**CV

PAINTER/ SCREENWRITER / DREAMBOAT

Aretha Brown made headlines following her speeches at both the 2017 and 2018 Invasion Day protests in Melbourne.

The then Year 11 student addressed an estimated 50,000 protesters in Melbourne on Invasion Day, calling for the date of the national holiday to be changed and fighting to make Indigenous Australian history education mainstream.

Her delivery and ideas led her to be elected as Prime Minister of the National Indigenous Youth Parliament, the youngest ever person—and the first woman—to hold this position.

Now a practicing artist and screenwriter, Aretha takes heavy influence from her time growing up in Melbourne's Western Suburbs, as well as her own identity as a queer, Blak young person living in the confinements of an urban colony.

Aretha is a confident and experienced public speaker, appearing at many festivals including the All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House (2019), the Broadside Festival (2019), and The Melbourne Writers Festival (2019), and appearing on several national TV and radio programs in Australia.

She is also a regular MC at the iconic Australian music festival Meredith and has since spoken at the Tate Modern, London (2023) and the University of the Arts, London (2023) about her own youth activism. She was named by Vogue Australia (twice) in two editions as a rising voice for change in 2021 and 2023.

An accomplished visual artist, she has exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria twice, with one of her artworks chosen as the billboard image promoting a 40-artist exhibition. Aretha has also exhibited at West Space Gallery, the Australian National University, and Melbourne University, and has worked with clients such as Bad Apples, Strawberry Festival, Pitch Festival, Greenpeace, Converse, Puma, and Apple.

In 2021, Aretha wrote her first subversive comedy short titled HOW TO BE COOL IN MELBOURNE, parodying the ideas, inner workings, and social politics of Melbourne's underground art and cultural spaces. Aretha has also been a regular performer at comedy clubs, performing her signature political and satirical stand-up throughout Melbourne since 2020 and is currently working on several television projects. 

In 2019 Aretha founded the **Kiss My Art Collective. 



**Kiss My Art has created over 65 murals and public artworks in Australia, Great Britain (London & Bristol), India (New Delhi), East Timor (Dili), Indonesia (Malang), the United States (New York City), Canada (Toronto), and Japan (Osaka & Tokyo).