Voices of the Wheatbelt

The aim of the ‘Voices of the Wheatbelt’ project was, to achieve community development and individual capacity building outcomes through the artistic medium of photography. The project also offered the opportunity for enhanced understandings between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people through the input of Elders, Aboriginal facilitators and excursions.

With the support of the photographic facilitators, students learnt about the technical and artistic aspects of digital photography, including the elements of design, elements of composition and ways to use light.

Students were encouraged to understand that capturing a great photo isn’t necessarily about creating photographic perfection but is about recognizable personality that the viewer can see and feel. This personality is voiced not only through what the photo is of but also communicates something about the personality of the photographer. Sometimes the personality in a photo arises predominantly from what the photo is of and sometimes a sense of the photographer’s personality is the dominant message. Generally there is a balance and interplay between the two. The photos that you see today are exactly as they were taken with no digital manipulation.

The towns selected were Tammin, Kellerberrin, Quairading and Merredin. Workshops were offered to school students in the first half of 2008 and workshops for adults will be advertised in the second half of this year.

As the photos give voice to the people, places and lifestyles of the Wheatbelt an exhibition in Perth is planned to enhance connections between the city and the Wheatbelt.

‘Voices of the Wheatbelt’ was facilitated by Community Ars Network WA (CAN WA) and was funded by the Department of Families Housing Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.
 

Quairading District High School - a selection of photos from the exhibition

The winners

Morgan Wallwork, year 8

Water Dreaming

The aim of ‘Water Dreaming’ is to bring the whole Shire of Coolgardie together to explore how drought has affected the community. The region has recently been declared drought affected by the Australian Federal Government. Over the past ten years there has been significantly reduced rain fall with long, hot and dry summers and the lack of the replenishing winter rains adversely impacting on the collective sense of well being in the community. Additionally the community’s water supply is piped from the Mundaring Dam, which has been at record low levels over the past few years causing further anxiety about the future of the community’s water source.

The project is looking at how to minimise the hardships caused by drought by building community capacity and a sense of place so that the community has increased resilience in times of difficulty. The capacity is being built through creative arts, using cultural and interactive processes. The methodology is looking at future opportunities for diversifying the local economy and importantly will consolidate a collective understanding about what drought means to the community.

The ‘Water Dreaming’ project is being undertaken by CAN WA in partnership with Shire of Coolgardie and supported by the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

The Shire of Coolgardie is approximately 550 kilometres east of Perth, and 350 kilometres north of Esperance. It encompasses an area of 30,400 km² and includes the towns of Coolgardie, Kambalda East, Kambalda West, Widgiemooltha and Kurrawang.

Almost 6000 people live in the Shire and the community is made up of people who have lived in the area for a long time like the Indigenous family groups and people who have recently arrived from places like North and South Africa, New Zealand (Maori and New Zealanders of European decent), Croatia, Ireland, Philippines, Samoa and India to take up work opportunities in the mining sector and make this place their home.

There are five schools in the region - three primary schools and two Kindergarten to Year 12 schools. Two of the schools cater predominantly to Indigenous students and the balance of the schools have a student body with mixed racial backgrounds.

CAN WA’s ‘Water Dreaming’ Project Facilitator, Barb Howard has visited the community several times since the commencement of the project in August to begin the first phase. She has undertaken community visioning discussions including the ‘Tree of Hope’ consultation at the Coolgardie Day Festival in mid September. People have come together from different parts of the community including representation from the Indigenous community to share their stories, knowledge and connection to the place. The information gathered from these visits will be used to form a Goldfields story unique to Coolgardie around the theme of water to be performed at the Coolgardie Day Festival 2008. Lockie McDonald, Perth based writer, director and producer has been engaged to help stitch the story together and retell it back to the community involving local community members. The process will involve engaging young people from Kambalda District High School and Coolgardie Aboriginal Catholic Parent Directed School and other interested members of the community to participate in workshops focusing on developing their performance skills. The workshops will be lead by established performers and are anticipated to happen around the middle of 2008. This is promising to be a very fascinating performance, unlike anything that has been seen in the Goldfields in recent history so if you are interested in getting involved make contact with CAN WA.

Water Dreaming feature

 Banner Making Project

Barb has been working with Community Artist Paula Hart in Coolgardie and Kambalda on the ‘Water Dreaming’ school banner project. Involving schools from Kambalda, Coolgardie and Kurrawang, the focus was to create a collective image representing the school from individual artworks made by the students during the day-long workshop. It is intended that the students will display the resultant banner, based around the central theme of water, in the upcoming Coolgardie festival parade in September.

Exploring methods of painting and drawing with local teachers and students, the groups considered how they felt about the lack of water in their community and what they can do to conserve water.

Children aged between 9 and 10 worked very creatively with the medium, really getting involved and making some spectacular artwork together.

Discussions were also held with older students from Kambalda Senior High School around the subject of water, exploring their experiences of their community and how they feel about it, with some surprising results.

An element of transience was touched on. Different knowledge and viewpoints were brought to the table through some children having the experience of living the farm life and other young people spending time out in the bush visiting gnamma (water) holes and dams in the Goldfields.

Barb and Paula spent time doing a lot of ‘informal research’, talking with community members at the local swimming pool, park and homes, and were pleased at the results of what turned out to be a very successful trip.