Our Team

IOTA began with a shared aim: to showcase the ingenuity of craft practitioners and the cultural importance of craft across the Indian Ocean region.

The idea took shape in 2019, when a group of six came together to establish the first Triennial. Following the success of IOTA21: Curiosity & Rituals of the Everyday, the founding partnership transitioned into a sustainable structure, forming the not-for-profit Indian Ocean Craft Triennial Inc.

Today IOTA operates as a charitable organisation governed by a volunteer management committee, working with artists, curators and organisations to build relationships, develop future Triennials and a network of collaborative projects.

MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

Jude van der Merwe OAM
[2019–present; co-founder; interim Chair 2026-27]

Jude van der Merwe has over 40 years’ experience in the cultural and visual arts sectors and is an independent senior consultant, specialising in curatorial research, and exhibition presentation; cultural development, arts and culture policy and strategy and public art development and implementation. She is a founding member and co-curator for the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial (IOTA) Curiosity and Rituals of the Everyday 2021 and Codes in Parallel 2024 and is Curatorial Chair for IOTA27.

Currently Chair of the Asia Pacific Crafts Alliance. Past board experience includes President of the World Crafts Council Asia Pacific Region, Chair of the World Crafts Council–Australia and inaugural board member and Company Secretary of the Chamber of Arts and Culture WA.

Clement Tay
[2022–present, Treasurer 2023–]

Clement Tay has 20 years experience in accounting and business management, is a registered CPA and also completed his MBA at Curtin University. His early experience was in management accounting and commercial analysis within the Public Sector and Oil & Gas industries before moving on to start his own business, Arrival Hall, with his partner Lisa in 2015.

Arrival Hall is one of Perth’s leading designer furniture and homewares businesses and Clement has helped oversee and manage its continual growth year on year in both the financial and strategic management aspects of the business.

Heli Donaldson
[2022–present, Secretary]

Heli Donaldson is a freelance researcher, writer, editor, and community consultation facilitator. With over 30 years’ experience, Heli has assisted in the development of strategic plans and cultural development frameworks for local government and arts organisations, as well as training and quality assurance plans for the mining, childcare, oil, floristry, and health sectors. Previously Chair of Mundaring Arts Centre, Heli was also Community Co-ordinator for major MAC projects Machines and Makers 2016, Habits of Horses 2017, What a Tool 2018, What on Earth 2019.

Heli’s cultural curiosity has taken her on international exchanges and voluntary teaching projects in Changsha and Fujian in China, the Maharaja’s dining table in Jaipur, and participation in an early Garma Festival in Yirrkala.

Carola Akindele-Obe
[2019–present; Executive Director]

Founding Partner, co-founder & co-curator IOTA21-24; Executive Director 2025-

Carola Akindele-Obe is an arts manager and writer with over 30 years’ experience coordinating visual arts and crafts events in Australia, UK and Taiwan. A graduate of Glasgow School of Art, with a BA(Hons) Design in Embroidered and Woven Textiles, City & Guilds in Basketry/3D Woven Design, and HD student for Master of Arts Admin at UNSW, Sydney, before moving to Perth in 2005.

Carola has a depth of experience as a project manager for recurrent events including Biennale of Sydney (1998-2002), Sydney Art on Paper Fair (2001-2005), and Artopia WA (2005-2007). Carola is a co-founder of ‘Maker&Smith’ presenting skills exchange and promotion opportunities, including a short film festival, to enhance the craft sector in Western Australia.

Maggie Baxter
[2019–present; co-founder]

Founding Partner, co-curator IOTA21; artist IOTA24.

Maggie Baxter is an artist, writer, independent curator, and public art coordinator, who was one of the founding curators for IOTA in 2021. She has a long association with India and maintains a textile arts practice in Kutch, Gujarat, which she first visited in 1990. Since 1984, she has exhibited regularly in solo and group exhibitions in India, Japan, the UK and Australia. Her book ‘Unfolding: Contemporary Indian Textiles’ was published by Niyogi, New Delhi in 2016.

For over thirty-five years she has coordinated site-specific art in public spaces, managing projects of all sizes including many of the major urban developments in Western Australia such as Elizabeth Quay and Yagan Square.

Dr Qassim Saad
[2019–present; co-founder]

Founding Partner, Conference Convenor IOTA21-24

Qassim Saad is an Iraqi industrial designer living in exile since 1991, holding a BA, MA and PhD in Industrial Design. He has taught design and been assigned for academic leadership roles since 1984 in Iraq, Jordan, New Zealand, Egypt, Germany, and recently in Australia. Qassim’s understanding of design is providing the stimulus for future- looking, dynamic approaches to innovation, building on its nature as inter-disciplinary and applied knowledge culminated by creative practices.

Dr. Saad’s research embraces creative practice outputs and traditional scholarly publications related to design and social innovation ‘outside the centre.’ His aim is to articulate future scope to empower societies, in developing countries, particularly achieving a better quality of life, through applying design methods and practices, as strategic tools, to facilitate their social systems mega problems.
ORCID: 0000-0002-5641-9957

Melissa Cameron
[2022–present; IOTA21 artist]

Melissa Cameron is an Australian artist with Anglo-Celtic ancestry. She holds a BFA(Hons) in interior architecture and a postgraduate diploma in jewellery production from Curtin University, and an MFA in jewellery and metalsmithing from Monash University. Her aesthetic sensibility reflects these twin interests.

