Mulitcultural Arts Victoria Folio 94

FOLIO 94 DEC 2014 - FEB 2015

IGNITING IMAGINATION A partnership with Melbourne Festival

“The breadth of this year’s programming meant the arts festival had reached new groups of people. With the free program, for example, in partnership with Multicultural Arts Victoria, we’ve been able to give the stage to young, emerging performers from a range of different cultural backgrounds, and they obliviously bring with them their own communities and audiences.”

Josephine Ridge, Creative Director, Melbourne Festival (The Age, 26/10/14).

Thank you to Melbourne Festival for a brilliant partnership in 2014 providing a crucial platform for talented young emerging artists and making visible the diverse ecology of Australia’s art industry. For 2014, Igniting Imaginations brought together 11 Festival Ambassadors and launched a new Visible Music Session series every Sunday during the Festival. The sessions featured diverse and talented works by over 30 young and emerging artists from our Visible Music Mentoring Program. Their music is available on our Bandcamp at multiculturalartsvic.bandcamp.com Multicultural Arts Victoria’s Visible Music Mentoring Program is supported by Arts Victoria, the Australia Council for the Arts, and the Scanlon Foundation, and the Visible Music Sessions were made possible through the partnership with Melbourne Festival and with support from the City of Melbourne.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword from the CEO

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Mapping Melbourne

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Common Ground

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Traces of Transformation

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Shadows on the Wall

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Urat Jagat

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Slipping Away Visual Art Exhibition

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Asia Art Archive Call Out

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Piers Festival

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MTC Connect Ambassadors

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Youth Projects

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Neon New Years Eve

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Cultural Leadership Workshops

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MAV Membership and Donations

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Cover: Sovanna Heng by Sticky Fingers Art Prints Cambodia Inside cover: Yirrmal Marika performing at Visible Sessions as part of Melbourne Festival 2014, photo by Rachel McLaren

FOREWORD

From the CEO Jill Morgan AM Multicultural Arts Victoria continually demonstrates through our work that culturally diverse art creatively builds connections and understanding between communities, cultures and countries. Through creative connections and sharing we generate greater understanding on a local, national and international level.

Over the coming months we have some exciting new initiatives as well as building on some solid partnerships that are making a real difference.

MAV have worked closely in partnership with the Melbourne Festival to present Igniting Imagination which connects the diversity of Melbourne to the Festival through our Festival Ambassadors program and performance program. This year our Visible Mentoring was showcased at the Foxtel Festival Hub and received great feedback – see our video report on youtube.com/user/multiculturalartsvic.

We are working strategically with the Melbourne Theatre Company on the MTC Connect program which is fostering diverse storytelling and theatre making.

MAV and MTC in partnership with MTC Connect Ambassador Nadja Kostich were successful for In the MIX initiative funded by the Australia Council. The intent of the program is to forge new relationships, and explore new avenues or models of collaboration.

Pigeon is the new work planned for development for In the MIX initiative and involves a skilled team led by Director/writer Nadja Kostich with Chris Mead leading the Dramaturgy supported by the MTC theatre team.

The Pigeon project is a powerful collaboration between the two organisations, with the project being genuinely created and artistically-led by the CALD artistic team with the full support of MTC. Multicultural Arts Victoria is also honoured to reside and work in partnership with the Emerald Hill Arts community: ANAM, ATW and Arts Access on the 4

Emerald Hill Arts Festival. Thank you to all who came and celebrated the diverse talents in our local creative community! We also continue our valued partnership with Queen Victoria Market - Wednesday Night Market Season.

Two new creative artistic developments with Indonesia will also come to life over the next months – Street Life (Cake Industries) and Urat Jugat (Sandra Long) – MAV looks forward to developing and supporting these two International collaborations to build friendship with our nearest neighbour Indonesia. These innovative Arts projects build on the people to people links established previously through our work with the Indonesian community at a grass roots as well as diplomatic level.

Mapping Melbourne coordinated by Meg Larkin will create an experimental space over four days in first week of December where contemporary Asian culture and artistic practice comes into focus supported by the City of Melbourne. Mapping Melbourne will focus on working collaboratively with China and Cambodia in 2014. Mapping Melbourne will also highlight the skilled and diverse work of our Australian Asian artists and include international artists in a multilayered program which highlights some of Melbourne’s most iconic and alternative spaces. Look out for it!

Vitally important is the voice of our youth – our leaders of tomorrow. Speaking up for the rights of young people was a key focus of Righteous: Rights at the Round Table, a youth forum that gave young people a creative space for culturally diverse expression and celebration. According to reviewer Mabel Kwong, “Ultimately, Righteous was a creative forum that reminded youth from migrant and emerging backgrounds of their heritage and supported their rights to pursue their goals within the broader Australian community. It was an inclusive forum that encouraged culturally diverse young people to feel at home in Australia, rightfully like how every person living in Australia should.”

