The full-length production of Hecate and the 10-year process it took to reach its 2020 world premiere has seen 44 performers and art workers exposed to the Noongar language and culture. Out of these numbers, 24 identify as Noongar and a further 6 as Aboriginal.

Over its festival season, a total of 3,431 saw the production, with 1,200 (35%) being of Noongar, Aboriginal or First Nations decent. From these numbers around 200 Elders were among this audience. Outside of the production itself, Kambarnap (our ‘safe meeting place’ set up in the gardens of the venue) and other First Nations workshops, forums, and activities reached further audiences beyond this number.

Overall the season was extremely successful for the company, with 8 out of the 13 shows selling out. By the 13th of February, 2020, with four more performances to go, the season had sold out completely.

By producing a work that is entirely spoken in Noongar language and deeply rooted in its culture, the company and all involved continue to play their part in ‘keeping language’ alive. As we have said, this project at its core has always been about the revival of Noongar language for its people and the wider community.

What began with the ‘Sonnets in Noongar’ program, grew to become ‘Noongar Shakespeare Project’ and culminated in the full-length production of Hecate this year. This process has seen many programs, workshops, and performances come from it, with many Noongar performers given the opportunity to learn their mother tongue from Elders and share it with their family, friends, and the wider community.

For the company, the delight and laugher heard throughout the show for our community Elders was one of the biggest achievements of the season. These are the people that have ‘kept language and culture alive’ throughout the years in the face of immense prejudice and pain. To be able to honour and respect their culture through theatre and art and have them see it and be proud of it, was significant and empowering.

As stated above through audience attendance, this production has had a deep impact on all who have seen it. It has created access for the wider community to learn and appreciate Noongar culture through language, song, dance, and storytelling.

The use of theatre and art as a vehicle for such cultural generosity provides a space for deep sharing between its own people and the wider community. This middle ground creates conversations that are grounded in understanding and respect for culture and in turn lead to the bigger conversations around reconciliation.

Please see below some testimonials from audience members throughout the season:

‘Saw this production and was overwhelmed. A stunning production which demanded a standing ovation.’

‘Fantastic. Was the rarest of treats to be in that audience tonight. Such respect for all who contributed. Such Power!’

’25 Swan View Senior High School drama students were captivated tonight. I quote “I could die happy hearing my language on stage” and “I’m so proud of my culture tonight”.’

The Western Australian Aboriginal Leadership Institute (WAALI) is an independent, not-for-profit organisation with the vision of inspiring and supporting Aboriginal people to take up leadership opportunities to strengthen their own lives and the lives of their families and communities.

The ‘NAIDOC BECAUSE OF HER WE CAN’ event is about celebrating the NAIDOC theme for 2018, to ‘celebrate the invaluable contributions that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have made – and continue to make – to our communities, our families, our rich history and to our nation” (Nat NAIDOC website).

WAALI offers an Aboriginal Women’s Leadership Program titled Yorga Djenna Bidi (YDB).

Fifty six  (56) women have completed the Yorga Djenna Bidi program, which is a offering in the renamed  Aboriginal Women’s Leadership Program, to reflect its inclusivity of all Aboriginal women. The  graduate group is called Kwopertok Yorgas Alumni.

This Aboriginal Women’s Leadership Program Initiative aims to encourage and strengthen Aboriginal women’s leadership within Aboriginal communities and organisation’s as a means of improving outcomes for overcoming Aboriginal disadvantage. It supports Aboriginal women to achieve their personal potential while recognising the demands they face in fulfilling their professional responsibilities, meeting needs of their family members as well as their community obligations.

WAALI will continue to promote its leadership vision, by hosting this very special NAIDOC 2018 event.

This event provides the opportunity to raise the collective profiles of Aboriginal women through a showcase of inspiring Aboriginal women of all ages, sharing their stories and thoughts. It is an opportunity to acknowledge and pay respect to the women who went before us, from before settlement, to first contact, through the ages to the Aboriginal women of today. This is an event that gives women the time to take centre stage, to stand strong together to share our stories and insights and to offer support and guidance to the upcoming generations.

Approximately 340 people attended the event. An online survey was distributed through various channels and 40 responses received:

• More than 300 people attended the event, predominantly Aboriginal Women
• 95% of survey respondents stated the event was excellent or very good
• 5% of survey respondents stated the speakers were very/extremely engaging
• 5% of survey respondents stated the entertainment was very good/excellent

Comments relating to what attendees liked most about the event included:

• networking and meeting amazing Indigenous women, and hearing their inspirational stories about their journeys so far
• having time to come together
• the empowerment I felt leaving the event
• having a place for us women to yarn, catch up and be celebrated.  I also loved the gift bag
• coming together to celebrate all the amazing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women living on Noongar Boodjar
• the sense of sisterhood and empowerment

Langford Aboriginal Association (LAA) is a not-for-profit Aboriginal community-managed organisation based in Langford.

The Art and Yarning Project involving community members of the LAA meet regularly to engage in cultural arts and crafts activities. The project will involve tailored artist skills and professional development for the ‘Art and Yarning’ group – a collective of young people and Elders who meet weekly (and often more than weekly) at LAA, engaging in art and craft, sharing friendship and yarning. The mentoring and skills development component of the program will provide the artists with skills and professional development and culminate in a showcase of new work each year.

