Author: Michael O'Donnell

Why Choose Montréal

Posted on by Michael O'Donnell

When many Australian businesses look towards Canada, they only see the Vancouver or Toronto business bubbles.

Montréal, though, is now considered one of the most competitive and reputable cities in North America and is attracting more and more foreign direct investment, international organisations and global talent every year

Claire Yu from Montréal International sat down with us to explain why Montréal is ideal for Australian businesses looking to expand into Canada; she says it lies in Montréal’s national and international market access, cultural similarity with Australia, strategic location and its growth as cultural hub that makes Montréal “a very interesting opportunity for Australian companies”.

Montréal’s access to international markets is second-to-none. With Canada party to free trade agreements such as USMCA (formerly NAFTA) and CETA; Canada has direct access to more than 40 countries with almost 1.2 billion consumers and a combined GDP of nearly US$41.2 trillion (Montreal International 2018). The CPTPP will expand this access and the countless opportunities that this agreement holds for Canada, Australia and the other nine party nations in late 2018.

Many Australian businesses struggle with the tyranny of distance and look to expand internationally to overcome Australia’s geographic remoteness. Montréal is truly an international hub where air, land, sea and rail meet. Moreover, located only a 90-minute flight away from Boston, New York, Toronto and Washington D.C.; Montréal lies at the crossroads of many of the world’s global cities. This makes Montréal an ideal geographic location from which to launch Australian business aspirations in Canada and more widely in North America.

This strategic location also has benefits for Australian companies that often have their eye on the U.S. market. Yu said that many companies benefit from Montréal’s location as they can “penetrate the US market while not directly located in the US, given the current geopolitical circumstances”, while also mentioning that Canada’s more flexible immigration policies may also facilitate an easier transition of a business into the North American markets than the United States.

Yu says the similarities in Canadian and Australian business settings are ideal for international business growth.

“What Montréal offers is that being in Canada, it shares a lot of similarities with a country like Australia, which represents a certain level of predictability and stability – and that’s reassuring,” she explained.

One cultural difference some Australian businesses may feel might upset this predictability is the perceived language barrier, however while Montréal is the largest city in Canada’s largest French-speaking province and there are over 100 languages spoken in this cosmopolitan city, 55% of the 4.2 million residents of Montréal speaking both English and French.

Montréal is to Canada what Melbourne is to Australia – a cultural hub. While this has benefits for those working in Montréal’s growth sectors of the creative industries, aerospace, life sciences and health technologies; Yu says the interesting mix of creativity and technology has made it a ‘sweet spot’, and has many flow-on effects for the city. Such benefits include strong talent acquisition due to the city’s arts and culture lifestyle and strong education sector, one of the best start-up ecosystems in the world and affordable living costs compared other major cities in the U.S. and Canada. But nothing sums up Montréal better than Yu when she said “it doesn’t have the mega metropolitan hustles like New York or Toronto, but it’s not a small town either … it has the North American efficiency with the European charm”.

Come from Away coming Down Under

Posted on by Michael O'Donnell

Their breakout hit musical has opened in New York, Toronto and in 2019 Melbourne, but for the husband and wife writing team of Come from Away, it was opening night ina tiny Canadian town on the far east coast that gave them the most butterflies.

Gander, a town in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, is the setting for David Hein & Irene Sankoff’s extraordinarily successful musical, based on the period immediately after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Two hundred airborne planes were diverted from the US into Canadian cities, with 38 planes and 6,600 people sent to Gander – which usually has a population of around 10,000 – in that frantic period.

Irene and David took their show to Gander in October, 2016, just prior to opening on Broadway.

“Oh my gosh, it was kind of like your wedding and your prom and the birth of your child all on the same night – in front of 2500 people. We were more nervous about that than we were for any other opening night, including Broadway,” Sankoff said.

“We really wanted the people of Gander to be proud of what we did, because if we didn’t have their blessing, telling their stories the way we did, then what’s the point?”

Hein agreed.

“Our goal was never to take the show to Broadway, certainly not to take a show to Australia!” he laughed.

“Our goal was always to get it right and for them to say ‘that’s what happened’.”

The pair said the story of what happened in Gander, as well as in a number of other Canadian cities which took stranded passengers, resonated with them because of their lived experience during the attacks.

“We’re Canadian, obviously, but we were actually living down in New York on 9/11, we were living in a residence called International House, which is an international residence for graduate students, and so it had students from Canada, from around the world,” Hein explained.

“Our experience on 9/11 was that community taking care of each other – our neighbours came and knocked on our doors soon after it happened, we all came together as a community. We were aware that planes had been diverted into Canada, but we didn’t really know the full story. When we started researching it, it resonated with us because we remembered our experience with the kindness of this international community coming together.”  

