First Nations First

The Sydney Fringe embraces the principle of First Nations First. Broadly speaking this means respecting the diverse cultures, histories, and identities of First Nations people and ensuring their needs are considered as part of the intrinsic wellbeing of our Festival and organisation.

For Mob artists and creative team members, we encourage you to connect with our Frist Nations team directly regarding any questions or queries you may have or if you need additional cultural support, or even just for a yarn and a cuppa!
Erica Brennan erica@sydneyfringe.com First Nations Coordinator
PJ Williams petajoy@sydneyfringe.com First Nations Community Liaison

For all our artists we warmly invite you to join us in embracing the principle of First Nations first throughout your Fringe journey.
Below are some resources, guidelines for wise practice, and further thinking points for you. Reach out to Erica or PJ above if you have any additional questions.

Watch our First Nations Masterclass Below

Creating Safe Space /Brave Space – Wise Practice for Working with First Nations Team Members 

Familiarise yourself with Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) (more info here) and investigate if community consultation is required for the development and production of your work.

Ask your team member how they can best be supported.

Whenever possible make sure there is more than one First Nations person on the team

Encourage them and make space for them to connect with mentors and peer support if required- particularly if they are the only First Nations person attached to the project.

If cultural consulting is required for the work and your First Nations team member provides that in addition to their other role, credit them for this labour and reflect this in the fee agreement as well.

Flag any culturally sensitive material with team members and audiences.

Deadly Tix – Discounted tickets for Community

As an event at Sydney Fringe, 5% of your tickets are allocated to our Deadly tix program. This is a discounted ticket that all First Nations audience member can access by selecting the ticket type when booking. You will have already set you Deadly Tix prices and we encourage you to promote them as part of you marketing rollout.

To learn more about Deadly Tix visit the webpage here.

Welcome to Country vs Acknowledgement of Country vs an Acknowledgment Speech

‘Welcome to Country’ and ‘Acknowledgement of Country’ are two different types of ceremony performed by Indigenous Elders with a connection to the land the ceremony is performed on.

A Welcome to Country can only be performed by an Elder from the country whose land the event is taking place on and who is acknowledged as such by their community. An Acknowledgement of Country is performed by an Elder who is not from the local mob but has been given permission to perform a ceremony at important events.

Sydney Fringe will engage an Elder to perform a Welcome to or Acknowledgment of Country at the beginning of our Festival that will welcome audiences for the whole Festival.

An Acknowledgment Speech is a short speech often given at the beginning of events before all other proceeding. They may begin with ’I’d like to pay my respects to… or I’d like to acknowledge the …”. They are a way for everyone to pay their respects to country and our First Nations people whether they are indigenous or not.

Please note that Welcome to Country and Acknowledgment of Country ceremonies are varied and nuanced between language groups and regions. The above is designed to explain some of the general differences in protocol observed in Sydney as advised by our community consultation.