Biographie
Sandy is a Gumbaynggirr, Dunghutti, and Bundjalung Custodian, as well as an award-winning actor, writer, and emerging producer/director.
Raised on the Bowraville mission on her ancestral lands by her mother, a stolen generation survivor, Sandy became the first in her family to graduate from university, earning a First-Class Honours Degree in Theatre in 2002.
Since then, she has played leading roles with many of Australia’s top theatre companies, including Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, State Theatre Company of SA, ILBIJERRI Theatre Co, and Griffin Theatre Company.
In 2019, Sandy founded Jinda Productions, a company dedicated to sharing stories from a female First Nations perspective. Her debut production, the one-woman show "Matriarch," which she wrote, produced, and performed, was nominated for a 2019 Green Room Award for Best Writing and won Best Performer in Independent Theatre. She also produced the QPAC season of Matriarch in Brisbane and secured a publishing deal with Echo Publishing/Bonnier Books UK to adapt the show into an intergenerational memoir.
In 2020, Sandy became the first Indigenous woman to legally challenge the NSW Forestry Corporation to protect Gumbaynggirr sacred sites, securing the first stop work order in 25 years. Between 2020 and 2024, she led two successful national campaigns to halt industrial logging in Nambucca State Forest and Newry State Forest, achieving a permanent cessation of logging in both areas. For her dedication and achievements in nature conservation, Sandy received the 2024 NSW Environment Award.
In 2024, Sandy produced and directed the environmental documentary "Ngurra Muruy" (Forest Camp), which has been licensed by National Indigenous Television/SBS OnDemand for broadcast from 2025 to 2027.
