Chunky Move is located on the unceded lands of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nations. We respectfully acknowledge the significant contributions of Australia’s First Peoples, and are committed to supporting the continuity of culture and relationship to this land.
Sermsah Bin Saad
Sermsah’s name is synonymous within the Indigenous community with theatre, television, film, radio, festival circuits, opera, dance, and choreography. He was a Top 7 male finalist on So You Think You Can Dance Australia in 2008, and made history as the first-ever Indigenous dancer to introduce Traditional/Contemporary dance on commercial television.
Sermsah has toured nationally, performing in Mitch Tambo productions Burn the Floor and Bran Nue Dae. His television and theatre credits include The Glitch (ABC), The Preacher (ABC), The Circuit (SBS), The Activist (dir. Nadia Green), Half (Nexus Production Group), Reading Writing Hotline (voiceover), Corrugation Road (Black Swan Theatre), Ngalyak & the Flood (international tour, Big Mama Productions), Pecan Summer (Short Black Opera), Let Love Rule (Archie Roach), Big Heart (TheatreWorks/Phunktional Theatre), The Visitors (MTC), and Muttacar Sorry Business (Yirra Yaakin).
He has written and performed his own plays, including The Lighthouse (Yellamundie Festival), Liyan (Melbourne Fringe), and The Seventh Season (Yellamundie Festival).
Above all his artistic achievements, Sermsah values his heritage. He is a proud Nyikina man from the Kimberley. He believes in Liyan, a concept from his hometown of Broome/Derby, WA, meaning connection to Country, spirit, and instinctual knowledge.
Sermsah is also an educator who teaches dance and storytelling through movement and theatre in schools and organisations. He uses his art to openly discuss the atrocities of colonialism and the ongoing displacement of Aboriginal people. He says, “We have been subjected to this for too long, and it still continues systemically today. Enough is enough. Sovereignty was never ceded.”