Blak State is a new, culturally led program created by First Nations artists and for First Nations artists. Grounded in self-determination and guided by cultural authority, Blak State carves out a creative space where Blak storytellers can dream boldly, make fearlessly, and shape work on their own terms.

Currently co-led by Kaurna and Narungga artist Jacob Boehme supported by Artistic Director Petra Kalive, Blak State centres First Nations voices, processes, and worldviews. It nurtures new performance, empowers community-driven practice, and invests in ways of working that honour more than 60,000 years of storytelling, ceremony, and cultural expression.

This is not consultation. Not advisory input.
This is First Nations leadership — artistic, cultural, and structural.

Blak State will develop new theatrical languages born of deep listening, connection to Country, and culturally held creative intuition. It will champion methods that move beyond Western conventions, embracing forms where ceremony, craft, dance, song, language, community, and healing are integral to performance.

What Blak State Will Do

• Create dedicated spaces for Blak artists to devise new work
• Support ceremonial dramaturgy, theatre camps on Country, and culturally held creative processes
• Commission new projects and invest in rigorous, long-term development pathways
• Build sustainable, community-led structures that uplift First Nations artists at every stage
• Foster exchange — locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally
• Listen deeply to First Nations artists and communities to shape the program’s direction

Blak State sits at the intersection of theatre, storytelling, cultural practice and community-led creative development. Rather than beginning with a predetermined artistic outcome, the project uses a process-led approach in which artistic ideas, cultural priorities and future opportunities emerge directly from community conversations. This approach recognises First Nations cultural knowledge, storytelling traditions and creative processes as artistic practice in their own right.

Activities are taking place in metropolitan Adelaide and regional communities including the APY Lands, Ceduna, Port Augusta, Whyalla, Port Pirie, Murray Bridge, Mount Gambier and other locations identified through consultation. Through Regional Story Labs, community gatherings, workshops, artist consultations and youth-focused creative activities, First Nations artists, Elders, knowledge holders, young people and community members will explore what a sovereign First Nations theatre initiative could look like in South Australia.

Public engagement will occur through workshops, cultural gatherings, artist exchanges, presentations and community consultation activities delivered throughout the project.

A key focus of the consultation process is engaging First Nations children and young people as active contributors to the future vision of Blak State. Their perspectives, creative aspirations and ideas for cultural expression will inform how future artistic programs, opportunities and pathways are designed, ensuring the initiative reflects the needs and ambitions of emerging generations.

Bold. Ambitious. Absolutely Necessary.

Blak State imagines a thriving, culturally grounded, self-determined First Nations theatre ecology in South Australia. The work that emerges from this initiative will be groundbreaking — artistically, structurally, and culturally.

This is Blak State.
A home for stories led by those who hold them.

For more information, please contact: blakstate@statetheatrecompany.com.au