Princes Pier, photo by Peter Glenane

With respect to encouraging cultural tolerance, one attendee asked, “What can we do to change the world?” The panel responded that, “to change the world, we have to change ourselves”.

Two other youth initiatives were Emerge in Brimbank and Genesis and we continue our outreach with the Youth Steering Committee. Each of these events hopes to change the world a little by encompassing and providing a space for youth voices to flourish!

Another new event planned by Multicultural Arts Victoria is Neon New Year’s Eve in partnership with Federation Square. Reflecting Fed Square’s reason for being a dynamic place where people come to meet, engage, enjoy, participate and celebrate who we are as a community – the NYE stage program will engage and inspire audiences. Culminating in an “all in” participatory UV flash mob combining music, dance and costumes with Lamine Sonko and the African Intelligence along with Neda Rahmani and others, it will be a night to celebrate the what makes Melbourne amazing our diversity – come down, wear white and neon colours and party into 2015 with us at Federation Square!

In 2015, our history will come alive as we celebrate on the Australia Day weekend what makes our community so special – our cultural makeup, our history and our future. This important event celebrating Victoria’s history and who we are as a nation is the Piers Festival.

Many people settled in Australia by arriving at Port Melbourne at either Station or Princes Pier and the

Festival celebrates and acknowledges the significant contribution migrants have made to Australia. Piers Festival is coordinated by Graham Coffey and a special new component involving storytelling is being curated

by Lella Carridi – What Happened at the Pier. This represents a synthesis of memory, archival evidence, gaps, and the evolution of Culture. Stories have come to us directly from immigrants themselves, or through the agency of a younger generation who would be representing their family ancestors. Each of the contributions carries a significant sense of personal history. Some like Domenico de Clario vividly recalls: “The little boy who embarked on the ship in Italy (in 1956 at the age of nine), was not the same child who walked down the plank in Australia 42 days later. I guess in many ways, my parents and sister and I reconfigured as one body,” he says, “My work has always been about trying to decipher that strange kind of body and what that experience is about.” Some of the migration objects held by various community members, will be exhibited at the Emerald Hill Heritage Centre, 13 December 2014 to 8 February 2015. Our long term aim is to record and publish these stories As Lella says, “If we are of the belief that the Personal is the Political; left unpublished, such a collection of previously untold stories, would leave a huge gap in the records in the annals of Australian social history.”

We hope you can all join us for this unique celebration and our other events over the summer!

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Artwork by Zhou Bing

3-6 DECEMBER 2014 Following on from a dynamic first year, Mapping Melbourne 2014 will bring exciting new work to the heart of Melbourne in a celebration of the vibrant influence Asia continues to have on Melbourne’s cultural dynamism. From 3 to 6 December, over 40 local and international artists will be featured in this interdisciplinary showcase of art, performance, music, spoken word, dance and film.

Mapping Melbourne is grounded in the importance of strengthening networks between contemporary independent artists across the Asian region, building collaborative ongoing relationships, and presenting challenging work. It works to broaden and deepen Australia’s relationships across the region at every level. These links need to be social and cultural as much as they are political and economic. Improving people-to-people links can unlock large economic and social gains. Art enables us to learn about each other in creative and expressive ways that contributes significantly to greater understanding and respect for each other.

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The year 2014 marks a very special occasion as Victoria and Jiangsu celebrate 35 years of friendship, partnership and respect. Established in 1979, the Victoria-Jiangsu sister-state partnership is Victoria’s oldest and most enduring relationship, as well as one of the first Australia-China sister-state agreements. Built upon a foundation of friendship and a determination to grow together, our farreaching relationship encompasses deep trade, cultural and personal links. On behalf of the State Government of Victoria, the Victoria Multicultural Education Services (VMES) in partnership with MAV has invited the Government of Jiangsu Province to participate in and support an international collaboration, Paper Culture.

Paper Culture has brought together master paper cut artists Mr Zhou Yunhua and his son Zhou Bing from Jiangsu, China with Melbourne artist Philip Faulks whose great passion for this ancient art form has led to inspiring and evocative works. These three artists have been collaborating across the ocean

Dara Puspita artwork by Sticky Fingers Arts Prints Cambodia

3-6 DECEMBER 2014 on the theme of the five elements – water, fire, air, earth, metal – and will present their new works at an exhibition at Space@Collins during Mapping Melbourne. An accompanying symposium and workshop will be free to the public at RMIT Design Hub on Thursday 4 December.

