“In the eight years I’ve lived on the Block this is the
best thing that has happened here” – Block Resident
A crowd of between 500-700 attended the Rock the Block
festival, on Saturday May 6th, enjoying a day of Indigenous and non-indigenous
music and film, and contributing towards a new community dance studio at the
Eloura–Tony Mundine Gym.
Sydney-siders, in all their cultural and sub-cultural
diversity, happily shared the Block’s parkland (owned by the Aboriginal Housing
Company) with the local Indigenous community, while enjoying the festivities.
Performers on the day ranged from rock act and organisers, Andorra, to
local favorite Wire MC, as well as impromptu performances by No Fixed Address
frontman Bart Willoughby, and Richard Green accompanied by children singing
contemporary nursery rhymes in Aboriginal language.
Other musicians to entertain the crowd included Ozi Batla,
from The Herd, eclectic folk act Shimmer, pop violinist Gisele Scales,
Indigenous hip-hop artists Tribal Ashes and Munkimuk, Jesse Morris and the
Project, local rock stalwarts The Urban Guerillas and, rounding out the
evening, Melbourne act Combat Wombat who’ve been so inspired by the idea of
Rock the Block that they’ve organised a tour of NSW as a result.
The Blackscreen film series, run by the Australian Film
Commission as part of the festival, also enjoyed a large attendance.
Blackscreen was introduced by Andre Reese, director of the marvellous ‘Sunrise
Awakening’, which documents the beginning of Black theatre in the 1970’s.
Sunrise Awakening, which has been restored in order to screen it at Rock the
Block, is the first among many archived films which the Film Commission now
hopes to revitalise and show at the Block, as the area once again becomes a hub
for Indigenous theatre, films and dance.
Aboriginal Housing Company CEO, Mick Mundine, says the
community is looking forward, with great enthusiasm, to another event in
October this year, which will be a kids day featuring performances from
children learning at the dance studio.
The dance studio hopes to open later this month.
shots of the day, which are viewable at www.moz.net.nz