
Dates & Times
Thu 20 Feb
Doors 7pm
Show 8pm
Duration 120mins
Access
Tickets
Festival Club membership prices available.
Location
The Embassy, Perth Town Hall 601 Hay St, Koorari / Perth CBD
More infoNotes
- Under 18s will need to be accompanied by a responsible adult and will be provided with a wristband upon entry.
- Under 18s will need to depart the venue by 10pm.
Better Off Said is an afternoon of words it’s time to air; thoughts and reflections for the living and dead. At one time or another, we all find there was something we wish we’d shouted aloud, someone out there in the world waiting to hear an important message, a piece of history we feel our voice could have improved.
Musician
Danielle Caruana AKA Mama Kin is an ARIA Nominated, WAM Award winning artist who has built her reputation on stirring live performances centred around story and song. Mama Kin Spender, her current project with long time friend and collaborator Dingo Spender, sees her playing stand up drum kit to his electric guitar, howling out their harmonies, usually backed by local community choirs. Mama Kin has a deep passion for connection, the antithesis to the current prevailing myth of isolation. She thrives on strength in vulnerability, forging relationships with her fans that are as honest as they are open-hearted.
Eulogist
Gen Fricker (Ngāpuhi/Australia) is a comedian, writer, and broadcaster. She tours globally as a stand up comedian and is currently a staff writer on ABC's Gruen. Gen has written for The Sydney Morning Herald and appeared on Spicks and Specks and Have You Been Paying Attention?
Speakers
Gillian O'Shaughnessy is a writer and journalist from Walyalup, Fremantle. She broadcast the Afternoon Show with ABC Local Radio in Perth for a decade and was a journalist and presenter with ABC News for 15 years. Her short stories have been widely anthologised and featured in the international Best Small Fictions in 2023 and 2024. She’s won the London Independent Story Prize and the UK Welkin Prize, among others. She is the founder of the notoriously kind Facebook group, Reading Between the Wines and a former curator of Writers Weekend for Perth Festival.
Molly Priest is an existential psychologist and artist. She is the songwriter and performer of Perth band, Alter Boy. She lives in a normal sized house with her cat Marge and her collection of much smaller houses.
Rinnie Nelson is a proud mama of four and devoted wife to her husband, Matt. She’s also the powerhouse behind her full-time social media business – The Foodie Mama crafting engaging content and writing reviews. Balancing family life and entrepreneurship, Rinnie thrives on creativity, connection, and sharing her passion with the Perth community.
Sukhjit is a writer, performer, producer and cultural leader based in Boorloo. Her work as a multi-form artist for the last decade has been recognised at the Performing Arts WA Awards (2020), Mona Brand Writing Awards (2022), WA Multicultural Awards (2022) and Australian Sikh Awards (2023). Her passion for storytelling began as a finalist in the Australian Poetry Slam (2014), semi-finalist on Australia’s Got Talent (2016) and winner of The Moth GrandSLAM (2019). Sukhjit premiered her sell-out theatre show ‘Fully Sikh’ with Barking Gecko Theatre Company and Black Swan Theatre Company (2019). Since then, she has been developing her comedy series ‘What Would Suki Do?’ with support from ABC TV and is currently producing ‘A Hairy Tale’, a documentary exploring female body hair. Sukhjit presented at TedxUWA (2017), TedxNewtown (2019) and has supported Missy Higgins and L-FRESH the Lion on their national tours (2016-17). Her poetry and community projects have led her to tour globally and across the nation.
Sukhjit and her partner, Perun Bonser, were selected to develop their rom-com series ‘One of the Good Ones’ at Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s talent lab, Impact Australia (2020). They premiered their video installation work ‘Between Breaths’ at Goolugatup Heathcote Art Gallery (2022) and the work toured in 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art’s exhibition ‘Bush Diwan’ (2022-23). Sukhjit was a story-telling trainer at the Centre for Stories (2018-23) and her debut hip-hop single ‘Collectables’ is now streaming on global music platforms. Sukhjit was selected to participate in a Broadway producing program with Theatre Producers of Colour in New York (2023) and her debut novel Fully Sikh: hot chips and turmeric stains (Upswell Publishing) is available from early Feb 2025. Sukhjit is the Executive Director of The Blue Room Theatre and has been selected to be in Creative Australia’s 2024-25 Creative Leadership cohort.