Alongside Paper Culture will be the iconic prints by Sticky Fingers Art Prints Cambodia including the touring exhibition Dara Puspita: The Greatest Girl Group That (N)ever Was, produced by Heng Visal, chief printer at Sticky Fingers. These limited edition screen prints are a tribute to the little known story of the Flower Sisters of Surabaya, Dara Puspita, one of the world’s greatest girl groups to emerge from the 60s in South East Asia. The exhibition has been shown in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and the Ubud Writers Festival, Indonesia and will premiere in Australia at Mapping Melbourne. Sticky Fingers Art Prints Cambodia was set up to provide training and work for young printmakers and disadvantaged

youth in Cambodia, and was founded by Australian musician Julien Poulson – also founder of the Cambodian Space Project.

Interview with Srey Channthy Lead Singer, Cambodian Space Project How did you end up playing in the Cambodian Space Project?

I met Julien and he wanted to learn to play some of the old Cambodian songs, many that I already was performing with bands and at clubs in Cambodia.

We learnt some songs and played a show at the Alley Cat around Dec 2009, the show attracted a lot of foreigners and it was exciting for me to see that they also liked my Cambodian songs, it was a really fun night. After this, we quickly became busy, other musicians joined us and soon we had the name The Cambodian Space Project but because I didn’t speak English at the time I didn’t know what the name meant and when I did find out it still took me months until I could pronounce it.

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Rom Ding Dong 7inch jacket artwork by Sticky Fingers Arts Prints Cambodia

What are you influences/inspirations?

Always the ‘golden era’ singers of Cambodia, music from pre-war times and the voices of Pan Ron who is my favourite, along with Ros Sereysothea, Sin Sisamouth, Pov Vannary, Ho Meas... so many... all who died in Khmer Rouge times. Nowadays I listen to so much other stuff – one of the good things about travelling everywhere is that I’ve found a lot of great music from around the world. Our new album is full of songs influenced by old records from Mexico, France, Holland, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Thailand, UK, USA and Australia. We’ve been to Detroit to record with Dennis Coffey who was one of the original Motown musicians so that sound is also something I love – 60s girl groups and black American soul divas.

The Cambodian Space Project (CSP) are bringing a new show to Australia with Khmer dancers “The Spacettes” and will be performing at Rom Ding Dong – a spectacular night of music and performance on Thursday 4 December.

Rom Ding Dong will take audiences on a trip to the night clubs and markets of South East Asia with the sounds of the 60’s Asian/Western explosion and the outrageous costumes, big hair, flawless make up and sublime lipsyncing from the Siem Reap Lady Boy Show. With over seven years of experience performing across Cambodia and Thailand this troupe will provide a rare (and hysterical) insight into contemporary Cambodian culture.

If someone was heading to Cambodia for a new experience where would you send them?

Angkor Wat of course but right now I’m in Kampot working on a show called Hanuman Spaceman and it’s a beautiful town, very rustic and popular with travellers, you can take time and go to the nearby Bokor Mountain and also around to the historic seaside resort town Kep where you can feast of delicious food (Kep is famous for its crab shacks), and finally, take a little fishing boat out to Rabbit Island and rent a small beachside bungalow for a really relaxing holiday with just the sound of sea.

Mapping Melbourne 2014 will also see a return of two of last year’s exciting programs with new artists and collaborators: Traces of Transformation curated by Tony Yap features 17 contemporary dance artists and Common Ground will present an interfaith spoken word showcase.

Curated by Anita Archer and Roger Nelson, Swimming in Sand; Growing Rice under an Umbrella presents a new generation of leading contemporary artists from South-East Asia including Alfredo and Isabel Aquilzan (Philippines), Khvay Samnang with dancer Nget Rady (Cambodia), and Piyarat Piyapongwiwat (Thailand).

Also not to be missed will be the premiere Melbourne performance of In Between Sounds (James Mangohig of Sietta and Joelistics), a moonlight screening of Benj Binks’ film Mongolian Bling, the City Sessions Freestyle Dance Battle Grand Final and the official closing event – Horse Bazaar’s Mangetsu Night.

What’s next for you and CSP? We staged the first shows of Hanuman Spaceman at the end of October, at Kampot Traditional Music School for Orphans and Disabled. This is a really fun show, it’s a busy, busy couple of weeks getting prepared and it brings together a very diverse and fun team of people working together. After the show’s over I’m spending a few days with family then flying to Sydney to play a show with Astronomy Class then I’ll come to Mapping Melbourne in December!

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Siem Reap Lady Boys: Sokthymaro Kong, Vannara Phoeuk & Sarath Touch

Local spectators

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COMMON GROUND

An inter-faith spoken word project Monday evenings, on the second floor of Bourke Street’s Jaisalmer Palace Indian Restaurant, an eclectic mix of wordsmiths and storytellers have been gathering under the guidance of resident facilitators L-FRESH the LION, Abdul Hammoud and guests Michelle Dabrowski, Ebony MonCrief, Candice Monique and Joel McKerrow. The space allows participants to experiment with new methods of writing, while expressing identity and creatively penning what it is that makes you, you. Running until December 1st, the workshops will each week provide participants with the opportunity to share their writings in an environment free from judgment, allowing them the opportunity to hone their craft and performance skills through comments and discussions sparked amongst the group.

