Mel Ree

Mel Ree is a poet, dancer and actor who was born to the daughter of a chief in Papua New Guinea. She has performed at Bankstown Poetry Slam, Sydney Writers Festival and more, and her one woman show Mother May We was one of Griffin Lookout’s 2022 theatrical productions.   Here she performs her poem Butterfly. #ArtWorksABC Watch more from our Slammed series through the link in our bio. #slampoetry #poetry #poemoftheday

Ok this type of heavy metal can stay. Obsessed with this revolutionary piece!!! #revolution #spirit

WHAT DOES IT TAKE FROM RACISTS TO SHOW ANY RESPECT?! A brain cell. That they don’t have.  #anzacday #straya

Since the moment I laid ears on her I’m be been a @vvpete FAN! Honey baby boo boo call me a VARVEE catch me riding public transport like my personal Ferrari, AUSTRALIA’S BADDEST TO THE FRONT LEFT SPEAKER! #vvpete #varvee #baddest #party #artist

Ok but I can’t forget this Mardi Gras moment with the slickest look I’ve pulled in a while! And ofcourse baby @keshonniiodai first ball, representing Melanesian, Indigenous and African excellence! It could not have been pulled off without aunty @diwatixoxo love and makeup, oiling and styling skills! And you know I always have the prettiest most talented women around me, especially honey bunny @basjia and the succulent @sativadivugh . Until next years dolls, may the love flow easily and without judgement ❤️❤️‍🔥🥰 #ootd #ballroom #community #melanesian

Portraits Apinaipi Village PT.2 The babies, the ladies and the families💚 It’s wild to think I could’ve walked past my family and not recognised who they are only a month ago. Looking into their faces is when I really feel found, when i know i am home, their cheekbones as high as the endless horizon, this natural handsomeness, untouched, unblemished by society’s beauty standards, I arrive home again and again in all the moments i am face to face with my family. I try to share truths about the last 30 years of life, scramble to fit in my stories in broken English and broken language, we can’t speak to each other fluently but we can kiss each others faces, wrap our everything around each others bodies and see how home is a nose, curl textures and the same features I recognise in all my selfies live here at Apinaipi village. #papuanewguinea #png #apinaipivillage #home

My island home! Lion island off the coast of Port Moresby, a mostly untouched sanctuary. My voice was almost gone, the sickness had taken over my respiratory system but the spiritual and cultural wealth made me feel like the richest being in the galaxies (probably should have been on vocal rest but being loud is how I clear away demonic energy) 🤩🇵🇬 #papuanewguinea #png #lionisland

I don’t know why people idolise and obsess over their 20s like it’s some glory years. You’ve been lied to. In your 20s you’re desperate for validation and you’re most mostly insecure waiting for some non-deserving lover to text you back to prove to you that you’re worth something. Trust me, nothing is better than being in your 30s and feeling a radical groundedness for who you are and not needing anyone outside of you to validate you. I’m beautiful because that’s how I feel not because it’s how I look. I look it because I feel it. Good luck with your healing darlings. #growth #healing #woman

Portraits of my village part 1. Our elders and my cousins. People often don’t know their age in the village, nor do they have birth certificates or any photo evidence of their lives. It was deeply special to have @byron_martin_ take portraits of the villagers that were available and their families. #papuanewguinea #village #portraits

Apinaipi village, my first home, we returned to her by canoe, the bridge flooded, pigs, coconut husks, mud sucked each step, knee deep, sweat drenched, the tropical humid slow and wide like the laughter and children’s screams, dancing, a warm greeting or deep silent tears to every person , they all know my name but I can only speak with energy because my tongue is the most lost and desperate to return to my/mothers home, land, my mother and my mother land, Apinaipi Village. I didn’t expect this, to be held by the land in ways I ached for my own mother to hold me, strong and without condition, and the Apinaipi river, steady, bold, anchor, wings with no edges, father, mother land, my mothers father and mother buried where I sleep and suddenly all those years of loneliness seem like a western stupidity. 📷 📸 @byron_martin_ #papuanewguinea #png #melanesian #apinaipi #village motherland

My village Apinaipi in Papua New Guinea! Immaculate vibes 💓❤️☀️ #papuanewguinea #png #village

. Papua New Guinea, March 2026 📸🎞️ by @byron_martin_ Touched down in Port Moresby, we went straight to the markets to find family and community. First stop, Hanuabada markets, where all Mekeo farmers (my relatives and nearby villagers) sell their betel nut and vegetables. In the areas surrounding Hanuaba markets my aunties have married local men, they stahp (live) at Tatana village with their children, my cousins, and their children, everyone has babies except for me, my creative work is my child. Gordon’s markets is notorious for crime and heavy police presence, sometimes ignorance is bliss, we waltzed through the chaos with western whimsy only to find the law enforcement barking down our throats, long story short, the attempted bribe didn’t work out for them. In the final stills we begin our journey to my village Apianapi in a PMV ( public motor vehicle) hired by my family and filled with only family. I was blessed with the good company of fellow artists and Gadigal community @byron_martin_ who documented the trip through film and photos and @genevieve_gorman_deane who assisted Byron and gave me valuable anchor energy, grounding me and supporting my ever awakening wildling heart during the journey, THANK YOU BEAUTIES ❤️‍🔥 my Wantok and baby sibling @cryst_alis was the final sweetheart human to round out our first PNG adventure. Many more to come! #png #papuanewguinea #travel #adventure