An eclectic group of four women's lives intersect at an Afro hair salon in Western Sydney, setting the scene for many laughs and inevitable dramas.
The online series Afro Sistahs has been compulsive viewing for fans, who "untangle their hair and the messes of their lives".
Afro Sistahs writer and actress Moreblessing Maturure said the team felt galvanised by the support for the web series, which was recently awarded a Screen Australia development grant.
"We’re trying to find ways to centre our voices and how we tell the stories. There were certain aspects of creative control over how we shared these stories – just purely based on the lack of poc (people of colour)...occupying those positions of power in places that could make this."
Maturure told SBS Voices she hopes Afro Sistahs will inspire the next generation of storytellers to tell their own stories.
"Because we don’t exist in our full breadth in many of our canon we need to write the Australia we see.
"When the stories and positions you’re asked to portray don’t reflect your reality, you assume that’s where you belong, it also denies you this other breadth of experience."
The show follows four women who weave around "nosey Aunties and woke baes, and realise that some knots will take more than coconut oil to untangle."
"It is incredibly galvanising to be able to create with the support we’ve received— these stories are what I wish I had, and I’m just excited that we get to be a part of sharing them,” Maturure said in a statement.
The all-female team includes producers Safia Amadou and Mumbi Hinga, director Hawanatu Bangura, scriptwriter Rebekah Robertson, script editor Louise Gough and executive producer Rosie Lourde. The series was developed with support from Information and Cultural Exchange (I.C.E).