L-FRESH the LION

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Common Ground was conceived in 2013 by Sikh emcee L-FRESH the LION to bring together Sikh and Muslim young poetry through poetry. The 2013 project has since grown into a collective, with members performing at various events and recording their poems in collaboration with beatmaker Cazeaux O.S.L.O as part of MAV’s ReMastered Myths program. The recordings are available for purchase from MAV’s Bandcamp.

In 2014, Common Ground was opened up to include people from diverse faiths to come along and explore the role faith and identity play in our everyday.

COMMON GROUND Saturday 6 December, 2-4pm Library at the Docks 107 Victoria Harbour Promenade, Docklands FREE Part of Mapping Melbourne 2014

Jill Orr

TRACES OF TRANSFORMATION Directed by Tony Yap

Traces of Transformation, a key component of Mapping Melbourne creatively directed by Tony Yap, is a presentation of fresh, spontaneous and innovative performance works around the theme of transformation by 19 local independent artists: Tony Yap (creative director), Victoria Chiu, Tim Crafti, Adam Forbes, Felix Ching Ching Ho, Janette Hoe, Amber Huang, Naakarin Jaikla, Yoka Jones, Lee Kien Fei, Brendan O’Connor, Jill Orr, Ria Soemardjo, Gretal Taylor, Yumi Umiumare, Wang Zheng Ting, AñA Wojak.

Following on from performances at MAPFest, in Melaka, Malaysia and Arts Island Festival in Java, Indonesia, Creative Director Tony Yap has curated Traces of Transformation, with the diverse works inspired by each artist’s personal narratives, interdisciplinary art practice and mentorship. This year Tony is the director of the sixth MAPFest (held 14 November) since its inauguration in 2009 which has since grown from a handful of 15 to over

70 international artists performing at Melaka’s world heritage sites. MAP sisters festivals have grown with its common philosophical vision of inclusiveness and blurring conventional practice borders to Indonesia (Mapping Indonesia, Arts Island Festival), Mapping Melbourne, MAP Delhi and MAP Chengmai. More at www.melakafestival. com Traces of Transformation is presented in partnership with the State Library of Victoria, spanning three hours and five sites across the State Library of Victoria Forecourt, offering audiences an opportunity to engage with unique contemporary site-specific performance.

TRACES OF TRANSFORMATION Friday 5 December, 5pm-8pm State Library of Victoria, Forecourt (across five sites) FREE Part of Mapping Melbourne 2014 11

Shadows on the Wall photo by Sam Wong

SHADOWS ON THE WALL TO STREET LIFE

Developing new technology and art work in Indonesia and Australia

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At Dark Horse Experiment during Mapping Melbourne, there will be a screening of projections from a unique creative development between Australian artists Cake Industries (Jesse Stevens and Dean Petersen) and Indonesian artists RM Altiyanto Henryawan and Bimo Suryojati, in collaboration with dancer Agung Gunawan from Shadows on the Wall. Utilising heritage, technology, Javanese dance, robotics, light and shadows, this creative development project has enthralled audiences across Indonesia and will continue to evolve into a new work, Street Life, in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and Melbourne, Australia.

the development in Yogyakarta, for presentation of the work in Australia at Dark Horse Experiment.

Street Life is being developed by Cake Industries who are about to embark on a residency in Yogyakarta, Indonesia to collaborate, develop and present new work with collaborators and duo Bimo Suryajati and Altiyanto Henryawan. The two month residency is part of the eight month project that will see the team develop new art and technology; present workshops; work with local schools in Yogyakarta, community arts groups and in open settings to the general public. In early 2015, Bimo and Altiyanto will join Cake Industries to continue the collaboration of development and presentation, with installation of the accumulated material from Melbourne together with

This project is thanks to funding by Australia Indonesia Institute, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, The Australia International Cultural Council, AustraliaIndonesia Institute, the Australia Council for the Arts (Asia in Australia and Experimental Arts grants) and Arts Victoria.

The final instalment planned for June 2015 in Yogyakarta will show the full outcomes of the project including moving image, photographs, animated objects, and various other items from the developments as the team sees fit. The creative team will produce video from both the Yogyakarta component and the Melbourne component drawing comparisons between similarities and differences between two creative cities and their street life.

SHADOWS ON THE WALL (video insights) 3-6 December, 24 hours Dark Horse Experiment, 110 Franklin Street, Melbourne FREE Part of Mapping Melbourne 2014

Urat Jagat

URAT JAGAT (VEINS OF THE UNIVERSE)

Multicultural Arts Victoria working internationally Multicultural Arts Victoria, in partnership with award-winning Indonesian-Australian collective Mainteater, will present Urat Jagat (Veins of the Universe) in 2015.