It was a decade after the events that Sankoff and Hein made the decision to further investigate the story of what happened in Gander, and it was their own experience in the town meeting the local inspirations for the show’s characters that truly helped to shape their musical.

“We applied for a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, and they sent us out to Newfoundland for almost a month, we got to stay there a little bit longer because the Newfoundlanders wouldn’t let us spend money on hotels,” Hein said.

“We interviewed as many people as we possibly could and just came back with thousands of stories, and each one was better than the next.”

The pair see Come from Away as a universal story of hope, caring and unity – and given there were passengers from all around the globe who ended up in Gander, it definitely has a worldly feel.  

“The world landed in Gander … but on the other side it’s an international story and universal because everywhere we take the show, we find that it resonates with people,” Hein said.

“On that day we were all in the same boat, we were all inthe same moment, we all wanted to help, we all felt helpless, and time andagain it becomes more and more resonate because there’s more moments when wefeel those same tragedies and we want to help in some way.”

But it is also a uniquely Canadian story, and not just because that’s where the planes landed. Sankoff says the support for the musical within Canada started well before the concept was ever even considered.

“Let’s go all the way back to high school!” she exclaimed.

“I went to public high school, and it was an arts high school, I got social assistance, I got what they call the Ontario Student Assistance Plan, the OSAP, along with grants and scholarships, and also higher education is reasonably affordable in Canada.”

And from concept to creation, Hein says Canada as a whole has been part of the collective team.

“We’ve been supported by municipal, provincial, and federal grants along our career. Beyond that, to have an entire country adopt your show as an important message for Canada and as an important part of our cultural identity has meant the world,” he said.

“I grew up in Saskatchewan, and then I moved to Ottawa, and on Canada Day I would paint a maple leaf on my face, I would run down the street with a Canada flag flying behind my neck as a cape, I’m not sure you could find someone more patriotic or proud to be part of this country, and to have the country behind us on this journey has meant the world.”

This is the couple’s first trip to Australia, and with the show opening in Melbourne in July 2019, they will stay involved with the development of the new production. They are confident that Australians will feel the same sense of warmth and connection to the show that’s been seen around the world.

“Even just being here so far, it does feel like being at home, it’s so very similar to Canada, I have to admit I’m actually surprised by it,” Sankoff said.

Hein agreed with his wife’s assessment.

“We’ve often been told when we’re away from home that we should find Australians, because they share the same sense of humour, they share the same values, and they’re good people, and it’s already been proven, we’ve been welcomed with open arms, in similar fashion to Gander.”  

The Come from Away writing team of David Hein and Irene Sankoff were in Australia thanks to the support of the Consulate General of Canada (Sydney) through Global Affairs Canada’s Mission Cultural Fund.

Tantoo Cardinal at the WINDA Film Festival

Posted on by Michael O'Donnell

Tantoo Cardinal is a legend of Canadian screen.

With over 120 film and television credits to her name, as well as an Order of Canada, and the Early Grey lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television among her accolades, Cardinal’s incredible career has spanned 48 years and includes such titles as Dances with Wolves and Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman.

In Australia for the first time, Cardinal was a guest of the WINDA Film Festival in Sydney, which featured two of her newest works, Angelique’s Isle and Falls Around Her, which opened the festival, and was Cardinal’s first film as the top-billed actor.

When Cardinal sat down with Canada Down Under, she said she’d always wanted to get to Australia, thanks to the quality of the Australian Indigenous film Industry and a quirky link to the southern land through the name of the community she grew up in, but this was the first opportunity to make the long journey.

“It’s a particular honour [to be at the WINDA Film Festival]; because of the history of growing up in a community called Anzac, in Northern Alberta, I knew I would come here at some point, I was surprised it took this long,” she said.

“I’m participating in my bucket list right now. The Indigenous filmmakers from this part of the world have been so inspirational – doing quality films for many, many years, and they’ve set the bar high.”

Cardinal says taking on such a substantive role as the one she had in Falls Around Her was an opportunity for her to help tell a First Nations story through a First Nations lens.

“It was really exciting, but really fulfilling, to go to work every day and know that you had a full slate, and it was such a creative process, and to hear what [Writer/Director] Darlene [Naponse] wanted to see out of it all,” she said.

“It was a great sense of pride to be there, and to be doing this story in that way, in that place, where so many of the faces when you look around are from our world, stories from our world and the way they’re being told is from our world.”

