, So that's what you know, we're going
Speaker 3: back to. Like that's everything I was referring to. That
Speaker 3: was that was the past. Now I encourage anyone that
Speaker 3: wants to follow a career in the performing arts. Don't
Speaker 3: just think about acting though, too, Like we need more
Speaker 3: people working behind the scenes in like costume that are
Speaker 3: from you know, every community possible. You know, we need
Speaker 3: more people working in lighting and sound in a cinematography,
Speaker 3: Like I think they're.
Speaker 2: The roles of radio.
Speaker 4: We don't get offered though in high school.
Speaker 1: Like I think when I talk to my kids about
Speaker 1: the film industry, like they ask me so many questions.
Speaker 4: And I love when kids are curious because, like I
Speaker 4: feel like if you're curious.
Speaker 1: You're not being judgmental. And I think we need to
Speaker 1: teach our kids to be more curious and judgmental because
Speaker 1: it cuts them off from like knowing things.
Speaker 4: Don't you reckon?
Speaker 1: Like if you're judgmental, you're making an assumption and you're
Speaker 1: going straight. And our kids need to learn to be
Speaker 1: like ask questions, be curious, know things. But like the
Speaker 1: roles that you're talking about, like writing, producing, lighting, costume,
Speaker 1: like they're not the roles that in high.
Speaker 4: School you're taught to aspire to.
Speaker 1: Be and because then they're you know, it's always like
Speaker 1: a lawyer, doctor, nurse. Like I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: kids aren't being explorative with what they would liked, what
Speaker 1: they enjoy or like there was kind of just like confined.
Speaker 2: Well, I feel like people would put creative in such
Speaker 2: a nonchalant like career box where it's like, oh, you
Speaker 2: can't really create like that, you need another plan. It
Speaker 2: can't be just that side thy. Yeah, No, the creative
Speaker 2: space is, as you say, booming. But I want to
Speaker 2: I want to ask you, Trev. You know you see
Speaker 2: the industry now you're in a place where you can
Speaker 2: create change obviously, like especially with the people going through NIDHO.
Speaker 2: What is some advice that you would give someone who
Speaker 2: wants to go to nider who is the first nation's
Speaker 2: you know, creative who wants to be an actor?
Speaker 3: Look, if you want to be an actor, No, your script,
Speaker 3: know your auditions well, fine roles that work well for you,
Speaker 3: you know, and when you do your self tapes. When
Speaker 3: your audition, make sure you look look up a couple
Speaker 3: of YouTube videos how to do them right. Yeah, But
Speaker 3: like my thing is, if you love theater and you
Speaker 3: love the perform arts, and if you love film and television,
Speaker 3: you know, start doing it. Start writing stuff, start working,
Speaker 3: and you know, start joining to your youth theater or
Speaker 3: friends at school that are making videos. Get you know,
Speaker 3: start doing things yourself right, because that your own personal
Speaker 3: drive and passion for wanting to do it is what
Speaker 3: we love to see. But my other thing is too
Speaker 3: is find something in the industry that will keep you there.
Speaker 3: So I used to build theater sets in between acting gigs.
Speaker 3: And so, you know, studying acting, I went out and
Speaker 3: all I could do was act, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: But I taught myself some skills so I could build
Speaker 3: theater sets in between. So you know, doing a makeup course,
Speaker 3: a one year diploma and makeup and prosthetics. We need
Speaker 3: more First Nations people and people of color working in
Speaker 3: the industry totally. And so you know, we've recently just
Speaker 3: partnered with Netflix and we've got five places available for
Speaker 3: any persons of Color or First Nations if you're from
Speaker 3: interstate or anywhere in the country, will fly five people
Speaker 3: down to do a one week workshop, free, fully covered,
Speaker 3: accommodation sorted, yeah, and prosthetics, just to get the interest going,
Speaker 3: so hopefully, you know. And so my thing is is
Speaker 3: that the industry is booming. It's amazing. Australia is the
Speaker 3: place you want to be right now for the film
Speaker 3: and television industry. And you know, it's not just about acting.
Speaker 3: You know, there's so many other roles out there and
Speaker 3: a lot of them are behind the scenes, and there's
Speaker 3: a real need to get more people of color, First
Speaker 3: Nations in those roles to create culturally safe environments.
Speaker 2: Totally.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, Well thanks, Trav.
Speaker 2: I mean that's it's pretty cool, like know that, you know,
Speaker 2: the First Nations people over at night are in good hands.
Speaker 2: You know. Now it's a different it's a different world.
Speaker 2: I bet like they feel much safer, you know, and
Speaker 2: much more supported.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for having me and it was really nice
Speaker 3: to talk to you guys. And look, if anyone's interested
Speaker 3: in checking out night To just go to our website.
Speaker 4: Yeah, perfect, we'll put the link in the resource notes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you so much. Thanks awesome.
Speaker 1: That's all we have time for today. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening to First things first, if you love
Speaker 1: what you're hear, leave us a rating and a review.
Speaker 2: And if you want us to cover anything on the pod,
Speaker 2: just reach out via our socials. Brooks handle is at
Speaker 2: brook top blert in mind is it's maatty meals and Trav?
Speaker 2: What is your handle? Can they follow you? Or is
Speaker 2: that unprofessional?
Speaker 3: Google? I don't have Instagram, I do his private Yeah,
Speaker 3: so don't follow Travis all right.
Speaker 2: Bye