Urat Jagat is a collaboration between three Australian artists: musician and vocal extraordinaire Mal Webb and sensory multilingual theatre makers Jodee Mundy and Sandra Fiona Long, with three overseas artists: Sundanese literary cult figure Godi Suwarna, bamboo-video installation artist Deden Bulquini and Indonesian actor Wawan Sofwan. The artists are part of artist collective Mainteater, whose collaborations span 16 years, several multilingual works, critical success in both countries, an ‘Innovation of Form’ award and nomination for Greenroom ‘Innovative New Form’ and is fuelled by the desire to open up experiences across diverse cultures and languages.

development which took place in Melbourne in 2012, with presentations and seminars at LaMama Theatre, The Festival of Translation at Federation Square, and as part of the Indonesian Department’s 50th Birthday program at Monash University.

The artists’ roles in Urat Jagat are: Godi Suwarna (writer/performer), Wawan Sofwan (performer), Deden Bulqini (set design and video artist), and Otong Durahim (set and lighting design) from Indonesia; and Jodee Mundy (performer), Mal Webb (performer/musician),and Sandra Fiona Long (director/performer) from Australia. On 28 January, Mainteaters will depart Australia for Indonesia until 26 February and perform across the country in Bandung, Jakarta, Serang (Java) and Gianyar (Bali).

Proudly supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia Indonesia Institute, and Arts Victoria.

Urat Jagat is Mainteater’s fourth partnership with Multicultural Arts Victoria. It follows a first stage

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Dorota Connellan

SLIPPING AWAY New works by Polish Australian Dorota Connellan Polish-Australian artist Dorota Connellan was discovered by MAV through the Heartlands Refugee Art Prize in 2013. Her artwork ‘New Arrivals’ was shortlisted for the Prize and exhibition. Since then she continued her connection with MAV in search of support and opportunities for professional development. The solo exhibition opportunity provided by MAV is an important stepping stone in Dorota’s artistic career. ‘’This exhibition is a unique opportunity for me; it’s my first solo exhibition after five years and I’m looking forward to show my new works to the public.”

Dorota Connellan, artist Most of Dorota’s solo and group exhibitions have occurred in Mornington Peninsula where she is based but for a long time she wanted to exhibit in Melbourne CBD. She felt isolated and thought she will never get the opportunity to exhibit in the city because she didn’t have necessary networks to connect with galleries and exhibitions spaces. Through MAV she is setting her foot into the art scene in Melbourne and getting visibility to her new artistic explorations.

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‘Slipping Away’ will feature paintings capturing moments of transcendence, where the landscape is composed between the actual and spiritual. It will invite audiences to take a journey of reflection, to imagine and believe, to be inspired, to seek, to discover and choose.

Dorota invites us to look around and feel that we are part of one fabulous organism and accept our place among all organisms and to responsibly build a new relationship with Mother Earth. Dorota’s oil paintings are surreal; they are a deployment of imagination where the landscape and figures blend harmoniously in colourful compositions and atmospheres. Her works seem to float in an unknown time and space, in a world of dream and imagination.

‘Slipping Away’ was produced by Multicultural Arts Victoria as part of a partnership with Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery and supported by the City of Melbourne.

Slipping Away by Dorota Connellan Until 30 January 2015 Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery, Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm 141 Queen St, Melbourne VIC 3000 FREE

OPEN CALL FOR MATERIAL

That Reflect Contemporary Artistic Practice And Developments Of Asia In order to better document the contemporary Asian art ecology in Australia where many Asian artists are residing and artists whose practice is reflective of Asia, Multicultural Arts Victoria and Asia Art Archive (AAA) are collaborating on a Call for Material from this region. We are happy to receive publications, exhibition catalogues, leaflets and brochures pertaining to activities of Asian art. Items collected will be delivered to AAA on a regular time interval basis, and then be made available free-of-charge to the public at AAA’s facility in Hong Kong.

Through collecting and making information on the recent history of contemporary art in Asia easily accessible, AAA aims to facilitate understanding, research, and writing in the field, enrich existing global narratives, and re-imagine the role of the archive. AAA’s collection is a dynamic, growing body of material intended to reflect contemporary artistic practice and developments of Asia within an international context.

Built of 85% donated material, the collection is a community effort that has grown from a few bookshelves in 2000 to the current platform with over 50,000 records of both physical and digital items.

Artists, communities and collectors interested in donating material are invited to contact us at office@ multiculturalarts.com.a or +61 3 9188 3681 with a description of their materials and to arrange a time to send the material to us. For enquiries about AAA please contact Kit-Long Lam at kitlong@aaa.org.hk .

