Coji and Owen

Owen Maher (b.c. 1975) and Duane Ahchoo (b.c. 1983) are Bardi men from One Arm Point on the Dampier Peninsula, and both worked as youth arts practitioners in Broome. The youngest of seven children to an Aboriginal and Filipino mother and a Scottish father, Maher was joint winner of the Commonwealth of Nations Youth of the Year in 1996 for his work as a community youth worker. Assistant to the project coordinator at the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services Council, he taught kids theatre, dance and acrobatics. After joining the Broome-based Indigenous dance company Marrugeku, he performed in Burning Daylight in Broome in 2009, which then went on a national tour to Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart. The following year he danced in Marrugeku's performance Buru. Ahchoo's parents died when he was a baby, and he was brought up by his cousins, where he learnt acrobatics as a child in his bedroom. He later trained at the Desert Acrobats Shed in Broome, a skill he passed on to children in the local Aboriginal communities. Ahchoo is a member of the Bardi and Jawi Niimidiman Aboriginal Corporation and regularly performs cultural dance.

In this image by photographer Penny Tweedie, Ahchoo practises backflips over Maher on a beach near Broome, their silhouettes dramatic against the setting sun.

Gift of the artist 2004
© Estate of Penny Tweedie