Assembly for the Future Live from Blakfullas University

In this Transmission from the Future, we meet Professor Zena Cumpston from the National Sky Rangers Program who delivers the 2029 Moreton-Robinson annual address. Celebrating the first five years of the BLAKFULLAS (Blak Lives And Knowledge Fundamentals University for Living knowledge Living culture And Solidarity) University, Professor Cumpston reflects on the 2020s and the incredible transformations taking place as First Nations leadership and Country are given overdue authority and resources. The rapid progressions of this all-Indigenous University are examined in detail, allowing us to reflect on the possibilities powerfully evidenced when self-determination becomes reality.

Received on 21 April 2022 at the Science Gallery Melbourne during the Assembly for the Future convened for ANAT SPECTRA 2022 :: Multiplicity, Professor Cumpston’s Transmission was responded to by civil society advocate and year 12 student Ahelee Rahman, and astrophysicist and Kamilaroi woman Krystal De Napoli.

This collective provocation was taken up in future-making rooms stewarded by an ensemble of artist-moderators in the speculation of new worlds. Each artist-moderator created artworks as records of these new worlds in the form of Dispatches from the Future.

Assembly for the Future is a project of The Things We Did Next, co-created by Alex Kelly & David Pledger and produced by Sophia Marinos with Not Yet It’s Difficult.

Keeper of Time | Alex Kelly
Dramaturg and coCurator for the Future | David Pledger
Producer for the Future | Robbie McEwan
First Speaker | Zena Cumpston
Respondents | Ahelee Rahman & Krystal de Napoli
Usher | Robbie McEwan
Artist Moderators | April Phillips, Eleanor Jackson, Jen Rae, Jordan Lacey, Nina Sellars, Zoe Scoglio, Jenna Lee, Huong Truong, Debris Facility & Jen Mills
Composer | Aaron Cupples
Visual Design | Elliat Rich
Video Editor | Lewis Isaacs