'Spectacular' 10-day First Nations international arts festival YIRRAMBOI kicks off in Naarm/Melbourne
With a grand cohort of international talent joining local mob across this year's YIRRAMBOI — the Naarm/Melbourne-based biennial First Nations arts festival that both embraces and upends tradition — the decision was made to ease audiences in.
"We're starting off slowly, being grounded onto Country and then really going out with a bang with the Uncle Archie Roach Block Party, making some noise on closing night," says co-creative lead Sherene Stewart (Taungurung/Filipino), who co-leads with J-Maine Beezley (Wakka Wakka/Kabi Kabi).
"It's a spectacular and beautiful event."
Billed as one of the largest-ever First Nations-led happenings in Naarm, the Block Party is named in honour of the late game-changing musicians Archie Roach (Gunditjmara and Bundjalung) and partner Ruby Hunter (Ngarrindjeri/Kukatha/Pitjantjatjara), whose collective voice helped fire up generations of activists and artists.
Amos Roach, pictured with Sky Thomas, says his parents would more than approve of YIRRAMBOI's Block Party line-up.
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National Indigenous Times/Joshua Scott
)
Curated by YIRRAMBOI music producer Sky Thomas, aka Soju Gang (Gunnai/Kurnai/Yorta Yorta/Wiradjuri), it's a giant street party centred on the Aunty Ruby Hunter Stage. It's headlined by Roach and Hunter's son, award-winning musician and dancer Amos Roach (Ngarrandjerri/Djab Wurrung/Gunditjmara).
"It means so much to me that the Block Party carries my mum and dad's names," Roach says.
"Growing up, I'd travel round the country with them performing and meet so many musicians and their kids, including Kutcha Edwards [also playing the Block Party]," he adds. "I know they'd love this line-up."
Acclaimed Mutti Mutti songman Kutcha Edwards features in YIRRAMBOI.
(
Susan Carmody
)
That stacked line-up includes the likes of Miss Kaninna (Yorta Yorta,/Dja Dja Wurrung/Kalkadoon/Yirendali), who recently supported Irish rappers Kneecap, pioneering rockers Blackfire and Canadian roots star Leonard Sumner (Anishinaabe).
"I'm hoping to catch as many performances as possible," Roach says. "I can't think of a better tribute."
Stumble upon something new
YIRRAMBOI will also stage the welcome return of Barring Yanabul, a free showcase of First Nations arts events in and around Bourke Street Mall.
"Barring Yanabul translates to 'we all walk the path', and the idea is it's a great way to stumble upon something you've never seen before," Stewart says.
Yorta Yorta/Dja Dja Wurrung/Kalkadoon/Yirendali artist Miss Kaninna is performing at this year's festival.
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Supplied: Yirramboi Festival
)
First dreamt up by YIRRAMBOI founder Jacob Boehme and a council of Elders, this year's iteration includes everything from installation art to psychic readings and drag stars, and it continues to evolve the idea of moving beyond designated spaces, decolonising where art can happen.
"The idea was to remove barriers of engaging with new audiences," Stewart says.
"You don't need to go and buy a ticket to engage with incredible work created within our communities, interwoven with international acts."
The breadth of free works on offer is impressive, and it comes with a message.
"
For far too long, we were only seen as capable of traditional art," Stewart says. "That's an incredibly important part of our cultural inheritance, but we can also do anything and everything.
"
Hence a program with "a diversity of people and practices" and a little bit of everything for everyone, bringing "joy into the public sphere".
Breaking down the door
Continually expanding what YIRRAMBOI can do is built into the festival's mission statement.
"Yirramboi means 'tomorrow' in the local languages of the Boon Wurrung and Woi Wurrung," Stewart explains.
"I worked on the very first festival and remember going for a walk along the Birrarung with Jacob. He said to me, 'One day you'll be in a position where you have the opportunity to hold open the door, and when you do, pull through as many people as you can.'"
It's advice that stuck. "As I've been able to grow and develop within YIRRAMBOI, we've gotten to the point where we say, 'Why not rip the door down?'"
Already Occupied, a contemporary art project that's part of Barring Yanabul.
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Supplied: Yirramboi Festival/Keelan O'Hehir
)
YIRRAMBOI's international offering is an excellent example of folks passing through that door in either direction.
"J-Maine and I sat down and we really thought about how to program international artists authentically," Stewart says.
"And it's all about self-determination."
They invited Anishinaabe producer Sage Wright to help coordinate that aspect of the festival, including the Block Party and Barring Yanabul participants.
"She sits in the office with us," Stewart says. "It's not just a moment in time where we pick up a show or program an international musician. It's about legacy building; creating relationships that will continue forevermore."
Rock the block
The Block Party builds a bridge between the past, present and future.
"When Sky was curating the music program, she reinforced that Archie and Ruby transformed the landscape of the Australian music scene way back when they didn't get the opportunities we do today," Stewart says.
"So having Uncle Kutch and Amos in there alongside emerging artists is vital.
"
When we talk about futures past, we have that responsibility to create platforms for the people that created platforms for us.
"
It's more important now than ever.
