I’m Gildo Santos Junior, an Afro-Brazilian web developer, cultural platform builder and community collaborator. If we met at the African Australian Multicultural Celebration, this is a little more about the path that brought me there.
My father was Gildo Santos. I am Gildo Santos Junior. His roots were in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, often described as the largest Black city outside Africa and one of the great centres of Afro-Brazilian culture. He moved away as a child, but music remained central to his life.
He owned a record shop, loved funk and soul, and presented a radio program about music. When I was a toddler, I struggled to sleep. He would put me in the car and drive through the night with music playing. It was one of the only things that could calm me.
He died in a car accident when I was six. I grew up with photographs, fragments of memory, his name and the music.
Gildo Santos at the radio station · 1978Inside the record shop · 1978
Father and son · 1983
02 · Memory
Meeting him again through the people who knew him.
When I was 42, I reunited with my uncles and aunt after 30 years apart.
They told me that speaking with me felt like speaking with their brother.
People have always said I am a copy of my father, not only in appearance, but in gestures, interests and personality. It is difficult for me to fully grasp. I lost him before I could know the adult they remembered. Reconnecting with them allowed me to discover parts of him that had also survived in me.
Reunited with my uncles, aunt and cousins · Guarulhos, 2022
A connection restored
For someone who grew up with only fragments of his father’s story, that reunion made inheritance feel present rather than distant.
03 · Community
Building places where people connect.
The platforms changed over time, but the impulse remained remarkably consistent. From music forums to cultural directories, I have repeatedly used technology to create places where people can discover one another, exchange ideas and feel represented.
2000 onward
Midiacaos
An independent-music website, label and online forum that brought hundreds of people together. It became the starting point for releases, tours with bands from Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia, and dozens of events I organised.
2017
Afro Resistance
A Facebook community created with other Afro-Brazilians in Australia, including author and longtime friend Guido Melo. Our online conversations became meetings, barbecues and friendships that continued beyond the group itself.
2020
local.black
A directory created to make Black-owned businesses easier to discover and support.
2022
Culture Bay
A website and newsletter curating films and television with Black leads, alongside articles exploring African mythologies. It also became the beginning of a science-fiction and fantasy story that I still hope to complete.
Today
Canguaru
A guide helping people discover Brazilian food, events, artists, classes and services across Australia, built with the belief that culture should be easier to find, understand, credit and support.
Music, culture and technology have repeatedly become ways for me to build bridges, helping people find one another, tell their stories and create a sense of belonging.
A period of reconnection after moving to Australia
04 · Identity
Finding connection across the diaspora.
Growing up after my father’s death meant navigating much of my Black identity without him and without regular contact with his family. As a teenager, bullying around my Afro hair led me to shave my head for much of my young adult life.
After getting married and moving to Australia, I grew my Afro for the first time in many years. It became part of a period of reconnection with my identity and with people across the African diaspora, including friendships with people from different African countries and meaningful exchanges with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Today, I am also an administrator of Quilombo in Sydney, an informal community of almost 100 Afro-Brazilians who connect regularly, organise gatherings and exchange information.
05 · Practice
My tools happen to be digital.
I have worked in web development and SEO for more than 27 years. In Australia, that work has connected me with businesses owned by people from Nigeria, Tanzania and South Africa.
I have supported them through websites, digital content, documents, PDFs and the practical materials businesses need to communicate professionally and reach their audiences.
Digital work is not only about technology. It is also about listening carefully, understanding how people want to be represented and building something that respects their identity and ambitions.
Cultural platform
Canguaru
I founded Canguaru to make Brazilian culture, businesses and events easier to discover across Australia.
Community collaboration
Cria do Samba
I contribute independently with design, online presence and event materials wherever my skills can support their work.
Selected digital work
Cultural voices
My work includes the new Brazilian Cultural Centre website and newsletter, and the digital home of Sydney-based artist Ariane de Souza.
Warrane Sydney · 2026
06 · Archive
My story is becoming part of a larger archive.
In 2026, I was selected to participate in Black Diasporas Warrane-Sydney, an oral-history project documenting the experiences of people of African ancestry and the places that hold meaning in their lives.
I recorded an extended interview about growing up Afro-Brazilian, migrating to Australia and finding connection across the diaspora. My story will form part of the project’s Sydney exhibition, installation and digital archive.
For someone who grew up with only fragments of his father’s story, contributing my own voice to a living archive carries particular meaning.
I’m always interested in meeting community leaders, artists, cultural organisations and people building meaningful work across the African diaspora in Australia.
