OUR WORDS is a two-day free panel series featuring First Nations poets, writers, creatives and thought leaders at Adelaide Festival Centre's Artspace on Friday 31 July and Saturday 1 August as part of BIGGEST MOB. Friday evening opens with theatre maker Jacob Boehme in conversation with curator Celia Coulthard on staging family lore, followed by Saturday sessions on Indigenous visual arts publishing, language in creative practice, Indigenous food culture, and Blak love and romance, with all sessions free and registration encouraged.

OUR WORDS brings First Nations poets, writers, creatives and thought leaders together for a series of free live panels to contemplate, provoke and inspire. This year, as part of BIGGEST MOB, the Centre's biggest celebration of First Nations arts, OUR WORDS will take place across two days at Adelaide Festival Centre’s Artspace from Friday 31 July – Saturday 1 August. All sessions are free, with registrations encouraged.

OUR WORDS kicks off on Friday evening with award-winning theatre maker and choreographer Jacob Boehme joining Adelaide Festival Centre’s First Nations Programming Executive and OUR WORDS curator Celia Coulthard in conversation to unpack how we bring family lore to the stage with integrity and nuance in The Stories We Tell. A cultural leader from the Narungga and Kaurna Nations, Boehme is known for bold, multidisciplinary work that moves across stage, screen and large-scale public ceremony. Don’t miss Boehme’s State Theatre Company show, Logan St, in Space Theatre until 8 August for BIGGEST MOB.

The conversations continue on Saturday 1 August at 10am beginning with Art for Thought, celebrating landmark First Nations visual arts publication, Blue Art Journal.Flinders University’s Associate Professor in Critical Indigenous Studies, Ali Gumillya Baker, sits down with Blue Art Journal editor Timmah Ball and contributors Dominic Guerrera and James Tylor, to discuss how the publication is shifting the way we think and talk about art, through a lens shaped by Indigenous voice and creativity.

At 11:30am, Mother Tongue brings together First Nations creatives to talk with multidisciplinary artist Sonya Rankine about how language speaks through their creative practice. The panel, consisting of contemporary artist and designer Susie Betts, poet Jayda Wilson, language and culture preservation advocate Ema Bovoro, and Karina Lester from Adelaide University’s Mobile Language Team, will discuss how languages have been woven into Country since the first sunrise.

At 1:30pm food and wine entrepreneur Pauly Vandenbergh (Tjindu Foundation, Munda Wines and Wonna Mar) pulls up a seat at the kitchen table with teacher, artist and co-founder of native food company Warndu Damien Coulthard and one of the country’s leading voices in Indigenous food Nornie Bero (a chef of 30 years with two cookbooks and an SBS series Island Echoes) to talk growing, cooking and eating in Fed by Country.

To round the day off we’ll settle in for a yarn and a laugh with Matters of the Heart at 3:00pm. Award-winning and deadly funny writers Skye Cusack, Beau Windon (Melbourne Prize for Literature 2024 finalist) and Yvonne Weldon (author and first Aboriginal councillor in the City of Sydney's history) join Courtney Jaye to talk Blak love, joy and romance.

Adelaide Festival Centre First Nations Programming Executive Celia Coulthard: “The best way to experience OUR WORDS is to immerse yourself, starting with Friday night, then settle in for the full Saturday line-up. From language to food to Blak love, with a break between each to grab a bite and a drink at Riverbank Café and check out our BIGGEST MOB exhibitions. This is First Nations storytelling at its best: honest, funny, moving, and made to be shared.”

In celebration of OUR MOB’s milestone 20th anniversary, Adelaide Festival Centre presents BIGGEST MOB, Adelaide Festival Centre’s largest First Nations program to date from July – October, featuring theatre performances, literary programs, a free family day, multiple exhibitions and more.