Gaja Roslyn Watson

Photo credit: Adrian Platt

Gaja (Aunty) Roslyn Watson is a Muninjarli and Birri Gubba woman based in Magan Djin/Meeanjin (Brisbane).

Roslyn began training as a classical ballet dancer at the age of 10 at Madonna MacAuliffe’s Ballet Academy and later with her senior student Marilyn Creery. Prodigiously talented, driven and determined and with strong community and family support, she was awarded the first ever Abstudy grant to study classical ballet full time at Kathleen Gorham’s Ballet Academy and then after a successful audition, the Australian Ballet School as a full-time student in 1971. She was the first Indigenous dancer accepted into this school and graduated with Honours in ‘Modern’ from this two-year Diploma course.

Her professional ballet career began as a dancer with the Dance Company (NSW) – later Sydney Dance Company- and included the production and touring of ‘Brolga’ with world-renowned actor and dancer David Gulpilil (deceased) in 1973.

She joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem School in New York and was accepted as an apprentice dancer with the company before returning to join Queensland Ballet. While with Queensland Ballet, she led Isolated Areas Teaching Tours across the state and was seconded to dance at the Third World and Black Arts Festival in Lagos, Nigeria with the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre in 1977. 

Roslyn then toured nationally and internationally with Australian Dance Theatre. Following these tours, she commenced teaching with National Aboriginal and Islander Skills & Development Association (NAISDA).  Upon arrival in Paris in 1982, she established her own company, Compagnie Brolga. While there, with her French husband Michel Trillot, she co-choreographed/produced ‘Voyage au dout d’un Rêve’ (Voyage at the end of a Dream) with Eric Sennen and Mark Baldwin and performed at Théâtre 18.

In a generation and cohort of ground-breaking First Nations’ dancers, Watson covered expansive ground both literally and artistically, studying and later teaching contemporary dance in Australia, performing with Australian Dance Theatre throughout Southeast Asia and Europe, appearing at Edinburgh Festival in 1980. Her commitment to her First Nations’ heritage was reflected in her choreography and activity in nationwide projects for First Nations dancers.

A respected Elder in First Nations and dance communities around Australia and across the world, Roslyn continues to advocate for opportunities, access, and greater understanding for young First Nations’ dancers, and strongly believes dance is a universal medium through which Cultural understandings can grow.