Hannah Belanszky on the next generation of First Nations storytelling

Hannah Belanszky says she can't help but centre multi-faceted, multi-layered First Nations women in her stories.

The Balnaves Fellowship run by Belvoir St Theatre offers a First Nations playwright or director the opportunity to create a new stage work over a two-year period. Credit: Daniel Boud

But the Yuwaalaraay woman admits she didn't see that sort of Indigenous representation in theatre and media when she was growing up.

"I felt a lot of stereotypes, I think particularly like the way that the Aboriginal women [were] depicted was often [with] a lot of cliches. I just wanted to show there's more to us than that."

Belanszky is halfway through her tenure as a resident artist at Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney.

She was awarded the Balnaves Fellowship, which allows Indigenous playwrights and directors the opportunity to develop a new stage work for Belvoir over a two-year period.

Hannah Belanszky said she has found it valuable to work behind the scenes at a theatre company, because the decision-making process is often shielded from creatives.

Her current play centres a young woman who has a "highly problematic addiction" to her clairvoyant.

"I guess it's the search for clarity, meaning and the kind of conflicting ... forms of spirituality which can exist within you."

The play has some real life inspiration according to Belanszky:

"I think that there's an initial impulse to write that comes from a very personal place.

"I try to lean into that and discover why I've been drawn to an idea ... but then as you develop the story obviously, it becomes bigger than you and more interesting than your own life."