Exhibited worldwide, her works in public collections include the National Gallery of Australia, the University of Iowa Museum of Art, and Cheongju Collection in South Korea. She has organised and curated group exhibitions in Australia, the US and Europe, her writing appears on Art Jewelry Forum and Garland Magazine, and she has presented papers, undertaken residencies, and received grants in multiple countries.

David Mickler
[2025–present]

David Mickler is Director (Global), John Curtin Institute of Public Policy (JCIPP) and serves as Dean Global, Africa & Founding Director, Centre for Australia-Africa Relations, at Curtin University. As an Associate Professor of International Relations, he has developed a range of academic diplomacy platforms connecting Australia to Africa and the Indian Ocean Region through higher education, research, policy engagement, and cultural exchange.

He currently serves as the Australian Representative to the Indian Ocean Rim Academic Group (IORAG), and he founded the new Indian Ocean University Network (UNIOR), both under the intergovernmental Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). He also Co-Chairs the Australia Africa Universities Network (AAUN) and supports Curtin University’s Mauritius campus.

Maneesh Kelly
[2025–present]

Maneesh Kelly is an Australian lawyer with qualifications in law and business from the University of Notre Dame. He started his career working in succession, property and commercial law.

Maneesh’s keen interest in arts and crafts of the Indian Ocean region stem from his Australian and Indian heritage, a childhood spent around the arts in the Walyalup Fremantle area, and a love of the sea. His ties to the Indian Ocean-faced side of Australia continued with extensive travel around Western Australia. This includes substantial time volunteering in rural and remote communities for various organisations.

Amanda Bell
[2025–present]

 

PREVIOUS MEMBERS

John Cordery
[2022–2025, inaugural Chair]

John Cordery is an organisational psychologist whose career in academia spans four decades, including time spent as Chair of the Academic Board at the University of Western Australia and, most recently, as Provost and interim Vice-Chancellor of Curtin University. From 2015 to 2021, he served as Chair of the John Curtin Gallery Advisory Board, coinciding with a successful strategic repositioning of the Gallery to reinforce its position as a leading University Gallery in Australia. He is currently a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia and Professor Emeritus at Curtin University. LinkedIn.

Gerald Sanyangore [2019–2023; co-founder]

We acknowledge the fundamental role Gerald played in the founding and establishment of IOTA from its first days, coordinating our first conference and continually providing curatorial advice.

Medeia Cohan-Petrolino [2023– February 2025]

Shaheen Hughes [2023–2024]

 

CURRENT ASSOCIATE MEMBERS

IOTA PROJECT TEAM

  • Carola Akindele-Obe, Executive Director
  • Jude van de Merwe, Curatorial Chair & International Liaison
  • Mala Sujan, Philanthropy Manager
  • Vinisha Mulani, Program Administration
  • Belinda Cobby, Program Coordinator: Residencies & Exchanges
  • Sharmila Wood, Program Curator
  • Zali Morgan, Program Curator Assistant

CURATORIUM IOTA27

  • Kallol Datta, India
  • Shaleen Wadhwana, India
  • Ignatia Nilu, Indonesia
  • Catriona Maddocks, Malaysia
  • Nim Niyomsin, Thailand
  • Zali Morgan, Australia
  • Sharmila Wood, Australia

INDIA ADVISORY

  • Ami Shroff
  • Hema Singh Rance
  • Manjari Nirula
  • Roopa Mehta
  • Sundeep Bhandari
  • Uthra Rajgopal

IOTA24 PROJECT TEAM

  • Stirling Kain, Festival Coordinator
  • Medeia Cohan-Petrolino, Development
  • Julia Armstrong, Logistics
  • Dixie Battersby, Publicity
  • Regina Ndossi, Conference Coordinator
  • Katie Dukovcic, Admin & Data
  • Dr Ric Spencer, Catalogue (Part One) Editor
  • Nina Levy, Catalogue (Part Two) Editor
  • Yinka Idowu, Cultural Liaison
  • Isabel Kruger, Brand & Catalogue Design
  • Órla Larkin, Website Design & Development
  • Christopher Young, Graphic Design

IOTA21 TEAM ALSO INCLUDED

  • Chad Creighton, Curatorial Advisor
  • Dr Anne Farren, Fashion Co-Curator
  • Support Team – Festival, Conference, Marketing: Kelsey Douglas, Lola Faulkner, Jo Malone, Mary-Louise Carbone
    Festival Auspice: Mundaring Arts Centre, Jenny Haynes & Narelle Doran
  • Editors and Proof-readers: Kevin Murray, Heli Donaldson, Carola Akindele-Obe
  • Fremantle Arts Centre: Jim Cathcart and Ric Spencer (until December 2020), Erin Coates (until July 2021), Anna Reece, Tom Freeman, Glenn Iseger-Pilkington and Jane Chambers (from May 2021), Claudia Rayne, Andrea Woods, Rosamund Brennan; and Kathryn Taylor (City of Fremantle); and the installation team.
  • John Curtin Gallery: Chris Malcolm, Jane King, Jann Thompson, Jacqui Monks, Samantha Smith, Sue-Lyn Moyle, Brad Coleman; and the installation team.

INAUGURAL ADVISORS

  • Sharyn Egan, artist and IOTA21 alumni, Noongar country, Western Australia
  • Darrell Sibosado, artist and IOTA21 alumni, Bard country, Lombadina, Western Australia
  • Sunny Dolat, creative director, The Nest Collective, Kenya
  • Euan Upston, arts management leader, New Zealand
  • Jim Cathcart, arts management leader, Western Australia
  • Andy Flockhart, strategy & risk management leader, United Kingdom