Country Arts SA pays respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and recognises their continuing connection and spiritual relationship to these lands, waters and skies. We are committed to listening and helping care for Country, and safeguarding, sharing and celebrating First Nations’ living cultures.
Celebrating fierce First Nations women this NAIDOC Week
This NAIDOC Week, meet some of the fierce women in Country Arts SA’s First Nations team!
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that this article contains the name of someone who has died.
Samantha Yates
Taungurung
Samantha Yates is Country Arts SA’s First Nations Arts Director, leading our incredible First Nations team and initiatives.
Sam feels pride watching her team grow, develop and change how people feel and understand the world.
She has recently completed a year of coaching to better understand herself as a leader, how she shows up and what drives her.
Sam loves the rivers and mountains of her Country, with the fresh air and cool waters grounding her and bringing her back to her core being.
She gets her inspiration from being under the stars, and from people who share their mind, soul and spirit openly to make a difference to our world.
Photo: Clare Elvia
Jayda Wilson
Gugada/Wirangu
Jayda Wilson is Country Arts SA’s First Nations Associate Producer, working across landmark three-part project Kumarangk – a retelling of the Hindmarsh Island bridge controversy through a Ngarrindjeri lens via an exhibition, film, theatre work and community archive.
Jayda’s favourite part of their role is highlighting grandmother stories and truth-telling.
They have also recently exhibited personal projects blak & (un)bothered, which explored colonisation through the five senses, and written work (un)silenced.
Jayda’s nana Neva Wilson motivates her journey of (re)learning language, as this was forcibly discouraged and removed from her.
Jayda is also inspired by blak poets and many local Kaurna artists that they say they are privileged to call friends.
Photo: Sia Duff
Star Sandford
Ngarrindjeri
Star Sandford is Country Arts SA’s Theatre Producer for Kumarangk, bringing her cherished connection to Ngarrindjeri Country to the project.
She looks forward to camping along the Coorong and capturing the water and wildlife through photography.
Star’s favourite part of her role is simply getting to do what she loves every day.
She will soon be travelling to Naarm (Melbourne) for professional development with the Ilbijerri Theatre Company to learn from respected First Nations creatives.
Star’s late mother was her biggest cheerleader in pursuing producing, and Star is inspired to continue on this path by the many stories that are still waiting to be discovered and told.
Photo: Clare Elvia
Marika Davies
Wangkangurru/Dieri
Marika Davies is Country Arts SA’s Regional Tarnanthi Curator, having most recently presented 2025’s Woven Within Stars, which reflects on how stories of Country and culture are carried from childhood and retold in new ways.
Marika says her own Country is at the centre of all her work and is what drives her to create.
She is inspired by the wildflowers and dry colours of summer in those arid lands stretching across the Lake Eyre Basin and Simpson Desert in the state’s far north.
In her unique curator role, Marika loves growing relationships beyond gallery walls, but as an artist she is celebrating having recently started painting again after five years and is looking forward to an upcoming exhibition in Adelaide.