People

Medika Thorpe (Williams)

Dance Artist (Alumni)

  • Queensland, Victoria

Medika grew up a Dancer. She toured with Bangarra as a nine year old in Praying Mantis Dreaming (1992), and since has run dance workshops in remote communities, and starred in Move It Mob Style: an NITV show promoting fitness through Aboriginal music and hip hop.

People

Heritage

Medika Thorpe is a proud Gunai, Gunditjmara and Goreng Goreng woman born in Melbourne, Victoria, and now lives on Gadigal Country.

People

Bio

Medika Thorpe is a proud Gunai, Gunditjmara and Goreng Goreng woman born in Melbourne, Victoria, and now lives on Gadigal Country.

Medika grew up immersed in the Indigenous performing arts scene and it has led her to be heavily involved in and passionate about her culture, the community and the creative arts industry. She has worked with many different Indigenous institutions and businesses in Australia and Canada such as NITV, ABC, 33 Creative and Mudgin-Gal Aboriginal Women’s Centre. She was previously the Executive Director of Winda Film Festival, an international Indigenous film festival based in Sydney.

Medika started her career as a Dancer at the age of nine, performing in Bangarra’s Praying Mantis Dreaming. She toured with the production around Australia and once over to London, and she also appeared in the 1993 film Black Rive starring Bangarra Dancers. Medika continued her love for dance facilitating youth workshops with Vibe Australia travelling to regional and remote communities nationwide. She continued her work at Vibe as the Community Engagement Manager working with the community and stakeholders. She appeared regularly on Logie-nominated TV series ‘Move It Mob Style’ (2012-14) and featured on NITV’s Comedy Show Express Yourself (2016).

In 2014, Medika lived and worked in Canada to broaden her knowledge and skills working with First Nations communities. Medika started working with imagineNATIVE, the world’s largest Indigenous film festival based in Toronto as the Guest Services Manager. This was Medika’s first real look at the Indigenous film industry on an international scale.

Medika returned to Australia in 2016 and works in a freelance capacity as an event producer, project facilitator, casting coordinator and in creative administration roles within the cultural creative industries both in the community and corporate space engaging and facilitating diverse projects and programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their communities.