Alongside her acting career, Cardinal has seen activism as a vital part of her life. This has extended to her being arrested during a 2011 protest against the proposed extension of the Keystone pipeline. She says her dedication to the environment goes hand-in-hand with being Indigenous.

“We as Indigenous peoples still remember our responsibility … It’s not some poetic term, that’s an actual relationship, and we as Indigenous people have been here and we’ve come to know this earth, and we have been sustained in so many ways” she said.

“It made me crazy to see what was going on, what was happening in my own home, and then everywhere I looked – because we had the stories when I was a child, I knew we were headed for where we are now, and it created so much angst and so much rage because there were so many opportunities in a single day for people to catch on that the earth is alive … I think the best that we can do is try to be organic in our ways, being supportive of that life force that the children behind us are expecting.”

While there remains much to do in her fight to protect the environment, in the film and television world she’s seen significant positive changes since the beginning of her career, particularly in the telling of First Nations stories.

“When I first started it was at a time where they could say ‘no, we have to have oil and gas’, ‘no we have to have uranium’, because we didn’t yet have solar panels and wind energy and the biodiversity and all of this kind of stuff that we have now, and at that time we did not have our script writers and our directors and our camera people and all of that expertise,” she explained.

“The big change is we have all this artillery, we have all of this awakedness, and this passion and this determination and this knowing that we are human and that we have absolutely every right to be here, and not only that, there are some responsibilities.”

The Consulate General of Canada was a major partner of the 2018 WINDA Film Festival, and is proud to be supporting First Nations stories being shared in Australia.

‘Buddy’ Stands Tall Over Bondi to Bronte Coastal Walk during Sculpture by the Sea 2018

Posted on by Michael O'Donnell

As thousands wandered along Sydney’s iconic Bondi to Bronte coastal walk this past October, there was something emerging from Tamarama Beach Park. After walking for two kilometres past one hundred works, a seven-metre tall sculpture emerged from the sandy grass patch.   Here was “Buddy” greeting viewers like a jester with branches waving to them in the breeze.

Environmental artist Marc Walter’s sculpture ‘Buddy’ stood proudly among works from local and international artists this year at the world’s largest free to the public sculpture exhibition in Sydney’s east. Walter is one of two Canadian artists selected for Bondi’s Sculpture by the Sea in 2018.

It took ten days for Walter to build “Buddy” from branches collected in advance by the Sculpture By the Sea organisers with most of them coming from Rossmore in Sydney’s south-west and some local cuttings from the gardeners in Tamarama Gully. Once completed, the sculpture stood for three weeks in Tamarama Beach Park where people could go inside, feel the space and be inspired to reflect.

Walter said that this sculpture was intended to heighten all of the senses of those interacting with it, rather than just pleasing to the eye.

“The light diminishes, it’s a little bit cooler, and the sounds are a little bit muffled. The eye first looks at the branches but then it bounces between the branches and the background and it means that they have a renewed look at everything.”

‘Buddy’s height also encourages people to look up and interact with the world around them.

“Because it [Buddy] is so tall, they have the feeling to look up and that is what my main interest in life is: is to get people to look up, because so many people look down and they concentrate on their problems which means that they don’t interact, they don’t talk … this piece hopefully gets people to slow down, and if you get them long enough in there, they can start to think about where they are in life and what they want to do with it”

One of the most unique aspects of ‘Buddy’ is that it is a “site-specific sculpture” meaning that Walter uses the surrounding natural environment as inspiration for his work. But how does a Canadian from the Outaouais, a region of western Quebec, create a sculpture like this in Sydney, Australia, without ever having been here before?

While the donated branches certainly make ‘Buddy’ a local sculpture, Walter tapped into online resources and used photos and maps as well as the knowledge of the local community to better visualise and understand the feel of it before he ever set foot in Tamarama Park.

Another important aspect of Walter’s work is that it is designed to decay into its environment. While Buddy remained at Tamarama Beach for only three weeks, ‘Buddy’s twin project in British Colombia will continue its full cycle from birth to decay in situ until April 2019.

While competition isn’t Walter’s usual scene, he is pleased that he took the leap and entered Sculpture by the Sea 2018 which he had watched from afar for almost a decade.

“It’s been a great experience and I wasn’t sure what I was going to find to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I would fit. But it was fantastic to come here and meet so many new people and I have been inspired by so many discussions that I had here.”

The participation of Marc Walter at Sculpture by the Sea was supported by Global Affairs Canada through the Mission Culture Fund and Bondi’s COOEE Art Gallery.

Cultural Inclusion Blueprint

Posted on by Michael O'Donnell

Foreward

The Consulate General of Canada, Sydney, brought together a group of Australia’s creative industries leaders to discuss how culture and arts programming could better embrace diversity and inclusion as core values.

