Wesley Enoch is Festival Director and commenced his tenure in 2017. A proud Noonuccal Nuugi man, he is a writer and director who has previously been the Artistic Director at Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts; Artistic Director at Ilbijerri Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Theatre Co-operative; Artistic Director at Queensland Theatre Company; and the Associate Artistic Director at Belvoir Street Theatre.
Wesley has directed a number of renowned Indigenous theatre productions, including Black Diggers (Sydney Festival 2014) and Black Cockatoo (Sydney Festival 2020).
For this year’s Faces of Sydney Festival, artist Thea Anamara Perkins – an Arrernte and Kalkadoon woman – was commissioned to create four bold portraits of the First Nations people who have been an intrinsic part of the Festival over the years, to mark Wesley Enoch’s incredible tenure as Artistic Director of Sydney Festival.
The paintings were brought to life by local animators Timothy Lee / Juune李 and David Lobb working closely with Thea Perkins, with original music composed by multi-instrumentalist Lama Zakaria, and will be premiered on screens this summer both online and across the Sydney Festival precinct.
