I am a woman of mixed race, a mother, and an immigrant. I don't fit into any particular mold and, while I do feel that I represent a changing world, with shifting lines of identity and nuanced definitions of personhood, I've yet to see these changes and redefining practices applied to the traditional music I studied for so long and have taught to students.

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In my work I hope to combine several artistic practices, partly because this mix of styles and sounds represents who I am, and also because I have never seen this kind of work performed before. Throughout my career, I've always felt a need to explore and fill that void. I started learning viola as a child through a free public school program in Australia. As a teenager and young adult I changed direction and began to sing jazz, releasing an album – “Turning Arrows into Flowers” – to critical acclaim. The album incorporated jazz, classical, Maori, experimental and electroacoustic improvisation, along with composed songs and instrumental music. I wrote, arranged and recorded the album with an ensemble of respected musicians, including a string trio and jazz quartet – while also playing viola, and singing.

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I look to use the tools at hand, my own body in movement, the organic forms of nature juxtaposed with the concrete foundations of a building site in film, the contents of memory, place and lineage in shaping identity, to merge them in a collage as I did in the recent work, "Wood, Wire and Bone".

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Being a Storyteller is an important part of my indigenous heritage. I use modal improvisation to develop melodic and lyric ideas in songs, and I tell abstract stories through musical and textural vocalization, with taonga puoro, traditional Māori instruments like porotiti (hand-carved spinning discs that create eerily compelling humming sounds and can be blown on, to produce further harmonics and overtones); and kōauau (hand-carved bone flute, microtonal melodic). I also use more traditional European instruments like viola or 5-string violin – either acoustic or by utilizing live electronics, effects and audio looping. In these ways I incorporate Western techniques with traditional playing in contemporary styles, classical, jazz, avant-garde free improvisation and cross-cultural genres. I find multiple modalities to be natural, powerful tools and I use them together or separately, as each piece evolves.

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Melodic exploration and postgraduate study has led me to incorporate cross-cultural modal improvisation as epitomized by Hindustani music from North India. Techniques and improvisational strategies from this tradition have infiltrated my string playing in particular. I also utilize microtonal inflection when I play any instrument or sing, and I find that this practice enriches phrasing and expression in ways that most indigenous cultures acknowledge in their practices, including Maori and African American cultures. The element of rhythmic groove has held a long-standing fascination for me and synchronizes empathetically with modal melodic improvisation. In my solo performance practice and compositions, I aim to bring these complementary aspects of music more into view. I hope to create rhythmic grooves as the basis for melodic invention, using technology, while also preserving the inherent organic nature of the music.

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As a healing arts facilitator for justice-impacted adults and their families, as an educator I having taught general music, choir and orchestral strings in programs for underserved communities and youth in Los Angeles, and I am passionate about nurturing and amplifying the voices of people in those communities. Growing up in Australia, and being an immigrant, of mixed race, indigenous and female, I was acutely aware that my own voice was not valued. A primary motive for me as an artist is to inspire and uplift others who may be marginalized – through arts facilitation, the unique expression of my own voice and artistic practice.