An Aboriginal Australian arts, entertainment and tech professional now USA based. Samantha Cook is a cross-artform practitioner, educator, arts manager and leader in Indigenous Arts. A retired musician, she was the Director of The Dreaming Festival and a programmer of the Woodford Folk Festival.

 

Artistically, Cook is a playwright, writer, visual artist and graphic designer. Administratively, Cook started working in Aboriginal publishing at Broome based, Magabala Books ahead of becoming the CEO of Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company before launching her company The KMBA Creative Agency.

 

Recipient of the 2020 International woman of excellence, UK Arts Council Fellowship in 2007 and 2011, winner of National NAIDOC Aboriginal Youth of the Year in 1999 and Broome Aboriginal Artist of the Year in 1998, Sam was the founding Aboriginal columnist for Artshub and Tracker, founder of Australia’s Blak History Month, #SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA, Festivillian and co-founder of Kaltja (pronounced Culture).

 

Cook is currently a member of the First Nations Independent Arts Alliance, Artivist Entertainment, International Association of Blacks In Dance, Australians in Music and is a co-founder of the United Stages Collective, the first Aboriginal Australian led creative ensemble in the USA and Australian Made LLC with US based Australian industry giants. 

 

In 2022 Cook assumed the role of US Member Rep for APRA AMCOS, working to build, nurture and support and advance Australian + New Zealand songwriter, composer, producer members. Recently she founded Honey Ant Press, a publishing imprint that sees her place power back into literature, holding space for hidden history and creative voices that remain on the fringes.