AUNTIE BRENDA HODGE

Auntie Brenda and her daughter Trish are proud palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) people, descended from Manalargenna, Chief of the North East. Auntie Brenda has been conducting welcomes around nipaluna for more than eight years. Highlights of her life include being employed at the University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay Campus as the ‘Aboriginal Elder in Residence’ and welcoming the Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Madame Peng at Hobart Airport. Trish Hodge is an educator in Aboriginal Culture and has run Nita Education for five years. Trish has been learning about Country and culture since she was in primary school – “Sharing our culture, history and heritage is the most important part of who I am. I believe that everyone who lives in or visits lutruwita (Tasmania) should be exposed in some way to the most ancient living culture on Earth.”

Auntie Brenda and Trish will perform a Welcome to Country on the Main Stage to inaugurate this year’s Taste of Summer at 4.15pm on December 27, 2022.