Liliana Maria is a powerful storyteller, cultural educator, anthropologist, and founder of Moving Cultures, Moving Stories. Drawing on both her lived experience and academic expertise, she creates transformative workshops, frameworks, and learning experiences that challenge dominant narratives and inspire more ethical, human-centred storytelling practices.
As a storyteller herself, Liliana understands the power stories have to shape perceptions, influence policy, and impact people’s lives. She also understands the risks. Throughout her work, she has witnessed how stories of people from refugee, asylum seeker, and migrant backgrounds are often extracted, simplified, or shared without adequate care for the people telling them. This has driven her commitment to developing systems, frameworks, and ethical practices that support, protect, and empower storytellers while ensuring their stories are shared with dignity, agency, and informed consent.
Liliana holds a Double Major in Anthropology and Philosophy, as well as an Honours degree in Anthropology. Her thesis, “Stories of people from a Refugee and Asylum Seeker background, exploring power dynamics, counter hegemonic narratives, and ethical storytelling practices.”, explored power dynamics, counter-hegemonic narratives, and ethical storytelling practices, laying the foundation for the work she continues to lead today.
Born in Santiago, Chile, Liliana arrived in Australia in 1988 as a refugee on a humanitarian visa. Her lived experience, combined with her academic research and community engagement, has fuelled a lifelong passion for shifting narratives, creating cultural understanding, and advocating for more equitable storytelling practices.
Liliana’s work spans education, community development, arts, and advocacy. She has shared her insights through theatre performances, books, panel discussions, podcasts, radio, conferences, and workshops, helping organisations, educators, community leaders, and storytellers navigate the complexities of representation, power, and storytelling ethics.
Through Moving Cultures, Moving Stories, Liliana works to create spaces where stories are not only heard, but honoured where storytellers are supported, cultural knowledge is respected, and storytelling becomes a tool for connection, justice, and social change.
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