Canada and Australia share similarities in the cultural arena given the many parallels in our historical experiences. This unique alliance provides an opportunity to work together and shine a light on the themes of gender, reconciliation, youth, sexual orientation, innovation and disruption in the arts space.

This lively and open discussion encompassed both the challenges and opportunities associated with programming decisions and approaches. In turn, this has helped to inform a more targeted vision for Canada’s cultural programming in Australia as we consider how to best target resources to ensure all programming reflects diversity and inclusion as a central cross cutting theme.

A snap shot of key “take-aways” from the discussion are included in this report.

The Consulate intends to build on these learnings and pursue similar themed workshops with Melbourne-based experts and elsewhere in Australia.

We also look forward to share best practices on diversity and inclusion programming at industry events in both Canada and Australia as we build upon this vital conversation.

-Angela Bogdan, Consul General of Canada, Sydney

Look to the edges

It is vital to look outside the mainstream. Those on the fringes are having the loudest conversations and talking the most – they have the strongest sense of connection.

As a general rule, the cultural sector is in the best position to find these kinds of performers, artists or acts; leveraging their expertise of festivals and events not only allows for the best art to be discovered, but also to utilise the facilities and promotion avenues those events offer. This creates access points across the wider community and finds an active audience. Through such festivals, artists have greater opportunities to mix with creative partners from around the globe, to disseminate ideas, collaborate and learn.

Funding collaborations between Canadian and Australian festivals allows the cross-cultivation of ideas and the expansion of themes such as universal reconciliation, while allowing audiences the opportunity to explore the human condition through the distinct art of both nations. Such collaborations provide artists the chance to experience new environments, new cultures and new works, as is the case with the Tri-Nations exchange, detailed in our Case Study.

Case Study

The Tri-Nations Exchange is a collaboration between Moogahlin Performing Arts (AUS), Native Earth Performing Arts (CAN), and Tawata Productions (NZ) showcasing new First Nations playwriting for international audiences. Plays are selected in a competitive process, workshopped collaboratively with actors and then produced for inclusion at major festivals such as PuSH International Arts Festival, Vancouver and the Sydney Festival, Australia. Stories translate seamlessly between Indigenous communities of Canada, Australia and New Zealand given their shared experiences. Cliff Cardinal’s work was read by Australian actors at the Yellamundie Festival while his play HUFF continues to capture Australian audiences with its potency.

Education and Youth

The importance of having young people engage in arts and culture is unparalleled. Festivals around the globe have an aging demographic, and the role of traditional platforms appear to be diminishing. The arts can be intimidating for younger people, and a focus on funding should be to break down barriers that exclude young people as they are central to the conversation.

An important aspect of engaging youth is providing them with positive representations. While stories and culture is being made for young people, they may not know where or how to access it. Technology, social media and influencers need to be better utilised by government funding to reach and provide access to the next generation.

A shift in focus to the delivery of the message rather than the marketing of the art will help rectify this issue.

Accessing young people through education streams should also be considered to ensure young people are activated in the arts from an early age – giving them the opportunity to both sit at the table, and create their own table; giving them a platform to tell their stories, and giving others the chance to listen to young people is essential in letting them know their stories matter.

Case Study

The Mardi Gras Film Festival is an LGBT film festival which aligns with the annual celebration of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras. It is Australia’s largest LGBT film festival.

In 2018, the Consulate General of Canada, Sydney, partnered with the festival to bring Natasha Negovanlis to the event in conjunction with her film The Carmilla Movie.

The movie is the silver-screen iteration of a small-budget web series which garnered huge online attention and resulted in social media stardom for its lead actors. Negovanlis has developed into a respected role model for young people.

Attendees (96% of whom identify as women) were clearly desperate for some representation. The film sold out, along

with a meet and greet session – with fans flying from interstate, some with their parents, to see the film and their role model. Consulate social media received some of its best results, with tweets regarding Natasha’s attendance and an interview gaining more than 200,000 impressions collectively.

For more information, see www.canadadownunder.org.au/natasha-negovanlis

Government

Over the 2017/18 fiscal year, the Consulate General of Canada in Sydney invested over $200,000 into cultural industries and public diplomacy across Australia with over 30 partnership activities in the cultural sector assisting more than 100 Canadians to perform and collaborate in Australia.

Collaborations and investment in festivals has allowed our dynamic @canadadownunder social media to thrive, amplifying Canadian-Australian stories on priority issues such as LGBTQI, gender equality and Indigenous reconciliation.