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PIERS FESTIVAL 2015

Celebrating migration to Victoria Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV) is thrilled to present the 4th Piers Festival on Sunday 25th January 2015 (over the Australia Day weekend) at the Port Melbourne piers precinct, featuring a diverse range of music, dance, food, forums and historical exhibitions that celebrate and reflect on the collective migration stories at this significant entry point where almost half of the 180,000 post World War II refugees to Australia arrived. The Piers Festival brings to life the Port Melbourne piers precinct, celebrating the pivotal role it played from 1915 to 1969 in Victoria’s growth and as a gateway to the diversity of cultures that enrich our community.

The headline act will be a multicultural ensemble led by the legendary Painters and Dockers. Performing with an extraordinarily talented selection of artists from diverse cultural backgrounds including Timorese, Maltese, Sudanese, Burundian, and Irish, this is a sensational new collaboration forging fresh ties between musical styles and cultural backgrounds.

2015 also brings a new space to the festival – The Landing, a diverse meeting place. The Landing is a space for a selection of community groups to represent themselves, their communities

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and culture. Each group will work with MAV to share their culture and history via installations, participatory activities, workshops and performances. The Landing promises to be an exciting space to explore and participate.

To honour the memory of immigrants and refugees who have travelled to Australia by boat through the historical entry points of Princes and Station pier in Port Melbourne, Multicultural Arts Victoria is launching another new program in Piers Festival entitled What Happened at the Pier. Curated by Lella Cariddi, who arrived at the Princes Pier with her family in 1955 on the 21st of June, the program is envisioned as a rich narrative experience showcasing the migrant stories across multiple artistic formats. The stories will activate various parts of the pier and span discussions, poetry readings, spoken word, visual art installations and musical responses to the long history of arrivals and departures at the Pier.

I am one among more than a million Post World War II immigrants who between 1947-1969 came down Port Phillip Bay towards the Heads who first touched Australian soil at Port Melbourne. I was born in 1939, after my father had already left to fight in the war in North Africa. He was captured, and for most of the 8 years from 1939 to 1947, he was a prisoner of war in Kenya. When he was

continent. Food was scarce; roads, bridges, tunnels, rail-lines all in smithereens. In southern Italy where we lived, agriculture was still run with manual labour, there were few industries and jobs hard to get. Again my father had to leave his family behind in search of work at the other end of the country, where tunnels were being constructed through the mountains of Bolzano on the Austrian border. In 1948 my parents had a second daughter.

And when in 1950, my father left behind the very dangerous work in the tunnels to migrate to Australia, my mother was expecting my youngest sister. For me, The Pier, where my family was united for the first time in 1955, represents not the end of a journey, but the birthing to a new life.

Lella Carridi, curator of What Happened at the Pier, a new program for Piers Festival 2015 As well as these headline programs, visitors will be able to enjoy a wide array of activities; historic tours of the area and enjoy many tasty treats from local providers.

With 10,000 visitors from diverse cultural backgrounds coming along to join the celebrations held at the Port Melbourne piers precinct, the Piers Festival has become an annual highlight and a significant occasion for reflecting on our collective migration stories.

PIERS FESTIVAL 2015 Sunday 25 January 2015 (over Australia Day weekend) 12noon-9.30pm Princes Pier, Port Melbourne FREE We recommend taking Tram 109 to its terminus in Port Melbourne then Princes Pier is a short 500m up the boardwalk / Bayside Bicycle Trail. Very limited parking is available in immediate surrounds, additional parking available in South Melbourne and Port Melbourne.

Piers Festival 2014 photo by DWV Photography 17

MTC CONNECT

Connecting diverse theatre-makers and actors MTC CONNECT is a partnership between Multicultural Arts Victoria and Melbourne Theatre Company that was established in 2014 to broaden the range of voices informing Melbourne Theatre Company’s theatre making and programming processes. It is part of MTC’s long-term goal to reflect Melbourne’s cultural diversity and is a first for an Australian state theatre company.

MTC CONNECT is a tailored program where eleven theatre artists of diverse cultural backgrounds act as cultural and artistic ambassadors, advocates and facilitators between MTC and their communities. The MTC CONNECT 2015 Ambassadors are: Tania Canas (El Salvadorian) Teame Ersie (Ethiopian) Rashma N. Kalsie (Indian), Nadja Kostich (Serbian), Vuyo Loko (South African), Tariro Mavondo (Zimbabwean), Diana Nguyen (Vietnamese), Rani Pramesti (Indonesian), Jaime Wilson Ramirez (Chilean), Marco Romero (Chilean), and Majid Shokor (Iraqi). Programs include individual masterclasses, one-on-one sessions, attendance at all MTC productions, programming updates and debriefs, and longer-term initiatives.

Through the MTC CONNECT program, Multicultural Arts Victoria and MTC were able to support the funding applications for the Australian Council’s In the MIX initiative and Arts Victoria, involves a skilled team led

by Director/writer Nadja Kostich and actor Tariro Mavondo, (MAV/MTC Ambassadors) involving musician/ singer, Ria Soemardjo & performers, Yumi Umiumare and Appiah Annan plus community participation via Multicultural Arts Victoria networks. Chris Mead will lead the dramaturgy supported by the MTC team.

