Alumni and Supporters

Certificate III in Aboriginal Theatre (2006)

Bachelor of Contemporary Arts (2015)

2021 West Australian of the Year

“Being at WAAPA really inspired me, it is such a special place,” says Noongar performer, writer, producer and director, Karla Hart. “The Aboriginal Theatre course gave me great direction to think about what I wanted to do.”

“Having been raised by my grandmother in the country surrounded by a huge extended family, stories were always being told,” she explains. “I want to tell those stories so that they are around forever for everyone to enjoy and feel a part of something special.”

Karla set about creating a multi-disciplinary career in the arts. Along the way she added a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts majoring in Contemporary Performance from ECU to her academic qualifications.

“I just take every opportunity that comes my way,” the dynamic 40-year-old says. “I never, ever think that I can’t do something and I take every opportunity to learn as much as I can.”

This ‘can do’ attitude has seen Karla showered with awards that attest to her achievements in theatre, film and radio.

She has been the recipient of a 2011 National Deadly Community Broadcaster of the Year Award; a 2013 WA Emerging Artist Award FOR PERTH FRINGE FESTIVAL; a 2014 WA Screen Award for Best Short Factual Film for The Magic Quandong, which she wrote and directed; and a 2015 Performing Arts WA Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company’s production of King Hit.

In 2017, Karla won her second NAIDOC Perth Artist of the Year Award, after also receiving the honour in 2009.

“I often think back to when I was lying in my room in my grandmother’s house dreaming of travelling and performing and sometimes I have to pinch myself and go, ‘Gee that little girl from Gnowangerup has come a long way’.”

“I love acting but you can’t expect to continually get work as an actor, so if you have the talent to apply yourself to different art practices, then you should,” she says.

For Karla, those different art practices have included managing and performing with the Noongar women’s dance group, Kwarbah Djookian, since 2007; being a drive-time presenter for Noongar Radio 100.9FM; coordinating the City of Fremantle’s Wardarnji Festival from 2011 to 2018; and teaching traditional dance and dreamtime story creation to school students.

As a choreographer, dancer, composer and singer, Karla has performed in consecutive Perth International Arts Festivals: in 2015 with the French street theatre company Royal De Luxe in The Incredible and Phenomenal Journey of The Giants to the Streets of Perth; in the 2016 opening event, Home; as part of the 2017 opening, Boorna Waanginy – The Trees Speak; and contributing her vocals to the outdoor aural work, Siren Song, for the festival opening in 2018.

Karla is currently working with Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company as a cast member of a Noongar language adaptation of Shakespeare‘s Macbeth, that is slated to premiere in 2020.

For the past four years Karla has also been engaged in telling stories through film, developing her skills as a writer, producer and director.

“Even now I’m still learning,” Karla says. “If it will further my career and give me another skill I always just think, ‘Why not?’”

Karla’s most recent productions to air on NITV and SBS on Demand include On Country Kitchen, a 2017 six-part culinary program that she co-wrote and directed, and which has been extended to a second series; Family Rules, a 2017 reality television series based on her original concept that she wrote, co-executive produced, directed and shot, which has a second series due to air in late 2018; and Nyoongar Footy Magic, a 2018 four-part documentary series that she co-wrote and co-directed about the role of Noongar players in the AFL.

“I often think back to when I was lying in my room in my grandmother’s house dreaming of travelling and performing and sometimes I have to pinch myself and go, ‘Gee that little girl from Gnowangerup has come a long way’.”

“But I never stop dreaming about what I can do next!”