Thirty-five Canadian delegates attended the Australian Performing Arts Market, which resulted in numerous discussions around collaboration, investment and performance both in Canada and Australia.

Funds from the Post Initiative Fund and Mission Cultural Fund have allowed the Consulate General of Canada, Sydney, to be a leader and focal point for culture in Australia.

The responsibility of culture within government is a broad one – it should be at the heart and soul across all sectors, not just the Arts portfolio. It is vital the discussion around culture, diversity and inclusion happens in leadership across the board, allowing it to permeate through areas such as education, trade, immigration and business. Arts and culture tell the stories of humanity and articulate perspectives, assisting government in delivering important messages to their constituents.

There is an undeniable link between creativity and the trade & investment areas of government, whether it be through networking, collaboration, business development or business culture. Government funds should be utilised to benefit this area in the interests of economic prosperity.

The Canadian Government is in a powerful position of influence with the globe looking at this socially progressive country for its leadership and messaging, and its capacity for cultural diplomacy. The Government’s role in elevating these messages and sharing them across the globe is enormous. The political will and leadership through cultural and artistic funding trickles down giving visibility to the communities that need it, and in turn benefits the government immensely.

It is important that governments do not limit their assistance to simply allowing artists to create, but also looking to widen the pool who can view it. Culture is where stories exist, and where young people in particular can find positive representation of their own experience. Governments need to engage with different platforms to ensure the artists they support audience for their stories and messages.

Governments must take financial risks and invest as the stories of a nation are best told through culture and the arts and those stories need to be discovered and cultivated. The power of soft diplomacy to spread message and influence is immense.

Conclusion

Canada needs to build on the momentum for change. The world is naturally conservative, and the comfort of the status quo is enticing; Canada’s push to tell its story through culture must be maintained – the power of culture to spread this message is immense.

Cultural funding from Canada has provided missions with the opportunity to explore Canada’s stories and give them a platform globally, but with the funds comes a great responsibility – we must adhere to best practice and policy but also be able to adapt. Culture and art is dynamic, shifting and constantly changing; the messages, platforms and storytellers mutate and vary quickly, and it the duty of government to understand and respond to these changes.

Art is education; it is a problem being shared to the wider community, a cry for understanding. The more we are able to share the problems of those on the fringes, the more understanding and educated the wider community becomes, and through this we all benefit. The more diverse a group is, the more adept they are at change. From this, the understanding the wider community grows and the stronger and healthier the community’s diversity will become.

Diversity truly is our strength.

The Consulate will also pursue concepts raised in our work with other government departments, including the Canada Council for the Arts in the development proposal for an Immersion Canada Arts Centre in the Asia-Pacific Region – ideally Melbourne – and share our learnings and continue knowledge sharing through attendance at conferences such as the America’s Cultural Summit in Ottawa in 2018.

Arshad Khan’s film “Abu: Father” has its Sydney debut at Queerscreen

Posted on by Michael O'Donnell

What started out as a five minute memorial video for his father has turned into multi-award winning film that has delighted cinema-goers the world over.

Canadian director Arshad Khan recently visited Australia for the Sydney premiere of his film “Abu” which is Urdu for “Father” at Queerscreen Film Festival. Arshad calls the film a “Canadian gay Pakistani love story documentary” which centres on the difficult relationship that Arshad experienced as a gay son with his devout Pakistani Muslim father.

The film that we see today was not what Arshad originally set out to make. “I was making a 5-minute memorial video for Abu [father] and I realised that my family is obscenely well documented and it is very unusual. We were one of the first families in Pakistan to get a VHS camera recorder in 1981 so there is all this amazing footage of me when I was little.”

Encouraged by the support he had received following a three minute teaser about the film that was shown as part of a competition at Montréal Film Festival, Arshad set about making this film with the support of Canada Council for the Arts and then later the National Film Board (NFB), Quebec Arts Council and SODEC. Through the generosity of multiple grants as well as his passion for the project, Arshad was able to fulfill his dream of telling to “the story that was sitting inside me that I needed to tell”.

By using family films and photos, Arshad traverses the years from his childhood in Pakistan through to his family’s emigration to Canada and onto his adult life as a flight attendant then filmmaker in Canada. The film is self-narrated and combines animation and unique sound design to make this story about an ordinary Canadian migrant family become extraordinary.

When asked what this film is about, Arshad said that is about so much more than his relationship with his father. “It is about so many things. It’s about the trials and tribulations of being a migrant, it’s about finding that elusive place called home, it’s about the fact that we come from all over the place to a place like Canada for whatever reasons and it’s about how we learn and grow so much because of the internationality we find in Canada which is such a learning lesson no matter where you’re from.”

