Akala Newman is a Wiradjuri/Gadigal, multi-disciplinary performer, singer-songwriter, educator and cultural producer, who brings cultural care practices to all of her work. Described as a “Bonafide triple threat we really can’t get enough of at the moment" by The Urban List, her artistry is influenced by fantasy and magic, challenging the notion of what it means to be a First Nations woman today and to live by your own narrative. 

Since her early days in Bangara’s NSW Youth Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Dance Company, to graduating from Newtown’s Performing Arts High School, to graduating with Hons First Class in Performance Studies from Sydney University, it's been hard to pinpoint her in a single direction. Instead, she creates a genre that is uniquely her own, creating worlds and storytelling in many forms, from stage to academia. 

She wrote and performed the opening song for the New Year's Eve Fireworks at Sydney Opera House, ‘Calling Country’. She won the inaugural Indigitube song contest where she was flown to Darwin to perform at the National Indigenous Music Awards and opened the Women's World Cup draw in Aotearoa with Gawura Dance Company. Akala also starred in Brook Andrew’s GABAN for the opening season of the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ Sydney Modern. 

Akala began her producing career at Moogahlin Performing Arts (Carriageworks), and is now a First Nations Consultant at the Arts and Cultural Exchange, Parramatta. She is a First Nations Academic lecturer and Student Coordinator at the National Art School, an Artist Educator at the Museum of Contemporary Arts, a Research Assistant at University of New South Wales and of course, an Intimacy Coordinator with Key Intimate Scenes, Australia, where she's most proud to have worked on Whitefella Yella Tree (Griffin Theatre) and While The Men are Away (Arcadia/ SBS).