Rachael Maza

Artistic Director, ILBIJERRI Theatre Company

Rachael Maza is Yidinji from North Queensland, Meriam from the Torres Strait Island of Mer, and Dutch on her mother’s side. Rachael is Artistic Director of ILBIJERRI Theatre Company (2008 – present) and brings with her a wealth of acting, directing and dramaturgical experience, a significant profile, and a passionate vision for Indigenous theatre.

Rachael is widely known for her wealth of acting, directing, and dramaturgical experience across the Australian film, television and theatre industry. Most notably, the AFI (Australian Film Institute) award-winning Radiance and the stage production of The Sapphires.

A Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) graduate, Rachael’s outstanding performances have been acknowledged with a Green Room Award and a Sydney Theatre Critics Circle Award. Rachael has also worked as a presenter for ABC Message Stick and as an acting coach on films such as the multi-award-winning Rabbit Proof Fence.

Rachael first worked with ILBIJERRI Theatre Company in 1992, as director of Stolen, and in 2008 joined the company as Artistic Director. Since then she has directed Sisters of Gelam (2009), Jack Charles V The Crown (2010), Foley (2011), and Which Way Home (2016).

Rachael currently sits on the board of ACMI, is a member of the Circus Oz Indigenous Advisory Panel, the Australian Opera Indigenous Advisory Panel and the Green Room Awards Theatre Company Panel.

Rachael’s considerable contribution to the cultural landscape has been recognised through multiple awards, including the Touring Legend Drover Award, 2017, the Inaugural Alumni Graduate Award, Edith Cowan University (2019), and the Australia Council of the Arts Award for Theatre (2019), as well as an Honorary Doctorate of Performing Arts from Edith Cowan University (2019).