Our Story
Story Telling and anti-racism work brought the Our Race team together. Through our combined experiences across the arts, community, academia, government and advocacy we realised there was a need to highlight and address the power imbalances that occur in Story Telling and community engagement practices across society.
We believe that lived experience is the highest level of knowledge and build all of our work from that standpoint, starting with the strength and examples of First Nations' Story Telling. We honour and prioritise cultural knowledge and safety, which guides our approach to transformative, ethical Story Telling.
We are committed to an anti-racist, intersectional approach, valuing genuine engagement, reflection, critique and continual improvement.
We recognise the importance of individual wellbeing and safety in Story Telling, as well as the context within which it is told. We believe that individual Stories can add to or challenge mainstream narratives and we are committed to advocating for excluded and marginalised Story Holders.
Through a collaborative model of engagement we provide spaces, in person and online, where we can confront racist and other oppressive practices through education, capacity building, democratising information and encouraging a transformational, ethical Story Telling and engagement approach.
Meet the Team
We are an anti-racist Story Telling social enterprise who take a collaborative approach to creating safe, ethical Story Telling processes across media, arts, marketing and communications, research through to advocacy and community engagement. Our variety of experiences and collaborative approach, allows us to work towards the same goal: flipping the power of Story Telling together.
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Dung Tran
CEO
Dung is a lived experience anti-racism Story Telling mentor, educator and advocate.Growing up in Ipswich QLD during the 80s and 90s where she witnessed and experienced racism regularly instilled in Dung a strong sense of social and racial justice.
Dung has used her lived experience as one of her greatest strengths as both a driver to fight for justice and to encourage others to value lived experience as the highest form of expertise. She demonstrates this through her work at Our Race which she co-founded and serves as a director and Story Partner.
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Colin Kinchela
Director of First Nations Engagement
Colin is a Gomeroi artist, Story Teller and Transformational Ethical Storytelling designer and facilitator, currently residing on the Lands of the Burramattagal. He has over 20 years’ experience working across the arts sector as an actor, writer and director with a keen interest in how Stories are created and told.After working across TV, film and theatre Colin now dedicates his time to educating others on the principles of Transformational Ethical Story Telling.
As a strong advocate for First Nations’ led storytelling Colin has become a lead designer and facilitator of Transformational Ethical Storytelling. In this role, Colin brings his wealth of experience working across the arts sector to ensure all of Our Race’s projects and partnerships have strong cultural safety protocols embedded from the beginning.
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Doug Cronin
Director of Strategy and Partnerships
Doug is a co-founder of Our Race and currently lives on the Lands of the Bidjigal Peoples. He is a storytelling researcher and practitioner, currently studying a PhD at Western Sydney University.
Doug has spent the last seven years researching Story Telling across a number of platforms, with a keen interest in social and racial justice storytelling.
Doug has led the development of the Transformational Ethical Story Telling framework which has been a collaborative process including Story Holders, advocates, artists and lawyers. In leading this work he has developed strong partnerships with individuals, communities and organisations who share a common interest: to value and respect the legal and moral rights of Story Holders.
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Sara Cheik Husain
Director of research & community engagement
Dr Sara Cheikh Husain is a passionate early career researcher who conducted her PhD at Alfred Deakin institute for citizenship and Globalisation ADI at Deakin university.
Her research focuses on Victorian Muslim Community Organisations’ perceptions of Islamophobia and their anti-Islamophobia strategies and actions. She conducted qualitative analysis explore Victorian Muslim Community Organisations’ perceptions of and responses to Islamophobia in ways that capture the influence of factors shaping and restricting their agency. Sara has published in academic journals and presented at various conferences.
Sara is a strong advocate for Story Holders to be the creators and owners of their Stories, particularly in the areas of research and community advocacy.
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Vuli Mkwananzi
Director of program Development & Creative Projects
Vuli is a Zimbabwean/Australian musician, producer, workshop facilitator and community advocate living on Gadigal-Bidjigal country.
Vuli has spent his life telling Stories and advocating for Story Tellers across many roles, from youth work to delivering workshops locally and internationally for over 10 years, to being published as a writer as well as working as a musician writing, recording and performing original music worldwide.
Vuli works with Our Race on program development and delivery and brings his lived experience and expertise into focus, working with Story Holders and Story Telling organisations to train and encourage genuine collaboration and engagement with historically excluded communities.
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James Godfrey
Director of Engagement and Research
James has 36 years’ experience as an organiser and a teacher across many diverse settings. He has a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Social Development and is currently studying a PhD in Law at Birkbeck College, University of London.
His PhD research focuses on the 'Prevent' requirement in British counter terrorism legislation to report perceived radicalisation and its impacts on freedom of expression, academic freedom, research and campaigning about Israeli Occupied Palestine within English universities.
James brings his wealth of experience where he has campaigned on a wide range of social justice issues since the 1980s, since 2010 most of his campaigning has focussed on justice for Palestine, in particular challenging the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza.
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We pay the Rent. We acknowledge we are on First Nations Land and believe we all have a role in reparations and justice.
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We value lived experiences as the highest level of expertise. Our team will always reflect this.
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We believe in transformative justice and change. We won't tick boxes!
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We don't just talk about cultural safety, we practice it.
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We value and encourage creativity and collaboration as part of our ongoing learning journey.
Our Values
