Our Board

Martin Sawtell started his career as a Journalist but soon traded in writing the news for being part of the creative industry that sought to make the news (for all the right reasons) instead.

Martin has over twenty years’ experience as an arts and cultural development practitioner, arts manager and disability arts worker. Having worked both in local government roles and for Not for Profit arts producers and sector development organisations including; Kurruru Youth Performing Arts, Community Arts Network of SA, No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability and most recently Access2Arts, Martin strongly believes that arts and cultural activity offer a vehicle for people to build their understanding of diverse experiences.

Passionate about empowering Deaf and disabled people to live their best life by dismantling barriers that exclude and prevent equitable participation in arts and culture, Martin workes closely with both disabled and non-disabled emerging and established artists, arts workers and communities to; strengthen relationships to place, build capacity to participate, celebrate identity, and forge connections to create a cohesive and accessible society.

Larissa MacFarlane (she/her) is the proud owner of a 21-year-old brain injury. Acquired when she was 29, she has gone on to nurture and develop her new ABI (acquired brain injury) talents, which include as artist and community leader.

Larissa is a Naarm/Melbourne based visual artist, working across the mediums of printmaking, street art and a community art practice. Her work investigates ideas of Disabled culture and pride, community and identity. Since 2006, her work has been exhibited in galleries and streets across the country. Larissa is also known for her street art practice that investigates her daily ritual of performing handstands, a key part of her disability self-management. In 2017, these works were exhibited at the Arts Centre Melbourne.

Larissa has also been involved in the Self Advocacy movement and disabled community for almost two decades and has led many community arts projects, with groups such as Arts Access Victoria and Footscray Community Arts Centre. She recently led Brain Injury Matters to create the world’s first app about ABI made by people with ABI. She is also the creative producer of Australia’s first Disability Pride murals and the 2019 short documentary film The Disability Pride Wall.

Peter is the Consulting Director at Exceleris Consulting, empowering organisations to do great things with the support of cloud-based technologies. He is a registered accountant with a background in business systems and general management and has worked with the Bauer Media Group, Nine Entertainment (formerly PBL Media) and FinancialForce.com.

Satvinder is an experienced Financial and Management professional. He has undertaken a range of Finance and Commercial head roles in many different countries and environments and has extensive experience in the Strategic Management field.

Spanning over 30 years his career has included roles as Finance head at The Department of Culture and the Arts, CFO with Department of Training and Workforce Development, Finance Manager at National Native Title Tribunal and State Library of WA.

Satvinder has a strong consultancy and audit background in the Arts and Culture space and is highly experienced in providing strategic advice to Not For Profits and community-centric organisations. Satvinder is  passionate about advancing equality for all Australians with disability encompassing artists, arts workers, participants and audiences through information, research and advocacy and providing full and equal opportunity for cultural participation and contribution by Australians.

Satvinder is an Alumnus of the Leadership WA 2014 Signature Leadership Program.

Dan is a Trained Theatre Director and a Disability Arts Advocate, with a particular interest in access support for artists with neurodiverse disabilities. Dan has a neurodiverse disability and is also proud to be part of the LGBTQI Community.

Dan has served on the Board of Arts Access Australia previously and is Co-Chair of Artists With A Disability Committee for MEAA and serves on their Diversity Committee. Dan is also on the Hickson Road Committee for Accessible Arts NSW and is a regular peer assessor for the Australia Council for the Arts.

In 2019, Dan was awarded a Create NSW Fellowships to travel to the UK to investigate access in practice at various theatre companies, performing arts centres and drama schools.

In 2020 he received the Disability Leadership Institute’s National Award for Disability Leadership.

Dan has directed many productions, including SAM I AM which had a sold-out season at LA MAMA as part of The Midsumma Festival in Melbourne in 2021. He is currently the Access Consultant for Brand X in Sydney.

In 2020 Madeleine Little was appointed Festival Director for Undercover Artist Festival, and drove the 2020 Festival postponement Strategy due to the pandemic, creating a virtual two-day celebration ‘Undercover Artist:Online’ which attracted national and international viewers.

Brisbane-based performer, theatre maker, writer and access consultant for the performing arts, Madeleine is currently delivering Disability Awareness Training for 390 employees and volunteers for Home Of The Arts (HOTA), Gold Coast.

Madeleine’s original play, Hold, was presented as part of her MA research testing the implementation of accessible theatre practice conventions in a new work. It was later published in Australasian Drama Studies Journal (Issue 76) – Hold On: Australian Innovations in Access Aesthetics with co-authors.

Aged 25, Madeleine was awarded the inaugural Stella Young Award from Arts Access Victoria (2018), an Access Arts Achievement Award Special Mention (2019), and the inaugural National Leadership Award from Arts Access Australia (2019).

Kevin is an arts executive, strategist and facilitator with experience working in a range of industries including government, arts, film and media. His impact areas focus on leadership development, innovation, organisational sustainability and partnerships.

With a career spanning over 23 years, Kevin has pioneered and led internationally recognised programs that are an integral part of transforming creative leadership, knowledge and skills in the Australian arts and cultural industry.

Prior to joining Monkey Baa, Kevin worked at the Australia Council for the Arts where he was the Director of Capacity Building. During his 11-year tenure, Kevin developed major industry development programs including the Australia Council leadership programs; national policies, such as the digital culture strategy; many large sector events and hundreds of professional development programs. He coaches and mentors alumni from around Australia and the Indo-Pacific.

Kevin has a strong background in operations and business management that he developed in previous roles, including film festival production, technology and media business analysis and project management.

Kevin is currently a member of the ASSITEJ Australia committee and previously been on the NSW selection committee for the Sir John Monash Scholarship since 2015. He was a board director for Assisted Community Living Ltd and the chair of the ACL Foundation Ltd. He co-chaired the Global Arts Leadership Program Organisers network with members across 14 countries.

Jeremy Hawkes is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer and occasional performer with over 30 years’ experience exhibiting extensively in Australia and overseas. He has a BA in Fine Art from SCU and post-graduate qualifications from RMIT and VCA.

He is currently living between Brisbane and the Northern Rivers. His work in represented in many private and public collections and he is the recipient of a number of awards and prizes, most recently the Create NSW Fellowship and the Australia Council for the Arts Art and Disability
Mentoring Initiative.

In 2019 he attended residencies in both New York and Berlin, with a resulting exhibition at BAI. He has worked extensively in disability-led community based projects and as a disability consultant for many organisations including NAVA, Australia Council for the Arts; and ADAHK, Hong Kong.

Jeremy is passionate about disability culture, and the arts as a vehicle for social change.