2026 Copyright Agency First Nations Fellowships
We are pleased to announce the six recipients of the 2026 Copyright Agency First Nations Fellowship.
Congratulations to this year’s recipients Alison Barton, Daisy, Joyrah Sebasio, Liza-Mare Syron, Lorena Allam and Shahnee Hunter.
We look forward to welcoming the six recipients during their one-week residency with us on 7 - 14 September 2026.
Alison Barton
Alison J Barton is a Wiradjuri poet based on Wadawurrung land. Her work appears in Australian and international literary journals and anthologies, and has been recognised in prizes and Best of Australian Poems. She was the inaugural University of Cambridge First Nations Writer-in-Residence and the recipient of several writing fellowships and international residencies. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Not Telling, was published by Puncher and Wattmann. She is currently writing a verse novel about the Indigenous experience of German missions in Australia and completing her PhD at The University of Cambridge. Alison is Editor-in-Chief of The Suburban Review.
Daisy
Daisy is a queer koorie artist, writer and worker who embraces the humour and humility of survival and belonging in a schismatic deep-fake post-truth context. Their recent projects address the escalating costs and devastating impacts of settler colonial carceral logic in Australia. Their work makes use of grounded theory to contribute critical insights into creative practice while expanding upon dialogues relative to their experience as an artist and storyteller.
Their work has been presented at the Art Gallery of South Australia’s Ramsay Art Prize (2019), and the Parliament of NSW King & Wood Malleson Contemporary ATSI Art Award (2018). They have exhibited with Blak Dot Gallery, Gertrude Contemporary, Incinerator Gallery, Yapang Museum of Art and Culture, The Lock-up Artspace, Bus Projects and SEVENTH gallery. Their writing has been published with Rabbit Poetry Journal, Memo magazine, and UNprojects.
Daisy currently works with La Trobe Art Institute on Dja Dja Wurrung Country in Bendigo, and as an artistic committee member with BUS projects on Woi Wurrung Country in Melbourne.
Joyrah Sebasio
Joyrah Sebasio is a Wulgurukaba woman raised in Bamaga, grounded by Injinoo and Tamwoy Town communities of Cape York and Zenadth Kes. Her existence and Creation stories are woven in Kala Lagaw Ya, from Panay and Maydh on Mabuyag and Badu in Zenadth Kes. From a young age, Joyrah was encouraged by Nanu Aka Baraki to write and speak in traditional language with Nanu Aka Marcella. Her poetry and creative work walk alongside the teachings of her cultural parents Awa Brian Whap & Ama Matilda Bani and Nanu Kuthayg Sani Tamwoy. Uncle Kenneth Newman of Wulgurukaba has continued to guide her as a young poet led in the footsteps of renowned poets, songwriters and knowledge holders from Injinoo and Tamwoy Town.
Liza-Mare Syron
Liza-Mare Syron is an Australian Indigenous theatre maker, academic, and arts leader specialising in Indigenous performing arts and theatre studies. She has family connections to the Birribai and Worrimai people from the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. Syron is both a creative practitioner—such as a director, dramaturge, and producer—and a university researcher and lecturer. She has authored numerous works on Indigenous performance and theatre. Her book, Rehearsal Practices of Indigenous Women Theatre Makers: Australia, Aotearoa, and Turtle Island (2021), explores the creative processes of Indigenous women playwrights. Her current writing project is Cape Hawke, a revision of a play written by her Uncle, the late Brian Syron, accompanied by a theatrical case study.
Syron is a founding member of Moogahlin Performing Arts, an Aboriginal-led theatre company in Sydney, and is currently an Indigenous Scientia Associate Professor in the School of Arts and Media at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and also serves as Co-Associate Dean (Indigenous) in the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture. Her research focuses on Indigenous theatre practices, First Peoples storytelling, and performing arts training. She lectures on First Peoples theatre practices at UNSW and at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).
Lorena Allam
Lorena Allam is a four-time Walkley Award-winning journalist, a Gamilaraay and Yuwaalaraay woman, and an Industry Professor of Indigenous media at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney. With over four decades of experience across broadcasting, media leadership and investigative journalism – Lorena spent over 30 years as a journalist and broadcaster with the ABC, working across news, Triple J, Radio National, TV and online. At ABC Radio, she managed the station’s long-running Speaking Out and Awaye! programs and produced award-winning history and documentary programming for ABC RN. Lorena has also worked at the BBC, the US ABC and the UK Guardian. In 2018, Lorena became the inaugural Indigenous Affairs Editor for Guardian Australia, where she led a team in significant investigative reporting.
Beyond journalism, she has worked on the landmark Bringing them Home inquiry and managed the Indigenous collection at the National Film and Sound Archive. In 2023, she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to investigate the relationship between Indigenous truth-telling initiatives and the media.
[Photo credit: Guardian Australia]
Shahnee Hunter
Shahnee Hunter is a proud Djabuganydji woman from Far North Queensland. An Actor and Deadly Funny winner, she is known for bringing hilarious characters to life on stage.
Shahnee completed her first full length original play ‘She is not Alone’ with the support of Playlab Theatre Company’s Fuel program. She attended a First Nations Emerging Playwrights Retreat with Australian Plays Transform, which is supporting her new work: Location, Location, Location!
Shahnee’s work is grounded in family values, strong Black characters, and comedy. She believes in the healing power of storytelling, performance, laughter and spinning yarns.