While this film has had huge success in Canada and internationally, Arshad was anxious about how this film would be perceived by the general public. “I felt that I had exploited my family a little bit and my family was very much against it. They thought that it was sharing our dirty laundry and that it was a very bad idea.” Even up until the world premiere of Abu at the Los Angeles Film Festival, he says he felt apprehensive about how it would be received.

The response that Arshad has received, however, both professionally and personally, has been overwhelming; the film has won several awards received a theatrical release across Canada. Arshad said these awards pale in comparison to the personal response that so many people feel and share with him.

“People have given so much love for the film and I started getting bombarded on every platform imaginable,” he said.

“So many people are crying and after each screening, so many come up and hug me. They thank me and say that they feel the same way and that they have had the same struggles. So often they say that is ‘our’ story and I am talking not just about people who are South Asian or Muslim. I’m talking white, Asian, black and this has been so encouraging”

Accolades aside, Arshad said that the reception of this film by his family is priceless. His biggest critic has been his mother, who did not initially support the film as she was concerned about what people might think of their family. He said that she was “dead-set against it even though she gave me an interview”.

His mother’s views changed upon seeing the film with her son on the silver screen.

“I was watching it with Deepa Mehta [well-known Indo-Canadian filmmaker] who was laughing through the film on one side of me and my mother on the other side who way crying throughout. At the end, my mother said to me ‘I am proud of you’ and she said ‘it’s kind of funny’.”

We will never know what Arshad’s father thinks about this film as he passed away in 2011. However, Arshad said that his father always used to say that to him that “My sister Asma and I would either bring him great fame or great shame”. Whether it is has brought fame or shame, this film definitely bring a celebration.

“[This film is] a celebration of difference. It’s a celebration of family and it’s a celebration of what connects us more than what divides us.”

Empowering the Women of Tomorrow: Australia’s G(irls)20 Delegate for 2018, Justine Landis-Hanley

Posted on by Michael O'Donnell

Based in Canada, but active in over twenty countries, G(irls)20 is a globally active social enterprise developing a new generation of female leaders through education, entrepreneurship and global experiences. In June 2018, Justine Landis-Hanley was selected to represent Australia in this forum in Buenos Aires, Argentina based on her passion for women’s empowerment and gender equality.

A Sydney-based writer and investigative journalist, Justine is a self-confessed feminist, and does not see that empowering women is “putting down men”, rather she sees gender as a spectrum and advocating for women’s rights is part of contributing to human rights and equality across all genders.

Justine became an advocate for gender equality at university when she published an article in her student newspaper exposing the culture of sexual assault and gender discrimination at universities and their colleges. Based on her experience and expertise, Justine has campaigned for digital inclusion to form part of the G(irls)20 communiqué based on the various forms of harassment and discrimination many women face online. This communiqué will be presented at the G20 Economic Forum in Buenos Aires later in November.

Beyond G(irls)20, Justine has big plans for when she returns to Australia to continue to empower women. While she would like to become an investigative reporter specialising in gender equality, Justine plans to continue her advocacy for gender equality through investigative journalism. By sharing her expertise and imparting the necessary skills of journalism, she wants to increase accessibility, participation and acceptance of women in investigative reporting.

“We have seen in Australia recently the important role that investigative reporting has had on affecting change in Australia at a political level,” she said.

“However, this kind of reporting has often seen an unconscious bias towards men as investigative reporters and the self-exclusion by women from this area of journalism. I want to change this by providing investigative reporting training for people of all genders, but focusing in particular on empowering women journalists with the skills and networks to help combat the gendered backlash they disproportinately face for their work.”

For now, Justine is most excited about collaborating with young women from all over the world.

“The opportunity to translate such diverse lived experience into policy recommendations to the G20 is phenomenal,” she said.

“I am excited by the opportunity to collaborate with so many young women leaders.”

She is also thankful for this opportunity and the organisations that have made this summit possible.

“Without this Canadian NGO (Girls20) and such a supportive country such as Canada, we would not have a forum which brings together so many inspirational young women from around the globe to empower other women.”

When asked who she found to be an inspirational woman, she responded, “There is no ‘one woman’ that comes to mind. I find that the most inspirational women are those that are willing to empower other women and pave the way forward for future generations in historically gendered industries.”

To heal and empower: the Gulf Country Frontier Days Festival

Posted on by Michael O'Donnell

Deep in the heart of the Queensland outback, under a spectacular blanket of stars made visible so far away from any blinding city lights, an extraordinary meeting of culture, history and talent was taking place within a sacred circle.

