And she was
wearing trousers:
a call to our heroines

Public Program

Artist talks and conversations

Running alongside the powerful exhibition And she was wearing trousers: a call to our heroines we hosted a series of online talks where the artists discussed their processes and practice. Themes of their work will include ideas of absence, trace and residue, call and response, and spirituality.

What are the legacies of these women? How do we remember them? How do we take action today? How can collaborative practice create a space for healing and connection?

Artist Talk 1: Call and Response: Dialogues and making across continents
Saturday 16 July, 5.30pm AEST
Co-curator Roberta Joy Rich in conversation with artists Jabu Nadia Newman, Rara Zulu, Kirsty Marillier and blk banaana.

Artist Talk 2: When art meets the music: Reflections on Black archiving
Wednesday 20 July, 6pm AEST
Samira Farah and Zara Julius in conversation.

Artist Talk 3: Matriarchs and knowledge systems: Past, present and future
Saturday 23 July, 5.30pm AEST
Co-curator Naomi Velaphi in conversation with artists Sethembile Msezane and Tariro Mavondo.


An African woman wearing a black top with a gold chain necklace is laughing looking to the right, with short curly hair tied up, sitting in a room with green leafed plants in the background that is out of focus. Behind her on the left and vinyl record sleeves and an old radio.

Samira Farah is an independent art producer, researcher and broadcaster. She is a co-founder of Melbourne based Black African arts collective still nomads. She currently hosts a weekly show called The Score on Triple R.

In front of a black background is an African woman with light skin complexion and long curly hair, with a lot of curls covering her forehead and around her eyes. She has a nose ring, and is wearing a beige top with a silver necklace with a stone pendant.

Zara Julius is an interdisciplinary social practice artist, researcher and vinyl selector based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is also the founder of Pan-African creative research and cultural storytelling agency, KONJO. Her work is concerned with the relationship between aesthetics, frequency, concealment and fugitivity in the settler (post) colony. Working with sound, video, performance and objects, Zara Julius’ practice involves the collection, selection, collage and creation of archives (real, imagined and embodied) through extensive research projects. She holds a BAHons in social anthropology from the University of Cape Town and a MAFA in Fine Art from the University of the Witwatersrand.