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Nadja Kostich

The Pigeon project is a powerful collaboration between the two organisations, with the project being genuinely created and artistically-led by the CALD artistic team with the full support of MTC. We hear from Nadja on the progress: “Pigeon was an idea that I had on my mind for a couple of years. It is inspired by three Papua New Guinea (PNG) women I met who fled their country due to domestic violence, each leaving a young son there. They navigated Melbourne as a trio, seeking safety and solace in their shared story. I thought about what all of us run from, leave behind and what we always take with us – the example of these women’s stories was at a heartbreaking extreme…

There is a wonderful team of culturally diverse artists in the project and we all work with members of the PNG & MAV community. We began with audio recorded interviews, then community workshops, followed by artist/ community workshops. The team includes Tariro Mavondo, Ria Soemardjo, Yumi Umiumare, Appiah Annan and Zoe Scoglio. These artists move, sing, make percussion, perform poetry, make video and much more. We will piece together a story of multiple disciplines and layers inspired by and involving the PNG women with the performers own experiences and stories featuring also. The idea is to make connections in the ‘homing instinct’ in all of us – as the pigeon, what we all return to no matter what. It’s also a play on words as pidgin is the most common language in PNG amongst 700 dialects, and in a way, putting many disciplines on stage makes for an artistic ‘pidgin’ – finding the crossing points of many mediums to carry a message.

I am incredibly grateful to Jill and the MAV team and also Brett and the MTC team who are embracing their commitment to the CONNECT program in such a hands on way. We have pitched Pigeon as a prototype project, hopefully the first of many more, with any of the MTC CONNECT Ambassadors who have projects to realise and develop to follow on…”

Diana Ngueyn

Majid Shokor

Tania Canas

Jaime Wilson-Ramirez

Rani Pramesti

Vuyo Loko

Marco Romero

Teame Ersie

Rashma Naveen Calsie

Tariro Mavondo

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YOUTH

Our leaders of tomorrow Righteous: Rights at the Round Table 2014 gave young people from across Melbourne from culturally and linguistically diverse and mainstream backgrounds the opportunity to come together to voice their individual experiences, stories and struggles surrounding three key topics; intergenerational relationships, racial discrimination and knowing your rights as a young person. While these topics might sound heavy, the day was fun, engaging, dynamic and positive. For the first time in Righteous’ history, the forum was presented in partnership with Melbourne Fringe. The day began with an opportunity to ask questions and hear from the panellists on the topics in a forum setting, followed by workshops in hip hop led by Joe Motley, spoken word with Michelle Dabrowski and zine-making by A Zine Thing. The workshops were designed to capture ideas from the discussion and create works that reflected the opinions and stories of the participants.

“As a coordinator of the event, the collaboration with Melbourne Fringe supported and highlighted what Righteous has always been based on: the premise that the arts are a powerful medium to connect with youth. Righteous is about exploring issues that affect young people in relation to their rights and creating a dialogue – there’s no better medium than the arts to do this.”

Robyn Gawenda, Project Officer, Multicultural Arts Victoria 20

The event was the product of many meetings and discussions with the MAV Youth Steering Committee – comprised of young people from CALD backgrounds, artists, students and friends – that take place monthly in the MAV Backroom (accompanied by lots of pizza) in the lead up to the forum. A huge thanks goes out to our steering committee, youth panel and facilitators Maz Komba, Jordan Seden (a.k.a Gekkz), Amona Hassab, Fostin Nshimirimana and VMC Youth Commissoner Safa Almarhoun for sharing their experiences and stimulating great discussion!

The MAV Youth Steering Committee also has their say on a range of programs with Multicultural Arts Victoria. From Black Harmony 2014 in March, to the Genesis Project led by Fostin Nshimirimana and Emerge in Brimbank in November, we’ve gained great ideas and input from young artists and community leaders. The MAVYSC meet on the last Wednesday of every month. If you would like to join or know someone who does, please contact Robyn Gawenda (youth@multiculturalarts.com.au) or Fablice Manirakiza (Fablice@multiculturalarts.com.au).

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Facilitators Fostin Nshimirimana & Amona Hassab along with Righteous: Rights at the Round Table participants, photos by James Henry

NEON NEW YEAR’S EVE

NEW YEAR’S EVE AT FED SQUARE WEDNESDAY 31 DECEMBER, 8PM – 1AM

FREE

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Light up and shine this New Year’s Eve with a colourful spectacle at Fed Square. African beats, samba dance, circus acts and neon lights, Fed Square’s free New Year’s Eve celebrations will be a party to remember. Reflecting the rich cultural diversity of Melbourne, the Square will illuminate in a kaleidoscope of colour and so will you!

