CONJAH

Raised on and informed by the whenua/lands of Aotearoa, and now based in Naarm (Melbourne), Jahra Wasasala and Ooshcon are the innovators of CONJAH - a creative force of ‘feeling’; bleeding beyond the traditional boundaries of physical performance and creating immersive worlds inhabited by compelling beings. CONJAH is a gathering point of friends, artists, world-builders, theatre-makers, dancers, designers and facilitators who co-create with each other and their communities to build multi-disciplinary theatre experiences. CONJAH’s work is in conversation with non-human phenomena, the body’s memory, cultural-mapping, resistance, reimagined futures and emotional rigour. 

CONJAH are award-winning artists, receiving the Arts Foundation Springboard Award in 2022, including mentor-ship from internationally acclaimed artist, Lisa Reihana MNZM. In 2023, CONJAH presented the short theatre work ‘I Pull Our Body Out of a Dead Animal’ within Kia Mau Festival. In that same year, they premiered ‘TADRA, and other visions’ in collaboration with the Pseudo Studio for Narrm’s FRAME: Biennial, commissioned by Chunky Move’s Activators 10 programme. In January 2024 CONJAH presented ‘Sei Solo - You’re Alone?’, in collaboration with acclaimed Aotearoa violinist Benjamin Baker, to audiences on Lenape territory, New York, U.S.A. ‘Sei Solo - You’re Alone?’ will be presented by Orchestra Wellington in October 2025 in Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington, Aotearoa.

CONJAH have recently premiered their highly-anticipated theatre work ‘DARK!DARK!DARK!’ in Kia Mau Festival 2025 as a part of Kia Mau’s He Toi Puaki commission programme. As well as working towards re-staging the work, CONJAH and their collaborators are also expanding on the world of ‘DARK!DARK!DARK!’, planning to build more performances, film, installation works and character studies.