forces to help young people from culturally diverse backgrounds develop their MCing, dance and spoken word skills while also providing mentoring and positive role models.
Our Collective Vision
• To educate our young people about the importance of cultural history and identity, the joy of being creative and focused, and the empowerment of connecting as a community.
• To promote mutual respect, open-mindedness and social equality – to reduce violence, substance abuse, and discrimination.
•To challenge social and institutional racism and prejudice that exists in Australia.
• To bring diverse people together and build strong relationships through music and performing arts.
Gua Performance and Leadership Camp – East meets West to promote positive social change
An initiative that was developed as a result of the overall Gua Project is The Gua Performance and Leadership Camp which was held on two occasions at Camp Mallana on the Banksia Peninsula in January, 2011 and Wilson’s Promontory National Park in January, 2014. On both occasions it consisted of a 3-4 day leadership and 'masterclass' camp where 30 young emerging artists from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds from the ages of 15-30 primarily from Melbourne’s South Eastern and Western suburbs attended. One highlight of both camps was the pristine surroundings that participants were exposed to including having access to beaches, rivers, rock-pools, mountains, bush-tracks, lakes and the general countryside. The camp organises really saw this as an opportunity for a healing process to occur as many participants had been exposed to ongoing trauma and issues within their communities both nationally and internationally. Many participants expressed that they have never really had the opportunity to venture out of Melbourne city or go on a holiday. One participant noted:“The beach was amazing even though I don’t swim. I had to get in the water it was phenominal!” (Gua camp participant, 2014)
Participants were provided the opportunity to be mentored by creative professionals and develop artistic pieces exploring themes that came up for them e.g. identity, global issues and root issues behind racial tensions in Australia. The ‘masterclasses’ that the participants attended provided exposure to industry professionals with experience in performance, event/stage production, making a public statement with media, social networking strategies, promotion and marketing and effective lyric and poetry writing. In a group evaluation session the camp was described by a participant as “a good opportunity for young artists to be free and focus on ther materials with the help of experts” (Gua camp participant, 2011).
Where to next? How to get involved… The next Gua Performance and Leadership camp is set to occur in the last week of January, 2016 and hosted at Wilson’s Prom National Park.
For more information please introduce yourself and email Sarah Williams: [email protected]
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