ANNANDALE CREATIVE ARTS CENTRE

Welcome to Country

Uncle Ray Davison

Introduction to “Land: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”

Brooke Prentis

Terroir

A film by: Dian Neligan and Andrew Ottley

Featuring: Trisha Fowler and Rosemarie Olk

Two people return to the home where they grew up. Through their stories, we discover what it was like growing up in the home and on the land that they did. We learn how the landscape, suburb and house they grew up in has shaped them, and the things that they care about today. 

Salt Water Blood

Music and performance by: Rowan Savage (Guy Ruin)

This work uses field recordings, live experimental music performance and dance elements to explore methods of reconnection with the artist's Aboriginal Country and culture in the face of the disconnections of colonisation.

Sere Vei Jiova

Choreographed by: Mereani Toa

Music: Sere Vei Jiova

Performed by: Leigh Fijian Youth

We are the Leigh Fijian Youth, continuously journeying to find our identity between the land that we are from and the land that we live on today. In Fiji, we have a voice in decisions related to land, we have our elders knowledge and wisdom of how to use and respect the land. Living in Australia, our relationship with land is different. Although we do not have the same voice as we would in our home island, we still can connect to the land through dance. Especially dance that praises the Creator God for the land that he has made.

Edges

Written and performed by: Stephen Davis

Film by: Andrew Ottley

Your Place

Choreographed and performed by: Renata Commisso

Music written and performed by: Joshua Winestock

Theatre advisor: Kirsty Kiloh

Dialogue advisor: Anna Greig

'The sense of belonging that is often expressed as a profound feeling of attachment.' The commodity of land and the small things we treasure. I'm curious to explore what we own and how it contributes to our sense of belonging and the relationships to our surroundings. Does it make up who we are? How do we 'belong' without them? Exploring the connection and relationships around this commodity and what is it we can learn from the Aboriginal people that help us feel worthy enough to live without this feeling of attachment.

~ Interval ~

The Parlour Maid

Written and Performed by: Claire Wall

Featuring: Philippa Clark and Brooke Prentis

In collaboration with: Connor Ward-Kenway and Charlotte Salusinszky

Part of the unacknowledged history of this country lives within the construct of the ‘Australian’ identity that many of us adopt. I am interested to see how an exploration of our ancestry, particularly for non-Indigenous Australians, can alter our relationship with this land that we now live in. Our migrant past is often forgotten, and perhaps we would tread more lightly if we lived within this truth.

Panel Discussion

Facilitated by: Brooke Prentis

Featuring: Rhanee Tsetsakos, Ofa (Milise) Foiakau, Byron Smith

Browns Waterhole

Performed by: Heather Prowse

I will be presenting a soundscape of improvised instrumental music inspired by a place from my childhood; the Lane Cove River, on the lands of the Darug people. I invite you to let these sounds wash over you as you rest and reflect. Perhaps the experience will evoke a sense of nostalgia of your own past experiences of Land.

A New Day

Written and Performed by: Brooke Prentis and Helen Wright

This collaboration is about a journey of two friends, one Aboriginal (Brooke) and one non-Indigenous (Helen) and the deep listening and relearning of each others story and of country.  For Brooke, it is a deep listening to the ancestors and all creation and helping Helen and others to tune in and be invited into the ancient story of these lands now called Australia. For Helen, journeying with Brooke has changed the way Helen sees the world, almost like her eyes and ears are seeing and hearing for the first time. This collaboration weaves together music and poetry set to the background of the sights and sounds of the Bunya Mountains, Brooke's country.  

"Together we hope and pray for a new day in these lands, a new way of being, that truly embraces the old ways."

Many thanks to: 

The Creative Conversations team: Alison Williams, Brooke Prentis, Helen Wright, Graeme Tutt, Stuart Matheson, Kim Rodgers, Keith Chidzey, Dian Neligan, Gabi Powell-Thomas, Becky Everist, Lee-Anne Litton, Heather Prowse, Katrina Breuker, Tim Everist and the many volunteers who help make an event like this possible!