“Input from young people tripled, the audience was massive
and the response from the non-Indigenous audience was really positive,” said
Lily Shearer, Project Co-ordinator and Cultural Development officer at the
Redfern Community Centre.
In the lead-up professional artists worked with young people
from Redfern/Waterloo to develop skills in aerial, hip hop, stilt walking,
fashion and performance. As night fell the audience gathered at the top of Eveleigh Street,
greeted by MCs, a projection on the wall of the Aboriginal Housing Corporation
and a huge blow-up heart that read: “I love the Block.” With fires lit and a
frisson of excitement in the air, the crowd began to move, down through the
heart of the Block, the site of so much history of resistance.
A smoking ceremony and welcome to country by Uncle Max set
the scene. Brilliant short film pieces, projected onto the crumbling walls
recreated a sense of the old timers as did stories of sites and a quick Dharug
language lesson. At Mundine’s Gym a shadow-boxing tableau conveyed the energy
and resilience of the community. Around the corner at the basketball courts,
young hip hop and spoken word artists told their stories. Giant trees and a
gecko accompanied the surging crowd up Hugo Street to the Redfern Community
Centre where young women vogued and
strutted. The night was capped with an aerial display of breathtaking
proportions.
The overall feel was of a special ceremonial gathering, with
the past honoured, reconciliation made real and the future glimpsed in the
young people who were involved.
Part performance, part cultural tour, but mostly fantastic
spectacle, the young stars and producers of Gathering Ground have much to
celebrate and be proud of. Over 60 young people, children and elders came
together over a six-week rehearsal period to produce a show that directly
challenged the dominant stereotypes of the Block. The usual negative image was
washed away with the stories of the Block re-told through dance, film
installation, aerial performance, language.
This was the second
Blockside event, with the first in 2006, and is the culmination of two years of planning
and partnership between PACT Theatre and the RCC that has extended into a
six-year strategy. In 2010 the event will be wholly community developed and
run.
Gathering Ground: Blockside Story 2008
PACT Youth Theatre Community Performance and Redfern
Community Centre
Co-Directors: Karen Therese and Fred Copperwaite
Principle Artists: Wil Jarrett, Legs on the Wall, Erth
Photos: Ali Blogg- Scene from Gathering Ground: Blockside
Story 2008
Source:
South Sydney Herald July 2008 www.southsydneyherald.com.au