PERFORMANCE: GATHERING GROUND
PREVIEW BY JASMINE MCLENNAN
A new initiative shines a new light on the highly stigmatised ‘Block’ in the heart of Redfern. Gathering Ground, a performance-based tour of the urban Aboriginal environment showcases acts from local children and is about to take place for the second time.
“The performance is really about giving the kids an opportunity to foster pride in themselves and their culture,” says Frederick Copperwaite, the co-director and co-founder of the biennial program. “It’s fantastic to see those kids out there, they are having so much fun.”
At the Redfern Community Centre on Everleigh Street the kids gather to rehearse the shows, skills and routines for the coming event during the week between 4 and 6. Lurking in corners with headphones in their ears, chewing gum and looking proudly disinterested are the talented, warm and intelligent children of the block. And as they reluctantly take their headphones off and get up to practice you can see them smiling and laughing – smiles of exuberance, smiles that will break your heart.
‘These kids are 16 going on 35,’ says Karen Therese, the other co-director and co-founder of Gathering Ground, ‘they have so much to deal with. But when the are doing this, they can just be kids again.”
This year, Gathering Ground will feature local MC’s and breakdancers including already established WireMC, a catwalk for the girls to strut their stuff on, and aerial shows and stilt walking workshopped by Earth and Legs On Walls, who are involved in the event for the first time. The focus this year will be on hope for the future.
While the MC’s are creating new tracks in the studio downstairs, the girls practice the catwalk upstairs and the workshop with Legs On Walls continues, one of the girls bravely walks with surprising proficiency around the courtyard on a pair of stilts. ‘This is such a special moment for me tonight,’ says Karen, ‘this girl has turned up every night and refused to be involved in anything. I can’t believe it.’
As dusk settles on The Block’s tough streets this May get down to see a truly beautiful celebration of a place that lives and breaths but is not widely known; a place with a culture that deserves to stay alive.
Gathering Ground
29 ‘ 31 May
‘The Block’, Everleigh Street, Redfern.
Free