• Participation of the group increased significantly over the course of the 2018 year from 50 to 91. This shows the attendance over the last 12 months, however as many as 30 attend at any one time and on a regular basis which reflects the popularity of the program.
• 36 workshops were delivered. Weekly sessions of Art and Yarning occurred during the 2018 year.  These sessions were specifically designed and delivered in accordance with traditional Aboriginal practices of yarning where participants work together as a community to develop individual and group art whilst discussing issues related to cultural, family and other issues that affect the Aboriginal community.  This concept delivers the program in a culturally safe space where learning and healing occurs. The Art and Yarning group consists of community members who come along at their leisure as well as agencies who bring their clients who come along and take part in the sessions. 
• LAA have received a number of expressions of interest from community and government schools which potentially means that the above numbers will increase further in 2019. 
• Display of the artwork at LAA during NAIDOC Week and external venues run by the City of Gosnells (Fusion Festival and NAIDOC Week) and the City of Canning (NAIDOC Week).
• more than 100 pieces of art have been exhibited with a number being sold. All proceeds of the artwork is returned to the artist.
• Photographs of the artwork are taken and compiled in portfolios of artists. Approximately 60 Aboriginal artists continue their art practice on an ongoing basis.
• Partnerships were established with two external agencies (Brookman PS and Community Art Network WA). A collaborative piece of artwork was developed which depicts a ‘map’ of Langford. A photo is attached that shows the development of the ‘map’.
• An approach by two schools, Thornlie SHS and Thornlie Girls Christian School, resulting in artists attending the schools to create art with students.   

The main objective of the project is to facilitate Noongar Community access to Kinship Connections’ programmes and services. The secondary but related objective is to increase Kinship’s visibility and service delivery capacity.

Established in 2013 Kinship Connections is a relatively new grassroots Aboriginal organisation and whilst its reputation is growing it is in need of funding to provide key resources to enable it to deliver its services and meet the needs of the Noongar Community. Something desperately required is transportation to further broaden Community participation in Kinship’s programmes and services. Community members are often without adequate access to transportation due to a lack of resources and/or their inability to drive. As a result, this application is primarily for a 12 seater bus which will be used in an ongoing capacity across all of Kinship.

Connection’s programmes and services including:

1. “Who’s My Mob?”: for children in long-term care and includes a detailed family history book.
2. “Solid Parents”: 12 month healing programme for parents who have had their children removed to facilitate the children’s return.
3. “Standing Strong”: 8 week healing programme to support children/youth in care to understand their culture, history, identity and reconnect with Community.
4. “Finding Families”: supporting and mentoring youth leaving care to reconnect with safe family.
5. “Weed Choppers”: youth delivered Elders’ gardening/yard clean up service and social club for young men in care and those transitioning out of care.

This includes a partnership with the Western Australian Government Youth Justice Services and aims to build capacity and sustainable leadership in the Noongar Community.

The purchases have enabled us to increase our service to the community. We have been able to increase participation in regular activities by offering transport to participants. We have been able to support access to funerals and reunions by offering transport to family members. The bus and utility are used every week for the Weed Choppers Group. Investment in the Weed Choppers program has provided opportunities for young people to find supportive positive relationships with their peers. The camera equipment has been used to support our photo library and this is used in the creation of Who’s My Mob books for young people who are separated from family. It has also been used to provide photos for funeral notices and memorial flyers. 

The Badgebup Aboriginal Corporation (BAC) is an Aboriginal community controlled organisation established to strengthen the culture of Aboriginal people and communities of the central Great Southern through social and economic initiatives.

BAC developed a vision and plan centred around the establishment of a Training and Cultural Hub as a vehicle to support local Aboriginal communities address the training, employment, social and cultural needs of local Aboriginal families in the central Great Southern Region. Grant funding has enabled us to build capacity in our corporation and the surrounding communities of the central Great Southern Region, including:

• 2018 – BAC partnered with Greening Australia to establish the Ngoolark Ranger team. The team is now a fully operational fee-for-service mobile ground-force.
• 2019 – BAC partnered with Gnowangerup Aboriginal Corporation in June -July to provide employment for 5 unemployed youth from Gnowangerup. 2019 – BAC will partner with Tambellup Aboriginal Corporation for wild seed collecting commencing in December 2019 to May 2020.
• 2020 – BAC will be working with the Katanning Senior High School to target Noongar students for local work experience, training and employment opportunities in land-based enterprises. 

Funds were used to establish a community garden that will produce traditional and contemporary food for local Aboriginal families. The aim was to distribute bush tucker to benefit the health and wellbeing of the Noongar community. Getting back to basics of bush tucker will help contribute to reducing the crippling effects of chronic disease on our community.

Bush tucker community gardens continue to be held and at least 80 workshops were held in total across the period of funding. Initially the workshops focussed on gardening and planting days however more recently the harvesting and picking of the vegetables, fruit and identifying bush tucker has been more of a focus. Food has been used for providing meals for community.

For more information click here.