Congratulations to the Participants Selected for the 2026 RIPPLE Program
We’re excited to announce the eight successful applicants who will be undertaking paid internships as part of Ripple, the Disability and Culturally Diverse Internship Program for 2026 led by Accessible Arts and run in partnership with Diversity Arts Australia and a range of arts, cultural and screen organisations across NSW and the ACT.
Congratulations to Senjuti Maitra, Anya, Elena Akami Hammer, Sehej Kaur Sehmbhi, Denise Nolasco, Mei Lin Meyers, Lara-Marie Wilkinson and Sione Puloka on being selected.
They will each be undertaking an exciting internship at one of our partnering cultural organisations, including APRA AMCOS, Performing Lines, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, UTP, PHIVE, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Parramatta Council.
Thanks to everyone who applied for this competitive program and congratulations again to the selected interns.
Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Internship Participants:
Senjuti Maitra – Internship at APRA AMCOS
Senjuti is a Kolkata-born, Sydney-based musician and creative professional whose work spans community radio, research, and storytelling. With a music practice rooted in the rich tradition of Hindustani Classical Music, and songwriting, she strives to tell stories of her lived experiences in the form of song through music. Though music is her first love, she discovered her love for the written word by accident and has not been able to let go ever since. In her work as a creative professional, she is passionate about amplifying diverse voices and exploring the intersection of music culture, and mental health.
Anya – Internship at Performing Lines
Anya (she/her) is an emerging writer and editor. Born in India, raised in Indonesia, and now studying in so-called ‘Australia’, Anya’s writing focuses on the nuances of belonging and identity. Her work has appeared in Honi Soit, Pulp Magazine, Indian Link Media Group and The University of Sydney’s 2025 Anthology. Anya is editor-in-chief of Sydney University Arts Students Society’s annual 1978 publication and will join the editorial team of USyd’s 2026 Anthology. As an aspiring teacher, she is interested in the role of creativity in shaping how young people understand themselves and the world.
Elena Akami Hammer – Internship at Tuggeranong Arts Centre
Elena Akami Hammer is an emerging artist passionate about experimenting with and combining different visual mediums: illustration, textiles, sculpture, collage, printmaking, graphic design, and photo and video editing. They are drawn to themes of identity, self-image and autonomy, often informed by their own experiences of queerness and disability, as well as their Japanese-Australian background.
Sehej Kaur Sehmbhi – Internship at UTP
Sehej Kaur Sehmbhi is an emerging artist working and living on Darug Country. Travelling between sterile, domestic and interwebbed worlds, Sehej seeks out points of tension and overlap, interested in embracing the forever flux of her body amongst extractive structures in the so-called West. Sehej utilises the digital landscape and its natural multiplicity as a method of non-linear re-archival and reclaim. How can acts of merging and disrupting offer an autonomous way of world building? How can were-imagine modes of storing and storying beyond material practice?
Denise Nolasco – Internship at Blue Mountains Cultural Centre
Denise Nolasco is a third culture Filipino-Australian writer and community practitioner based on Awabakal Country, born and raised on Kaurna Country. She works primarily in place-making, collage and long-form reflective writing – drawn to forms that hold space for complexity, and to the idea that meaning is made by turning toward what already exists and sitting with it until something new becomes visible. Her writing has been featured in Neoterica (Adelaide Festival, 2024) and Mga gamit ng isang makata (Nexus Arts, 2024). She is currently studying Global Indigenous Studies at the Wollotuka Institute, University of Newcastle.
Mei Lin Meyers – Internship at PHIVE, Parramatta Council
Mei Lin Meyers (he/they) is an emerging Queer, Trans and Disabled artist of Chinese, English and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, living on unceeded Wangal Country. Their creative practice weaves together painting, drawing and sculpture as a way to explore complex feelings of dis/comfort, grief, longing and dis/orientation. He is a budding community organiser, with an interest in access coordination, zines and lino printing.
Lara-Marie Wilkinson – Internship at Chau Chak Wing Museum
Lara-Marie is a multimedia artist working primarily in the mediums of sound, sculpture and photography, with the goal of finding clarity and catharsis in the midst of persistent pain. She moulds her pain to create artwork that responds to historical and contemporary, personal and collective, physical and emotional pain. With an emphasis on sublimating the abject experiences of disabled and colonised peoples, Lara-Marie aims to manifest a holistic rendering of suffering in the hope of fostering community and radical understanding.
Sione Puloka – Internship at Parramatta Council
I am a Tongan-American storyteller, journalist, and sports talking head who is enthusiastic about using media and knowledge about sports to bring people together via true human experiences. Living with cerebral palsy has molded my viewpoint, resilience, and dedication to promoting voices that are frequently ignored. As a Communications (Journalism) student at the University of Technology Sydney and a contributor to Basketball.com.au, I combine storytelling, culture, and creativity to inspire meaningful conversations. Whether through sports journalism, music, or community advocacy, my goal is to celebrate diversity, build understanding, and create work that resonates across cultures and generations.
The Ripple: Disability and Culturally Diverse Internship Program received funding from the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
Accessible Arts is supported by Create NSW and this program is being delivered in partnership with Diversity Arts Australia and a variety of arts and cultural institutions across NSW and ACT.
ENDS
Image Description: Collage of headshots of the eight selected interns. From top left to bottom right: Denise Nolasco (photo by Phoebe Metcalfe), Mei Lin Meyers, Elena Akami Hammer, Sione Puloka (photo by Jacquie Manning), Sehej Kaur Sehmbhi, Senjuti Maitra, Lara-Marie Wilkinson and Anya.