Wear your brightest colours or crystal whites so you illuminate under a canopy of ultraviolet lights installed exclusively for the celebration. Experience the big beats of Lamine Sonko and African Intelligence as they guide you through easy dance steps that, on the stroke of midnight, will coalesce in an en-masse dance to their popular track, Light and Shine. The entertainment lineup, presented in partnership with Multicultural Arts Victoria, also includes Sounds of Polynesia, Marawa the Amazing, Ethiopian Circus Trio, Neda - Neon Rhythm Myth Masters, Wassawumba and Congo Tardis #1.

Wassawumba

CULTURAL LEADERSHIP WORKSHOPS

Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony photo by DWV Photography

Building diverse cultural leaders

Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV) developed a new series of Cultural Leadership Workshops in consultation with local governments in Wyndham, Brimbank and Maribyrnong and MAV’s 2014 Emerge Ambassadors that ran every Wednesday and Saturday from 8 to 26 November 2014. Culturally diverse artists and community leaders in Melbourne’s west were invited to participate in the series of free workshops to share ideas and develop skills in community leadership and cultural management. The workshops took place in Footscray, Werribee and Sunshine and provided unique opportunities for participants to network, build leadership and management skills, get to know their local governments and cultural sectors, and discuss common issues with peers and experts.

building and acknowledgement and participation of cultural ‘leaders’ and artists in the community.

The program was designed by MAV, evolving from its Emerge Program, responding to the needs of the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities in the West. The consultation was a vital in the process to identify barriers and issues that impede CALD artists and community leaders for cultural participation. MAV identified the necessity of building capacity and leadership within communities through skills and knowledge development workshops, networking opportunities, access to information and opportunities available, relationship

Our 2014 Cultural Leadership Workshops directly launched the process to prevent this and address the evident need for new pathways and networks that empower women to translate and share their cultural knowledge and skills to businesses and those outside their community.

One of the important issues highlighted during the consultation was the low participation of women in cultural events in the community and the under recognition of their cultural knowledge and skills. Women’s role to keep traditions and passing on to younger generations was mentioned as key to maintain cultural heritage in families and communities. 2014 Emerge Ambassador Atakilty Woreita, a female leader on the Ethiopian community, emphasised that,

“cultures and skills are dying with individuals.”

The program was supported by the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship, Wyndham City Council, Brimbank City Council and Maribyrnong City Council.

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Looking for a unique gift for that special person in your life?

Make a donation to support an extraordinary artist!

GIVE NOW Give the gift of a MAV membership and/or a donation this season. Your support will contribute to ensuring culturally diverse artists continue to receive opportunities and visibility for the tremendous work they contribute.

To make a fully tax deductible donation please visit www.givenow.com.au or contact us via email: kat.philanthropy@multiculturalarts.com.au or call us on 9188 3681. “...cultural diversity creates a rich and varied world, which increases the range of choices and nurtures human capacities and values, and therefore is a mainspring for sustainable development for communities, peoples and nations.�

UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions 2005

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STAND UP FOR DIVERSITY

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THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING MULTICULTURAL ARTS VICTORIA.

Multicultural Arts Victoria Staff Chief Executive Officer: Jill Morgan AM Artistic Program Manager: Anita Larkin Finance, Office & ICT Manager: Hung Nguyen Admin, Publicity & Design: Deshani Wickremasinghe Marketing & Communications: Jade Ouk Philanthropy and Fundraising: Kat Vane Tempest Creative Producer: Meg Larkin Social Enterprise: Kate Hayes Project Officers: Jess Fairfax, Robyn Gawenda Project Officer Visual Arts: Trinidad Estay Arts & Cultural Development: Fablice Manirakiza Events & Operations: Graham Coffey Accounts Assistant: An Mai Marketing Interns: Igor Ledermann, Tamara Bouzo Multimedia: Sebastian Avila

Address: South Melbourne Town Hall L1, 208-220 Bank Street, South Melbourne 3205 PO Box 5113 South Melbourne 3205, Australia T: +61 3 9188 3681 - F: +61 3 9686 6643

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multiculturalarts.com.au Image: Weaving the Ocean workshop as part of MASH uP School Holiday Program, by DWV Photography Printed on 100% recycled paper using vegetable inks

Multicultural Arts Victoria is generously supported by

VISIBLE MUSIC PROGRAM Over the last nine years, Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV) has paved critical pathways for artists from refugee and indigenous backgrounds through its Visible Music Mentoring Program into band-rooms and recording studios, radio stations and onto main stages, linking them with top Melbourne musicians and producers - visibly contributing to an Australian sound, representative of Australia’s diverse make-up.

This year’s Visible program is digitally released on MAV’s Bandcamp along with EPs from Taqi Khan & Monga J Mukasa. Check it out! https://multiculturalartsvic.bandcamp.com/

multiculturalarts.com.au