About Bukjeh

Bukjeh translates to ‘a small pack of belongings carried by travelers’.We encourage our communities to share their art and stories, embracing the diverse range of storytelling forms-spoken word, music, songs, visual arts and language.

 Bukjeh builds social cohesion, harmony and inclusion of those who have been displaced, creating a culturally safe space by embracing and respecting diversity of background, experience, ideas, thoughts and feelings. Bukjeh delivers a range of projects and activities to audiences all over Australia through virtual and in person programs & projects.

Why Bukjeh

This project puts new and diverse communities and their stories front and centre for us all to share. The refugee storytellers are new to Australia, or have been here for a long time, unfamiliar with the Australian mainstream, or perhaps they have chosen to live their lives as if they were still in their homeland, some of who are involved in arts and culture projects and for some, this is their very first adventure in the arts.

DSC02978 small

Best Speaker

Tedx Melbourne PulggedIn 2020 Best Speaker

The Art Award

Victorian Multiculture Commission Excellence In The Art Award 2020

Creative Art

WAW Creative Art Pioneer Award Winner 2020

Australian Muslim Artist

Australian Muslim Artist Of The Year Finalist 2020

WINNER

WINNER The Joan and Betty Rayner Australian Children’s Theatre Foundation Commission

Australian Small Business Champion Awards

Australian Small Business Champion Awards 2023 FINALISTS

Our Mission

At Bukjeh, our mission is to provide unique and exciting experiences that promote intercultural connections. We are dedicated to creating safe spaces and encouraging a future that values cultural identities and unique life experiences. Our commitment to the community is evident in our diverse, inclusive and respectful work, suitable for all ages and backgrounds.

Our vision

Changing the world, through our own voices, one story at a time.

Purpose

Creating safe cultural spaces for refugee and migrant communities to engage with and share their cultural practices in ways that enables the building of social fabric, transforming sites of inequity into opportunities for celebration and inclusion.

Our Values

  • Diversity - We cherish diversity in everything Bukjeh does, in our people, in their intersectional and dynamic identities and in their lived experiences, reflected in stories that educate, challenge and uplift us.
  • Safety – We nurture spaces that allow for honest, respectful and creative exchanges, connecting people of all ages and backgrounds to ensure their voices are reflected in our work, and are made visible in our communities and public conversations.
  • Equity - We work to build social cohesion and belonging through our artmaking, empowering artists and communities to share their diverse lived experience in order to manifest a more just and equitable society.​

Our Goals

To explore and celebrate notions of home as unique to our human experiences and identities, in ways that create positive change in communities.

A. Creating connections with First Nations people and their struggle for sovereignty
B. Empowering people to share their art and stories of home, of displacement and new futures
C. Providing creative tools to support people away from home to connect with each other and build new friendships

To platform the lived experiences of refugees and asylum seekers through storytelling and creative practice

A. Building visibility, engagement, and inclusion of those who have been displaced
B. Amplifying own voices through self-determined practice
C. Demonstrating the power of storytelling to create change

To build capacity across the arts and community sectors to embrace peoples’ diverse backgrounds and identities, and create opportunities for engagement

A. Creating safe spaces with partners that are skilled and knowledgeable to work with diverse communities
B. Facilitating professional development opportunities
C. Being a conduit for connection between organisations and creative practitioners from diverse communities

Get to know our founder, Aseel.

Aseel Tayah is a leading practitioner, creative producer and the founder and CEO of Bukjeh, her work is deeply committed to making change while sharing arts, culture and education.

She has been sharing her passion, working with communities locally, nationally, and internationally.
Pharmacy was Aseel first start in her career, which inspired her to create magical interactions, and healing gatherings, she studied Masters in Art, and taught gifted children in various schools visual and performing art.

Aseel’s advocacy for her communities need has led to her leadership in the field. Her excellent projects and collaborations continually contribute to the change she wants to see in the world. She works with the government, not-for-profit, universities, art and culture organisations to build a bridge and connect communities, making a more inclusive future for her people.
Aseel’s creative practice has richness in the variety of projects she delivers, from making art with youth in the prison to building the first toy library in her homeland, she creates theatre, directs musical shows, and facilitates cultural development projects around the globe. Whilst Aseel has been collaborating with major venues and organisations she is known for her work for social change, refugee rights, climate change, and first nations struggle internationally.

Aseel’s work focuses on diversifying the spaces and creating work with her people, for them, and about them authentically. Started her career in Melbourne as a storyteller, to now lead Bukjeh’s, an organisation, movement, and community of storytellers and talented practitioners shaping the art stages in every way possible.

You can follow Aseel on the following.