2011 NW Queensland Workshops - Outstanding

Overview:

The first day of the program at Julia Creek, Saturday 25th June, nobody turned up. We were very disappointed thinking our advertising had been unsuccessful. About 2pm, someone walked past and advised us the McKinlay Races were on and everyone in town had gone to that event. Day two and Day three were outstanding.

After day one the program has been very successful; in that we have had higher than anticipated numbers attend each session, with a high level of participation by all involved. Next time we do this, we will need to make more of a mention about the programs being Free of Charge. Generally PCYC events are charged at between $50 and $80. Ours was totally free of charge. This seemed to cause some confusion on day one of each town until word got around.

Participants have in the main been Indigenous, with a number of non Indigenous attending also. The age range has been from prep to Grand Parents, with a few Grey Nomads thrown in for good measure.

The activities have been age appropriate and covered individual art works, group art activity, and physical activity with PCYC staff, bush tucker walks, singing and of course eating, which seemed to happen all day.

The 29th June at Cloncurry, the official opening was held at the PCYC Hall, which included an official opening by the Mayor, followed by a traditional lunch cooked by local Aboriginal Hombre Major. The lunch went really well. The Mayor officially welcomed the programme supported by the elders from the community and representatives from all of the stakeholders and sponsors.

Meagan Holley, Acting Sergeant, Relief Branch Manager from Cloncurry PCYC and her staff have been outstanding. I cannot say enough about their participation and assistance. Cloncurry PCYC participated in Julia Creek, Cloncurry and Dajara, conducting sporting activities and cooking for the kids and of course assisting with the big clean up at the end of the day.

Hombre Major a local Cloncurry Kalkadoon Aboriginal assisted me with the art workshops, assisted with cooking, talked culture and local stories and played a mean guitar and dig. The children responded very well to him, and I certainly appreciated his assistance and dedication to the program. I think I have made a life long friend in Hombre.

The most surprising town to date was Dajara. We were advised that we would get about 20 people. We had excellent participation with elders and parents of the children, with a lot of small children. The parents have asked for assistance to set up an art centre. I have agreed to assist them. I noted about 6 of the parents have great art potential.

Mt Isa PCYC assisted us with Boulia and Mt Isa, by sending two support officers each day.



The Objective:

Through consultation with local elders in the Mt Isa, Cannington areas there was community concern regarding the withdrawal of funding for the community by government for culturally appropriate activities to engage the younger community. The community elders asked for diversionary programs for young Indigenous people to address antisocial activities, school absence, job retention to give the next generation purpose within their communities.

Our objectives will be met for each of the 5 towns. In total 285% more people attended than projected.
Each day has been full on. The facilitators have loved it, and the participants have had the best time. I have a number of nice art pieces completed by the participants to display at the open day.

Everyone involved in the program is very, very grateful to BHP Billiton for the funding support, it has been money well spent.


Activities:

Art

· Individual canvas, or painting a boomerang or sand painting
· Community art piece. Large canvas 2 x 2 mt done as a collective with all participants
· Story Telling to interpret into art
· Cultural stories

Cultural:

Bush tucker walks
Kalkadoon story telling
Kalkadoon stories/culture
Protocol/Australian Aboriginal Culture general
Music – Dig – Clap sticks – guitar
Singing
Boomerang throwing

Sport:

Jumping Castle
Boxing
Games appropriate to age

Food:

Lunch was supplied each day, mainly a sausage sizzle with a special traditional lunch for the guests (Murri Cut) and participants for the official opening. Fruit, drinks and vegemite sandwiches are handed out all day; the children seemed to be hungry all the time.



Attendance:

Julia Creek:
Day 1: 0 - Races were on
Day 2: 25
Day 3: 25
Cloncurry:
Day 1: 35
Day 2: 150 – official opening had extra guests
Day 3: 85
Dajara:
Day 1: 45 – 11 adults and 34 children
Day 2: 50
Day 3: 20 – lower numbers due to funeral
Boulia:
Day 1: 30
Day 2: 37
Day 3: 25
Mt Isa:
Day 1: 20
Day 2: Approx 180 – In conjunction with the NAIDOC Celebration
Day 3: 10

In addition to the three day workshop in Mt Isa I conducted 2 x 1 day clay workshop with children from the local Special Needs School. There were 27 children in attendance at these workshops.

Open Day:

The Educational Open Day with employers within the district was held at the Mt Isa TAFE grounds on Saturday 16th July the week after the School Holiday workshops. There were approximately 250 visitors on the day. This disappointing attendance was owing to a competitive event “Big Day Out” hosted by PCYC Mt Isa that ran the same time as our Open Day.


Open Day Participants were as follows:

Mt Isa TAFE
Dept. of Communities
BHP Billiton
Isa Skills
University of Southern Queensland
PCYC Cloncurry
PCYC Mt Isa
Defence Department
Yuinart
4LM – outside broadcast
Jumping Castle (PCYC, Cloncurry)
XTRATA
Main Roads
James Cook University
BBQ/Drinks coordinated by Mt Isa TAFE
Face Painting

Research and data collection:

Our original estimate for workshop participants was 200. A total of 764 participants engaged in workshops and the various activities offered at each of the towns. A further 250 people visited the Mt Isa TAFE for our open day to look at the artworks on display and talk to the various stall holders. The total public interactions being 1014 people well exceeded our expectations.

While we had budgeted for 200 paintings, we had a contingency plan in place in case we had more people engage in artworks. I had purchased 350 canvases along with 6 Major 2mt x 2 mt canvases together with 300 boomerangs, and 300 Sand paintings. We had to re-order 300 more sand paintings during the tour. Our contingency funding and all of our spare equipment was used with the 764 participants. The Department of Communities sponsored one day in each town, transport to the event and food, being a sausage sizzle, drinks and fruit. This sponsorship arrangement allowed us to have enough funds to feed the additional people each day.

The age groups that participated in the workshops ranged from Pre School to adults and elders. The babies (pre-schoolers) in the main ate the paint and interacted in the sporting activities while the parents painted and engaged in the various activities.

Feedback in each town was simular.
- This is fantastic
- Can you come back next year
- We need to do more of this
- Can’t you stay longer

I identified that there are a number of very good artists in each of these towns. A lack of money, facilities and materials stand in their way to set up a co-operative to channel their art through to sales. I have advised the elders in each of the towns, I will look into how we can assist them to set up a co-op for their art.


Most participants were very protective of their artworks and did not want to leave it with me for exhibiting. Some did, and it was admired by the public at Mt Isa. Dajarra in particular took a few canvases and materials to do follow up workshops with some of the town’s artist. This is being co-ordinated by one of the local artist, affectionately known as ‘Shorty’.
Since the workshops have been completed I have had ongoing communication with Shorty on a range of community art related topics.