Communities

FROM LITTLE THINGS BIG THINGS GROW

In 2011, our Community Partnerships projects have taken place across Queensland, in regional towns built around agriculture and industry to remote islands in the Torres Strait and Aboriginal Shires in Cape York; they include flood and cyclone affected regions from the Cassowary Coast to the Western Downs and Lockyer Valley. The connective thread between these diverse community partnership projects is that music is providing a vehicle for cultivating positive change.

It begins with an aspiration, and a community that wants to work with QMF, recognising that music is a powerful vehicle for achieving goals that are important to them. The arts provide an opportunity to take pause, to look at ourselves through a different lens. Seemingly small acts like exploring and sharing stories, or gaining the confidence to get up in front of a crowd and sing, can lead to something much greater over time.

For example, when we started working with the Australian South Sea Islander (ASSI) community in Bowen in late 2009, it began with a celebration of their rich musical heritage through Bowen Sing Sing, directed by David Bridie. The event had a ripple effect in the community. It highlighted the wealth of musical talent in the Bowen region. It got people talking. The broader community realised that Australian South Sea Islanders had a significant history in the region, began sharing stories amongst themselves, some that had not been told for generations. Ultimately, it paved the way for Behind The Cane, a major community theatre production that reached across generations and cultures, approaching a controversial and painful period of our shared history through the universal lens of family and relationships.

Young people from regional and remote areas who were involved with QMF in 2009 have gone on to win places in highly competitive performing arts programs. The long-term impact of having a young person gain the confidence and skills to pursue further education and training goes far beyond the individual achievement. Opportunities for skill development are important for community members of all ages, who continue to benefit both through workshops and major productions, and the effect is often magnified in remote locations.

Ailan Kores began with a little community involvement in the massive Hidden Republic event on Thursday Island in 2009, and grew into a major project crossing geographic, cultural, musical and linguistic boundaries. Bringing together both adults and young people from six Torres Strait islands, the program included performances of some of the most challenging works of the Western choral repertoire, such as Bach's St. John Passion, plus the world premiere of a new work by Damian Barbeler commissioned for the project. This project grew out of the community's desire to learn to perform different styles of music with orchestra, and to participate in the creation of something truly unique. Ailan Kores stands equally as an important artistic achievement and community cultural development project.

QMF is proud to work with communities throughout the State, creating musical experiences that grow into a cornucopia of big things that are as unique and diverse as Queensland itself.