2019 Indigenous Comic Con (Australia)
There’s a few people I want to thank for helping me deliver such a successful event!
First and foremost, my team
Jacinta Keefe: Official Photographer
Heidi Brooks: Cosplay coordinator
Sarah Bramble: Volunteers coordinator
Kimmie Lovegrove: Communications
Phoebe Watson: Gaming Zone
I’d also like to give a shout out to
Darebin Arts & Entertainment Centre
Dr. Lee Francis
Songlines Music Aboriginal Corporation
Multicultural Arts Victoria.
Accommodation was supplied to a select few special guests and core team, transport was supplied to our celebrity guests and MC’s. The venue of accommodation also providing great service in supplying discount rates to IndigiCon attendees, signage within the hotel lobby and provided a space to host our opening night drinks for our guests and team.
Day one kicked off with a truly powerful Welcome To Country by local Elder, Aunty Di. After which Aunty Di invited all attendees to walk through the cleansing smoke, this welcome signifies a form of mutual respect and acknowledgement of no harm while here. This was followed by a traditional dance group.
A short speech by Aus. Director, and than the stage was set!
We saw the gaming and anime room start things off with an arcade style video game tournament, seeing Gamers go up against each other and fight it out with joy sticks and controllers!
Over on the cosplay stage we saw our cosplay panel commence, speaking on all things cosplay we had International cosplay guest, Dezbah Rose and our cosplay MC, HeidzDee. This was followed by our international guest interview with creator of Indigenous Comic Con & founder of Red Planet, Lee Francis. Lee spoke about the start of IndigiCon in New Mexico and it’s absolute success since that first setup. Our celebrity guest panel followed, hosted by Rae Johnston, our celebrity guests; Rarriwuy Hick and Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, were asked about their journeys in the acting world.
Within the live music stage we were treated to a line up up some of the best local Aboriginal musicians, providing attendees with a relaxing space to sit and listen to some truly amazing talent from the music world!
Our main floor showcased some great small businesses, this area showcased Indigenous owned businesses, but also the small businesses of allies and supporters of IndigiCon. Hosting everything from our special celebrity guests, Indigenous futurisms workshop to Indigenous wrestlers and comicbook illustrators.
Day two saw our cosplay parade kick things off, complete with accessible ramp and catwalk, our attendees and cosplayers got their chance to strut their stuff and show off their costumes!
Within our storytelling space, we hosted our Pacific Islander guest who hosted a panel talking about Pacific Islander representation in the pop culture world.
The Gaming room hosted a game developers panel focused on INNCHANTED, a video game which includes elements of Indigenous storytelling. The studio even providing an opportunity for an Indigenous game developer to step on board as a team member. During the afternoon this was transformed into the anime cinema, showing a wide range of series supplied to us by Madman Studios.
During the afternoon we were also lucky enough to play host to the national movement of ‘One Dance’ which saw a number of traditional dance groups around the country dance as one at a single time. This incredibly powerful moment was done in the wake of the Victorian bush fires and droughts around the country, it was commenced to give our power and connection to these lands, restoring growth and restoration with rain.
The 2019 Indigenous Comic Con in Australia meant many things to many people. It is a platform for the realization of Indigenous creativity to be seen, a safe space for culture to be celebrated and, most importantly, a place to celebrate our passion for the pop culture.
But IndigiCon is just one platform, here are some examples what Indigenous representation is going on in the pop culture industry: