Western Terrace: The Oldest Stories

Monica Rani Rudhar is an artist working on Gadigal Land across video, performance and sculpture. Born to Indian and Romanian migrant parents, her work speaks to longing and loss as she navigates the cultural disconnection that stems from the complexities of her multi-racial ethnicity. Her work takes the shape of a restorative autobiographical archive that seeks to record her own histories. Her practice attempts to restore familial histories, traditions and rituals that have been dispersed by migration and draws on the labour required to move passed the barriers that stand in the way of reforging these connections. 

Shankari Chandran was raised in Canberra, Australia. She spent a decade in London, working as a lawyer in the social justice field. She eventually returned home to Australia, where she now lives with her husband and four children. She is the author of Song of the Sun God, The Barrier and Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, which won the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award. Her latest novel is Safe Haven. 

Huyen Hac Helen Tran is a writer living and working on Cadigal Land of the Eora Nation. Her work can be found in Liminal Magazine, Meanjin, The Suburban Review, The Big Issue, and more. She is currently completing a Masters Degree in Literature and Creative Writing at Western Sydney University, and is Associate Editor at Sydney Review of Books.

Julie Janson is a Burruberongal woman of Darug Aboriginal nation, living on the South coast of NSW. She is a novelist, playwright, and poet. Her newest historical novel: “Compassion” Magabala Press March 2024. “Madukka the River Serpent” UWA Publishing 2022, long listed Miles Franklin Literary award 2023. “Benevolence” Magabala 2020, Harper Collins USA, UK 2022 – shortlisted Barbara Jefferis Award 2022; nominated NIB Literary Award 2020 and Voss Literary Award 2020. Julie is co-recipient of the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize 2016, Judith Wright Poetry Prize 2019. Poems published in Overland Magazine.  

While living in remote Northern Territory Aboriginal Yolngu communities in her early years as a teacher, Julie wrote plays and made giant puppets, masks and costumes. Her career as a playwright began with productions at Belvoir St Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre and Sydney Opera House Studio. “Black Mary and Gunjies” Aboriginal Studies Press. Her plays are produced in Australia, USA and Indonesia. 

Jumaana Abdu is the author of Translations (Vintage). She is a Dal Stivens Award winner and a Wheeler Centre Next Chapter alumnus. Her work features in Thyme Travellers (Roseway Publishing), an international anthology of Palestinian speculative fiction. She has been published elsewhere in Kill Your Darlings, Westerly, Griffith Review, Meanjin, Liminal Magazine, Overland, Debris, and New Australian Fiction 2024. During the day, she is a junior medical doctor.

Paula do Prado is a visual artist-researcher based on the lands of the Gadigal, working with various forms of tejido (weaving). Her practice surfaces the intersections of her West African Bantu-Kongo, Iberian and Charrúa (Indigenous Uruguayan) ancestral lineages. Her practice-led research is indivisible from her cultural and spiritual practices, her family and community relationships including beyond-human kin. She holds a BFA First Class Honours (Textiles) and an MFA (Research) from the University of New South Wales. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney and a member of the Sydney Indigenous Research Network.   

Vivian Pham is a Vietnamese novelist, essayist, poet from southwestern Sydney. In high school she wrote a novel called The Coconut Children, which was published in March 2020 by Penguin Random House. Vivian is the current Writer-in-Residence at the University of Technology, Sydney and sits on the reading team of Overland Journal. She is a course director and key tutor for Faber Writing Academy's Writing a Novel course. Vivian holds a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Philosophy and Creative Writing from Western Sydney University. She’s currently adapting The Coconut Children for stage with Belvoir Theatre and screen with Exit Films.   

Yumna Kassab is a writer from Western Sydney. She is the author of The House of Youssef, Australiana and The Lovers. Her latest book, Politica, is available from Ultimo Press. It is an imagined history of the Arab world or else a feminine telling of politics.  Her books have been listed for The Stella, Miles Franklin Award, Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, QLD Literary Awards, Victorian Premier's Literary Award and NSW Premier's Award. She is the inaugural Parramatta Laureate in Literature 

Alissar Chidiac is a community arts worker and creative producer living and working on Dharug Country. She believes that self-determined storytelling is the essence of art making, her practice starting 45 years ago with theatre collectives. She has developed innovative programs on local, regional and national levels - Powerhouse Museum, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Arts & Cultural Exchange, Auburn Community Development Network - as well as many independent cultural projects.  Alissar co-founded Arab Theatre Studio in 2014, continuing generations of Arab-centred critical work. She received a Fellowship from Creative Australia and their Ros Bower Award, honouring a lifetime contribution to community arts and cultural development.

Kefah is a passionate cook, a registered nurse and community advocate. The daughter of Palestinian refugees, Kefah migrated to Australia late 1996. In 2001 Kefah co-founded the _Council of Australian Palestinians,_ a community-based organisation delivering programs designed to empower the Palestinian Australian community and build Palestinian cultural awareness.

Inspired by her Palestinian heritage and love for cooking, Kefah founded _Jafra Enterprises_ in 2019 – a social enterprise catering traditional Palestinian cuisine teeming in flavour and cultural traditions.