"There has been a lot of hate, not only here but across the globe, including in the gender space," Stewart says. "We have survived for 80,000 years-plus, and that doesn't just happen. It happens because of the power and resilience of our communities.
"YIRRAMBOI is a joyful act of resistance."
YIRRAMBOI runs in Naarm/Melbourne from May 1–11.
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While seemingly incidental, the relationship between the haphazard staging, blurred background and focus points in the foreground make for a bracing, brilliant photograph taken by an artist who truly knows her craft." Hoda Afshar is a Melbourne-based visual artist and documentary maker, currently working in Berlin. This is the second time she has won the National Photographic Portrait Prize, the first in 2015 with the work Portrait of Ali, 2014. She wins $30,000 cash courtesy of the gallery and $20,000 worth of equipment courtesy of Canon Australia. Sherry Quiambao is the inaugural winner of the First Time Finalist Award, with Mother dreams on a stone, 2024. Quiambao is an Australian-Filipino multidisciplinary artist based in Perth. Mother dreams on a stone is a glittering portrait of her mother that explores themes of renewal, identity and belonging. "Wrapped in a golden emergency blanket and resting on a tumbled stone, my mother represents strength and adaptability, finding hope through her migration story," the artist writes. "The golden blanket, a symbol of safety and care, contrasts with the grounding presence of the stone. Together, they reflect the tension between aspiration, humility, fragility and resilience." National Portrait Gallery director Bree Pickering said the 2025 finalist portraits, 48 in all, represented artists and sitters from all states and territories. "The exhibition foregrounds the artist's voice," she says. "In each of the finalist works, subjects are revealed from the artist's point of view. The works are an invitation into the intimate world of a subject/artist relationship and a reflection of the people who make up the communities in which we all live." Sydney-based artist George Fetting received the 2025 Art Handlers' Award for his portrait Antonio Intili - Sartoria (Tailor Shop) #1, 2024. This intimate portrait of Antonio Intili in his tailor shop captures him in a moment of reflection. Fetting is a four-time National Photographic Portrait Prize finalist, and receives a $3000 cash prize. The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025 will be on show from August 16 to October 12. All finalist works can be viewed, with tickets to the exhibition available on the gallery's website at The final prize, the People's Choice Award, decided by members of the public, will be announced in October, with the winner receiving $10,000 cash. All finalists receive artist, copyright and licencing fees as well as freight costs and travel allowances. Hoda Afshar hadn't planned on entering her work into Australia's largest photographic portrait prize this year - especially as she'd already won once. But enter she did, hoping only that her work be selected as a finalist - knowing she would be among thousands of similar hopefuls. On hearing her work had won the National Photographic Portrait Prize for a second time, she couldn't hold back her tears. "I submitted this work, hoping it might be selected as one of the finalists, in order to draw public attention to the ongoing crisis facing Indigenous children in youth detention across Australia," she said. Untitled #01 (from the series Code Black/Riot) 2024, is part of a collaboration with a group of First Nations young people in Far North Queensland that questions a system that targets and imprisons them from the age of 10. The project, facilitated by the Cairns-based Youth Empowered Towards Independence and Change the Record in Sydney, invited participants to have their portraits taken, using a means of their own choosing to conceal their identities while making a personal statement. "Some of them chose flowers or bubbles. Others a flag, mask or face paint. The three girls here chose this gesture," Afshar said. "As a photographer, I am always seeking to disrupt such ways of seeing, and this is why I chose to submit this portrait. For me, these girls' gestures symbolise an act of resistance both against authority and towards the camera - a refusal to be, or to be seen, as passive." For 18 years, the National Photographic Portrait Prize has celebrated photographic portraiture in Australia. Open to established and emerging artists, the prize is an opportunity for artists to have their work shown in a national gallery, where it will be seen by thousands of people. The judges this year, Benjamin Law, National Portrait Gallery senior curator Serena Bentley, and Art Gallery of South Australia curator of contemporary art Leigh Robb, described it as a portrait of "immense power, which creates an urgent conversation between the viewer and subjects". "By handing agency over to her subjects, Hoda Afshar has given these First Nations young people the rare opportunity to frame themselves on their own terms," they said. "As part of a group that are often discussed and depicted but rarely given a voice, these figures observe us in turn, giving an assessment of the nation right now. While seemingly incidental, the relationship between the haphazard staging, blurred background and focus points in the foreground make for a bracing, brilliant photograph taken by an artist who truly knows her craft." Hoda Afshar is a Melbourne-based visual artist and documentary maker, currently working in Berlin. This is the second time she has won the National Photographic Portrait Prize, the first in 2015 with the work Portrait of Ali, 2014. She wins $30,000 cash courtesy of the gallery and $20,000 worth of equipment courtesy of Canon Australia. Sherry Quiambao is the inaugural winner of the First Time Finalist Award, with Mother dreams on a stone, 2024. Quiambao is an Australian-Filipino multidisciplinary artist based in Perth. Mother dreams on a stone is a glittering portrait of her mother that explores themes of renewal, identity and belonging. "Wrapped in a golden emergency blanket and resting on a tumbled stone, my mother represents strength and adaptability, finding hope through her migration story," the artist writes. "The golden