Syndey
Deborah Cheetham is a Yorta Yorta woman. She was removed from her mother at just three weeks of age and raised by a family in Sydney.
Deborah is an opera singer, composer, artistic director and educator. She has performed throughout Australia, as well as in Europe and the United States. In 2009, she founded 'Short Black Opera', a national not-for-profit opera company that supports Indigenous opera singers. In the same year, she also established the Dhungala Children's Choir for Indigenous children in Victoria and northern NSW. Her opera Pecan Summer, which features members of Dhungala, tells the story of a family who left the Cummergunja Mission in protest of the poor living conditions. Like Deborah herself, the main character in Pecan Summer is forcibly removed from her parents as a child.
Deborah was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2014 for her service to the performing arts.
ABC Classic FM, 'Deborah Cheetham AO' http://www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2017/01/17/4605169.htm
Deborah Cheetham