The coming together of native nations, the Kabarrijbi Wangkijbi Spectacular, held as the opening event to the Gulf Country Frontier Days Festival in Gregory, Queensland, brought together First Nations dancers from around Australia and the world to perform together in a shared experience of learning, healing and empowerment.

Held over four days, the festival combines dance, music and rodeo in a celebration of Indigenous culture. Dancers from Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada performed together for the opening ceremony and throughout the weekend, complimenting an array of musical talent from around the world, including Canada’s Digging Roots, Micki Free (USA), and legendary Australian singer Archie Roach.

Along with the outstanding Digging Roots, the Canadian contingent at the festival included Eugene Brave Rock, a Blackfoot Indian from Southern Alberta, and Tymon Carter from Onion Lake Cree Nation. Brave Rock, who is known for his role in Hollywood blockbuster Wonder Woman, told Canada Down Under it was a privilege to be part of such a unique event.

“It’s been a really huge honour to come here and dance with the many dancers here from all regions and all Indigenous people, it’s amazing to share that circle, to dance inside that circle,” he said.

“The people here have gone through a lot of similar experiences like we have, being Indigenous and being oppressed, and it’s nice – this is a huge form of reconciliation, it’s amazing, I’m so thankful to be a part of this.”

Brave Rock said the opportunity to meet and share the stage with other Indigenous people was one he would treasure.

“I knew they’ve had the same struggles as us as Indigenous people, but I didn’t have any kind of first-hand knowledge, so coming here and having this experience – we’re out in the Outback, four hours from anywhere, four hours from a tiny little airport – this is amazing,” he said.

“It’s really nice to come here and listen to these old stories and old ways of life, and how they want to bring it back; it’s so amazing to get a crocodile tooth – not buying it in a store, but seeing it pulled out of a crocodile and being gifted that, that’s something I’m going to treasure for the rest of my life. I’m going to dance with it every time I dance, I’m going to tell stories about that tooth because of my travel here.”

Nineteen-year old Carter, who looked spectacular in his full regalia, agreed that the experience was one he would hold dear.

“It’s such an honour to be here, to represent Canada and all my nations, all my friends and family back home – it really hit me when we were all out there dancing together, I’m here representing – this is the first time anything like this has taken place, we’re making history here, it feels so good to be taking part in it,” he said.

“After talking to some of the Indigenous people throughout the weekend here, talking about what we do, and how we do it here, it’s very similar – it’s awesome.”

Like Brave Rock, Carter has begun to dabble in acting and modeling work, having won roles in The Revenant with Leonardo DiCaprio, and The Alienist, but he uses his dancing work to connect to his traditions and roots.

“It’s healing. You’re not only healing other people, but you’re healing yourself. You could be having a bad day, and then I’ll hear a Powwow song, or I’ll think about my outfit, I’ll slap it on and I’ll go to a Powwow,” he explained.

“For those three, four minutes that I’m out there for a song, I forget about everything, it’s just me and the drum, and it takes you to another world when you’re out there dancing.”

Brave Rock explained that along with the healing benefits of dance, holding onto those traditional values has provided him with some incredible opportunities.

“I was raised with traditional values that I keep really close, along with my language, having long hair, riding horses, singing and dancing – it’s giving me the opportunity to travel around the world and represent my people of Southern Alberta and share and learn as well, learn about other languages, learn about other cultures as well as sharing my own,” he said.

“For me dancing, it’s a prayer – we dance to the heartbeat of mother earth, because that’s where we come from, and that’s where we go when we die, and to share this experience with the people that are here – I don’t think this has ever been done before, so it’s a huge honour.”

Anishnaabe photographer John Paillé, who attended with the support of the Consulate General of Canada, says the festival provides an opportunity for Indigenous peoples to truly own the way they are perceived and seen in the wider community.

“I am strong believer in Indigenous peoples controlling how we are represented,” Paillé said.

“We have not always had the ability or access to control how we were represented to non-Indigenous audiences, which is why, as an Anishnaabe photographer, I believe it is important for our own people to be documenting our events, peoples and cultures.  Having the Consulate General of Canada support me in capturing this festival, is a great example of how change is happening.”

With the Festival only in its second year, Director Alec Doomadgee and his team will be looking to build upon the success of 2018, with artists and guests alike thrilled with the opportunity and potential of the festival in the future. When asked what he thought about spreading the word and getting other Indigenous Canadians involved in the Gulf Frontier Days Festival 2019, Carter only had one response:

“Oh, I’ll definitely be back next year,” he replied, grinning.

