Indigenous cultural leader

Panel Discussion:
Ethical Leadership: complex dilemmas, practical solutions (November 28, 2.45pm)

Deborah Cheetham, Yorta Yorta woman, Soprano, composer and author; Founder Short Black Opera Company; Associate Dean of Indigenous Studies and Head of the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts at the Faculty of the VCA and MCM, University of Melbourne.

Deborah Cheetham, Yorta Yorta woman, Soprano, composer and author has established her place as an artist in great demand. Since her international debut in 1997, Deborah has performed in the theatre and concert halls of the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and throughout Australia.

In April 2007, Deborah was awarded a two-year Fellowship from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. This fellowship allowed her to create Australia’s first Indigenous opera, Pecan Summer. In 2010, Deborah brought together Australia’s first classically trained Indigenous ensemble to present the world premiere of Pecan Summer.

In the same year she was a finalist for Australian of the Year in Victoria.

The success of Pecan Summer has led to the creation of Short Black Opera Company, a national not-for-profit Opera Company devoted to the development of Indigenous opera singers. In 2011, Short Black Opera presented a season of Pecan Summer at the Arts Centre, Melbourne and in 2012 the company toured to Perth to present a season at the State Theatre Centre of WA.

In September 2011, Deborah was appointed as Associate Dean of Indigenous Studies and Head of the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts at the Faculty of the VCA and MCM, University of Melbourne.

Twitter: @deborahcheetham