Kindred People, a new Indigenous-led festival of First Nations arts, culture and knowledge, will be presented by Monash University at three of its four campuses from 1 to 5 September 2026.
The festival’s performance program includes two world premieres by Australian artists and companies, remounts of critically acclaimed works not previously seen in Melbourne, and two works from Aotearoa New Zealand.
Monash University Museum of Arts at the university’s Caulfield campus will host a major exhibition as part of Kindred People. A two-day symposium and a community day featuring stalls by Blak businesses and live music by First Nations artists, both at Monash University Clayton, are also programmed.
Kindred People – quick links
Connecting First Nations artists with audiences outside Melbourne’s CBD
Kindred People’s inaugural edition is something of an experiment, according to its curator, Gunditjmara man Tom Molyneux, Head of First Nations Programming and Engagement, Monash University Performing Arts Centres.
‘We really want to do this once and see how it all goes, and be informed by the experience, but the intention, in the best case scenario, would be that we can make this a biannual event and operate in the opposite year to the [City of Melbourne’s] Yirramboi Festival – thereby having a First Nations festival outcome for artists to aim for in every year,’ says Molyneux, who has curated the festival with guidance and support from an Indigenous Steering Committee.
‘What we’ve seen with Yirramboi and with a number of other artistic outcomes in Melbourne, those spaces in central Melbourne get activated really well, but for our outer metro audiences, some of those opportunities are slightly less,’ he continues.
‘We want to bring art to the communities out here in the southeast of Melbourne – we are trying to make sure that as much First Nations work can meet audiences as possible.’
ArtsHub: Monash University announces new Indigenous-led festival for 2026
Connecting with spirit
Professor N’arwee’t Carolyn Briggs AM, senior Boonwurrung Elder and member of the Kindred People Steering Committee, guides Molyneux and the festival.
Briggs said: ‘Indigenous ways of knowing and being are constantly moving and adapting, just like Country, nature and people. Kindred People is an invitation to connect your murrup (spirit), wherever you may be from, to these ways.’
Professor Tristan Kennedy, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous) and Senior Vice-President, added: ‘Monash University is proud to walk alongside Traditional Owners on Boonwurrung Country. Through Kindred People we acknowledge the legacy of knowledge shared on these lands for generations.
‘Universities have a responsibility to facilitate rigorous and robust conversations, and the place of Indigenous knowledges within that is undeniable.’
A key element of Kindred People is the speakers’ program, titled kummargi yulendj gadhaba, a two-day event focused on dialogue, conversation and collective thinking.
Molyneux says this aspect of the festival ‘is about reflecting different ways of understanding knowledge, of understanding where knowledge comes from, who holds it, and under what circumstances, back to the university’.
He explains: ‘Sometimes, the inclination has been there from universities in the past to be gatekeepers or validators of knowledge, and that’s not always been necessary on this continent … Dance and song and ceremony have all been ways of transmitting important pieces of knowledge for many thousands of years before Oxford and Cambridge ever existed.’
The full kummargi yulendj gadhaba program will be announced in the coming months.
Kindred People program highlights
The Scarecrow and Waa, a new work from Narrm-based circus company Na Djinang Circus, led by Artistic Custodian and Waka Waka man Harley Mann, will have its world premiere at the George Jenkins Theatre at Monash University’s Peninsula Campus in Frankston as part of the festival.
Also premiering at Kindred People is Decolonising the Bells, a new experimental sound work by Noongar composer and viola player Aaron Wyatt, created in collaboration with local company Speak Percussion and featuring Victoria’s Federation Handbells (commemorating Australia’s centenary of Federation in 2001).
Molyneux says, ‘Aaron also works here, in the School of Music at Monash, and is leading this project with [the Federation Handbells] to say, “Well, we need to kind of take a step back here and actually do an interrogation of what these things are, particularly what they commemorate and who’s included in that commemoration”.’
Australian Dance Theatre’s Two Blood 雙血, a collaboration between award-winning writer S Shakthidharan (Counting and Cracking, The Jungle and the Sea) and co-choreographers Daniel Riley (Wiradjuri) and Jasmin Sheppard (Tagalaka) has also been programmed, as have two works from Aotearoa New Zealand.
ArtsHub: First Nations dance – who inherits the future?
Bianca Hyslop and Rowan Pierce’s He Huia Kaimanawa explores Te Reo Māori language revitalisation through movement, voice and design, while UPU (meaning ‘word’ in numerous Pacifica languages) is ‘a poetic expression of the Pacific, its people and their stories’ according to ArtsHub’s 4-star review of the production’s 2025 Sydney Opera House season.
Kindred People begins with Wurrungi Biik (Protocols Day) on 1 September, hosted by Briggs and described as an opportunity to ground the festival in cultural protocol, connection and care.
Molyneux emphasises that Wurrungi Biik, like other Boonwurrung words in the festival program, is ‘language given to us by N’arwee’t Aunty Carolyn Briggs’, and says the event will ensure ‘we’re observing protocols of welcome and so people feel like they are appropriately gathered here to practice their culture in a way that’s meaningful and reciprocal with a local mob’.
He continues: ‘Then on the second day we actually have a more general opening ceremony for the festival to which everyone’s invited. That one’s called Tanderrum Dambali (Opening Ceremony), and that will take place at our Clayton campus.’
The final event at Kindred People is Djeembana Yalinwa (Community Day), featuring stalls and live music, which will close with a free concert by duo Electric Fields.