The Consulate General of Canada was a proud supporter the 2018 Gulf Country Frontier Days Festival, which helped to support the attendance of Digging Roots, Eugene Brave Rock & Tymon Carter, as well as photojournalist John Paillé, an Anishinaabe Canadian, whose work can be found HERE  

Gulf Country Frontier Days: Photo Journal

Posted on by Michael O'Donnell

“Having the opportunity of attending and photographing the Gulf Country Frontier Days Festival, supported by The Consulate General of Canada, was an absolutely privilege that I am very grateful for, and an experience I’ll never forget.

It was great to be around Indigenous peoples from around the world. Having a understanding of other colonial nations makes it easier to identify and bond with each other. Many of us think our experiences are unique, but meeting others and realizing we are not alone can be a big realistion. It’s empowering to recognise that there are others who understand our histories and experiences, and can provide support to each other in moving forward. I think that is one of the great things about this festival; it creates bonds between Indigenous peoples from all over the world.

I am strong believer in Indigenous peoples controlling how we are represented. We have not always had the ability or access to control how we were represented to non-Indigenous audiences, which is why, as an Anishnaabe photographer, I believe it is important for our own people to be documenting our events, peoples and cultures.  Having the Consulate General of Canada support me in capturing this festival, is a great example of how change is happening.”

  • John Paillé

John Paillé attended the Gulf Country Frontier Days Festival with the support of the Consulate General of Canada, Sydney. You can read a full report on the festival HERE.

 

Avan Yu and the ways of understanding

Posted on by Michael O'Donnell

Avan Yu has politely sat through multiple technical failures (mine) and airport procedures (his) with the patience of a man who knows nothing good comes without perseverance, and repetition.

You don’t relocate your life from Hong Kong to Vancouver when you’re not even ten, more recently temporarily leave Canada for time in Paris, Berlin and New York, and be at the age of 30 one of the most exciting pianists in the field, without both.

Still, Avan (pronounced as in raven) knows that for a concert pianist of rare quality, beyond perseverance and repetition, there must be something else: understanding. Take his personal journey with Maurice Ravel.

Ravel has been a special composer for him, a touchstone, and a centrepiece of the performances on his coming Australian tour where the Frenchman’s Tombeau de Couperin will sit among pieces by Mozart and Lizst. To play on Ravel’s own piano, in Ravel’s home outside Paris for a performance recently, was something more than another show on another piano.

For a start, understanding tone, tempo and even how long the notes resonated to the composer, as it was derived from the instrument and not just the notations on the page, is a rare gift to any performer.

“To play on the composer’s piano, to hear how it sounded to him as he composed, how the instrument responded … you are getting first-hand information. That is something pretty special,” says Avan. “But not only did I get to play in this piano I got to see a lot of his artefacts and items in his house, and that tells you a lot about Ravel’s personality.”

Understanding the environment of a composer, her or his way of thinking, is a key part of working towards a way to interpret for Avan. This extends to the poetic context behind works such as Schubert’s Winterreise, one of the greatest collections of classical song and now the subject of Avan’s current CD where the pieces have been transposed for solo piano.

“I think it’s crucial to understanding the music knowing what the text is talking about,” he says. “Schubert obviously chose poems that resonated with him and he set the music to the text, not the other way around, and if you analyse these songs you will see that it is very closely related to what is happening in the text – not just on a superficial level but on different psychological levels. It was important for me to learn the text.”

It is here maybe that you can see the core of Avan’s view that there is not or, should not, be a difference between a performer who is technically pure, one who is an interpreter, and one who is a communicator.

“It is not the same thing but [having all elements within you] it is important to being a musician, period,” he says. “Technique is not just how fast you are playing, it’s also having the technical ability to create colours, create different atmospheres and sounds.”

These aren’t just idle thoughts. Avan was first seen in Australia in 2012 when, among nine other awards he collected, he was named the winner of the Sydney International Piano Competition at the age of 25. By then he had already been a main stage performer and prizewinner for 12 years, including been the youngest winner of the Canadian Chopin Competition when he was 17.

One of the criticisms, fair or otherwise, made of young musicians is that they are technically gifted but not yet capable of grasping the full emotional and psychological elements the music. It is a criticism Avan has little time for.

“It’s unfair to say that because if you think about great composers, a lot of them when they began were kids. To say that they would be unable to understand the feeling is to deny teenagers basically their ability to feel,” he says. “Sometimes some of this music deals with heavy subjects, some things that maybe a normal teenager wouldn’t have encountered, yet. But still you can do that with imagination.

“All these artists painting, for the church, hell: how do they know what hell looks like? Does that make it really shallow art? I don’t think so.”

Avan Yu will perform at Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, on June 30, and at Camberwell Grammar School, on July 26