Hume continues to support innovative cultural projects in collaboration with community members and peak arts organisations. Here are several examples of projects undertaken in recent years.
James Henry, Stories of Connection, Stories of Us, 2022, in collaboration with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community of Hume City.
Commissioned for the inaugural 2022 Hume Winter Lights Festival.
Stories of Connection, Stories of Us celebrates the bonds of care, culture and community shared by close family members and friends from the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community; who speak candidly about relationships, connection to culture and pride drawn from identity and community.
James Henry is a photographer and musician working across various disciplines and genres. Primarily his work is with and on behalf of Aboriginal communities across the country in revival of traditional culture through contemporary contexts.
Artist Statement:
"In order to show the connection between the people in the images, I wanted to capture each person's reactions whilst hearing stories told by their loved ones. I positioned them either side of the camera to be able to capture some genuine moments between the two.
As a stills photographer, I notice many moments of expressions within a few seconds of shooting. Each frame telling their own story. So I thought with the slow motion I could capture each one as they pass through time. Especially moments of love, laughter and compassion.
The layering of native trees and plants from Wurundjeri Country I thought would be a nice symbol of connection to country. Just as there is a connection with the people in the images, I wanted to represent the connection to nature that many Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people feel."
Stage one
Through 2019, ten local artists developed artworks for the inaugural exhibition at the Hume Global Learning Centre - Sunbury. Each artist produced a site-responsive work inspired by research and access to the George Evans heritage collection.
Participants in the program:
- Angela Dexter (dancer)
- John Patten (visual artist)
- Jacquie Blight (visual artist)
- Simon Millet (visual artist)
- Yelena Ashlapova (sound / visual artist)
- Kay Abude (textile / performance artist)
- Kathy Medbury (visual artist)
- Gayle Humphrey (visual artist)
- Shay Downer (visual artists)
- Dr Peter Minard (historian/writer).
These artists participated in a series of master classes to develop their skills; working with public art mentors Fiona Hillary and Heather Hesterman, from RMIT’s innovative Community Art and Social Transformation (CAST) program.
The range of approaches and points of connection to Sunbury are widely varied, covering themes of environment, social history, deep time, personal story and indigenous history. The artists' responses include, murals, installations, sculpture, textiles, dance and ceremonial performance, video, digital art, light and sound works.
Stage two
Sunbury Artist Jacquie Blight won the public art commission for the new Hume Global Learning Centre - Sunbury (HGLC-S) with her proposal titled Float…Reconnect, Renew, Regenerate.
The large-scale aerial artwork, suspended in the entry foyer of the Hume Global Learning Centre - Sunbury, uses natural light and airflow in the building to create subtle changes in movement and shadow fall throughout the day.
The artwork is inspired by the seeds of the indigenous Murnong or Yam Daisy – a plant central to the diet of early Aboriginal populations across Victoria. The artwork celebrates the nationally significant Evans Street Grasslands site – a ten-minute walk from the Hume Global Learning Centre - Sunbury.
Hume Studios is a partnership between Outer Urban Projects and Hume City Council that originated from the Creative Suburbs investment program by Creative Victoria. Creative Suburbs aims to increase the value and relevance of, and demand for, high quality arts and cultural experiences in outer metropolitan Melbourne.
Hume Studios ran a free weekly workshop program in dance and spoken word for young people (aged 12-27 years) across Broadmeadows, Craigieburn and Roxburgh Park over a period of four school terms through 2018-19.
The program culminated in a dance and music theatre showcase, featuring the finest of Outer Urban Projects and Hume's emerging and established creators and performers.
Background
Outer Urban Projects is a bold performing arts company that creates new forms of contemporary performance imagined from the life experiences of young emerging artists from the outer northern suburbs. The company gives voice to the unexpressed aspirations and creative potential of ghettoised, culturally diverse emerging artists whose origins span five continents.
Meet+Eat is a three-year community film project in Hume. From 2013-16 the project has produced six episodes, documenting intercultural stories and celebrating the extraordinary lives of a number of Hume residents. Each episode features the act of sharing a meal as a way of getting people from different walks of life to sit down and ‘have a yarn’.
The series was created by the talented Creative Producer Emma Macey-Storch from CuriousWorks, with support from Hume City Council, VicHealth and The Scanlon Foundation. CuriousWorks is a community cultural development organisation, working primarily in digital media, that seeks to empower people of diverse backgrounds via telling their own stories through film whilst providing training and leadership opportunities to create pathways to future opportunities and employment.
In Wild at Heart three elderly brothers in their 80's are still running perhaps the last dairy farm in Craigieburn. After four generations on the land, their days are numbered as they struggle to survive the modernisation of milk production and the ever approaching suburban sprawl.
Nadia and Omar, on the other hand, have already had to leave their land in Pakistan and for them, living in the new developments on the rural fringe in Craigieburn is a hidden paradise.
In On The Line we meet three artists from Hume who make art that matters. Ahmad and Zahrah have made it their mission to search out and document falafel and hummus shops in some of the most dangerous war zones and refugee camps around the world, so as to bring the every day existence of refugees to our doorstep. Kevin is a ‘speed rapper’ who spits poetry at high speed, painting a picture of his daily life growing up in Broadmeadows.
Field of Dreams gives us an insight into the cultural significance of dance in both Sri Lankan and Indian cultures, offering an inspiring example of how dance has helped two families build new communities in Hume.
Symphony for Two Rivers looks at two passionate and talented musicians – one from generations of pioneers to Australia, the other a refugee from Iraq. Through collaboration, Yousif and David discover music can bridge any cultural divide – even conflicting musical scales and different tuning styles.
In The Deer and the Fawn we visit Banksia Gardens in Broadmeadows; a dynamic and innovative neighbourhood house in one of Australia’s most culturally diverse areas. Banksia Gardens play host to The Girls Circle and the Turkish Women’s Group. When members of The Girls Circle arrange to have lunch with the older Turkish ladies, both parties have surprising reservations about the other.
The Princess and the Bird explores heartfelt comparisons of the immigration experience through the narrative of Maria and Helen. Helen’s family came from Greece in the 1960′s, Maria, a Samoan Princess, was sent away from her family as a child to find a better life.
Meet+Eat is an initiative of CuriousWorks, with the generous support of VicHealth, Scanlon Foundation and Hume City Council’s Community Grants Program.
In 2015 a group of RMIT Masters students from Art In Public Space were invited to visit and make artwork that responded to the building in its current state, in anticipation of the planned redevelopment of the Broadmeadows Town Hall.
The students produced site-specific works that were displayed throughout the Hall's three levels, often interacting with elements of the building itself. The artworks reflected upon the physical, cultural and historical importance of the hall, addressing aspects of its architecture, its use and occupation over time, as well as its wider significance to the Broadmeadows and Hume community.
(Photos by Pia Johnson and Andrew Ferris)
The Civic Heart project took place during July 2015, with a special public viewing.
For more detailed information on each work created for Civic Heart, download the e-book(PDF, 14MB)