blanket, a symbol of safety and care, contrasts with the grounding presence of the stone. Together, they reflect the tension between aspiration, humility, fragility and resilience." National Portrait Gallery director Bree Pickering said the 2025 finalist portraits, 48 in all, represented artists and sitters from all states and territories. "The exhibition foregrounds the artist's voice," she says. "In each of the finalist works, subjects are revealed from the artist's point of view. The works are an invitation into the intimate world of a subject/artist relationship and a reflection of the people who make up the communities in which we all live." Sydney-based artist George Fetting received the 2025 Art Handlers' Award for his portrait Antonio Intili - Sartoria (Tailor Shop) #1, 2024. This intimate portrait of Antonio Intili in his tailor shop captures him in a moment of reflection. Fetting is a four-time National Photographic Portrait Prize finalist, and receives a $3000 cash prize. The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025 will be on show from August 16 to October 12. All finalist works can be viewed, with tickets to the exhibition available on the gallery's website at The final prize, the People's Choice Award, decided by members of the public, will be announced in October, with the winner receiving $10,000 cash. All finalists receive artist, copyright and licencing fees as well as freight costs and travel allowances. Hoda Afshar hadn't planned on entering her work into Australia's largest photographic portrait prize this year - especially as she'd already won once. But enter she did, hoping only that her work be selected as a finalist - knowing she would be among thousands of similar hopefuls. On hearing her work had won the National Photographic Portrait Prize for a second time, she couldn't hold back her tears. "I submitted this work, hoping it might be selected as one of the finalists, in order to draw public attention to the ongoing crisis facing Indigenous children in youth detention across Australia," she said. Untitled #01 (from the series Code Black/Riot) 2024, is part of a collaboration with a group of First Nations young people in Far North Queensland that questions a system that targets and imprisons them from the age of 10. The project, facilitated by the Cairns-based Youth Empowered Towards Independence and Change the Record in Sydney, invited participants to have their portraits taken, using a means of their own choosing to conceal their identities while making a personal statement. "Some of them chose flowers or bubbles. Others a flag, mask or face paint. The three girls here chose this gesture," Afshar said. "As a photographer, I am always seeking to disrupt such ways of seeing, and this is why I chose to submit this portrait. For me, these girls' gestures symbolise an act of resistance both against authority and towards the camera - a refusal to be, or to be seen, as passive." For 18 years, the National Photographic Portrait Prize has celebrated photographic portraiture in Australia. Open to established and emerging artists, the prize is an opportunity for artists to have their work shown in a national gallery, where it will be seen by thousands of people. The judges this year, Benjamin Law, National Portrait Gallery senior curator Serena Bentley, and Art Gallery of South Australia curator of contemporary art Leigh Robb, described it as a portrait of "immense power, which creates an urgent conversation between the viewer and subjects". "By handing agency over to her subjects, Hoda Afshar has given these First Nations young people the rare opportunity to frame themselves on their own terms," they said. "As part of a group that are often discussed and depicted but rarely given a voice, these figures observe us in turn, giving an assessment of the nation right now. While seemingly incidental, the relationship between the haphazard staging, blurred background and focus points in the foreground make for a bracing, brilliant photograph taken by an artist who truly knows her craft." Hoda Afshar is a Melbourne-based visual artist and documentary maker, currently working in Berlin. This is the second time she has won the National Photographic Portrait Prize, the first in 2015 with the work Portrait of Ali, 2014. She wins $30,000 cash courtesy of the gallery and $20,000 worth of equipment courtesy of Canon Australia. Sherry Quiambao is the inaugural winner of the First Time Finalist Award, with Mother dreams on a stone, 2024. Quiambao is an Australian-Filipino multidisciplinary artist based in Perth. Mother dreams on a stone is a glittering portrait of her mother that explores themes of renewal, identity and belonging. "Wrapped in a golden emergency blanket and resting on a tumbled stone, my mother represents strength and adaptability, finding hope through her migration story," the artist writes. "The golden blanket, a symbol of safety and care, contrasts with the grounding presence of the stone. Together, they reflect the tension between aspiration, humility, fragility and resilience." National Portrait Gallery director Bree Pickering said the 2025 finalist portraits, 48 in all, represented artists and sitters from all states and territories. "The exhibition foregrounds the artist's voice," she says. "In each of the finalist works, subjects are revealed from the artist's point of view. The works are an invitation into the intimate world of a subject/artist relationship and a reflection of the people who make up the communities in which we all live." Sydney-based artist George Fetting received the 2025 Art Handlers' Award for his portrait Antonio Intili - Sartoria (Tailor Shop) #1, 2024. This intimate portrait of Antonio Intili in his tailor shop captures him in a moment of reflection. Fetting is a four-time National Photographic Portrait Prize finalist, and receives a $3000 cash prize. The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025 will be on show from August 16 to October 12. All finalist works can be viewed, with tickets to the exhibition available on the gallery's website at The final prize, the People's Choice Award, decided by members of the public, will be announced in October, with the winner receiving $10,000 cash. All finalists receive artist, copyright and licencing fees as well as freight costs and travel allowances.
