Yoonggama Ma Nga Launch: Deborah Cheetham Fraillon in Conversation

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Yoonggama Ma Nga Launch: Deborah Cheetham Fraillon in Conversation

09 Jul 2025
05:00pm - 07:00pm
FREE
Melbourne City
The Green Brain, Building 16 (Storey Hall), Level 7, Rooms 7-8

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Hear a keynote from Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO, acclaimed soprano and Artistic Director of Short Black Opera, which provides training and opportunities for emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musical artists. Deborah will share her journey and aspirations for the First Nations academy.

Join us this NAIDOC Week for the launch of Yoonggama Ma Nga: A First Nations Transdisciplinary Research Initiative.

Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO has a string of accolades for her opera performances, and as a composer and artistic director. She leads Short Black Opera, which provides training and opportunities for emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musical artists. In this keynote we will hear about her journey and her aspirations for the First Nations academy.

Yoonggama Ma Nga is an initiative to build the First Nations academy. It is a centre for land-based learning where First Nations Knowledge Systems are privileged and community research, training and learning needs are prioritised. The initial focus areas for Yoonggama Ma Nga are art, performance, language and culture, and the dedicated hub at RMIT provides a physical meeting point for First Nations scholars, from pre-doctoral candidates to senior academics.

Founded by Dr Vicki Couzens, RMIT Research Fellow, and Suzi Hutchings, Swinburne University Professor, Yoonggama Ma Nga is an RMIT initiative led by Vicki Couzens. Links are also being built with Swinburne University of Technology.

Speakers

Dr Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO FAHA
Dr Vicki Couzens, Research Fellow, College of Design and Social Context, RMIT University
Professor Tim Marshall, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, College of Design and Social Context, and Vice-President, RMIT University
Professor Suzi Hutchings, Director, Indigenous Research, Moondani Toombadool Centre, Swinburne University of Technology
Dr Eugenia Flynn, Vice Chancellor's Indigenous Postdoctoral Fellow in Writing and Publishing, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University

Refreshments will be provided and there will be opportunities for networking at this event.

Learn more about Yoonggama Ma Nga.

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

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