Kaya.

I’m Rhys

a Modern Custodian.

A lot of my work begins with culture.

But increasingly, I’ve realised that culture is really just the doorway.

What I’m interested in is people.

How we understand who we are.
How we relate to one another.
How we participate in the places we live and work.
And what becomes possible when we feel enough permission to be ourselves.

For the past fifteen years, I’ve worked as a cultural educator, facilitator, artist and storyteller. Along the way I created experiences like Acknowledge This, After Acknowledgement and Dabakarn Koorliny - each exploring different ways of connecting people to Country, culture and themselves.

I don’t believe meaningful change comes from giving people another set of rules to follow.

I think it comes from helping people think and feel differently.

Sometimes that means talking about Country.
Sometimes identity.
Sometimes leadership, fear, belonging or responsibility.

Usually, it means asking better questions.

Modern Custodian is where all of that now lives.

It’s the workshops, the stories, the art, the ideas and the experiments - all connected by a belief that has become increasingly clear to me:

I give people permission to be themselves.

Because authentic people participate differently.

And when people participate differently, culture changes.

I’m still figuring parts of this out too.

That’s part of the work.

Welcome to the hearth.