
Beyond The Bell
Program: Education
Building capacity for an ongoing complex systems change initative in South West Victoria
ProjectAcknowledging Country
Amount$30,000
Date2019
ProgramArts and Culture
TRUST OBJECTIVES | PROJECT OBJECTIVES |
---|---|
Rural and regional Victoria | Reaching communities across regional Victoria through workshops, remote engagement and performances including Wangaratta, Shepparton, Ballarat, Bendigo, Horsham, Hamilton, Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Warragul, Sale and Mildura |
Reducing inequality | Championing indigenous Victorian culture and languages; using music-making to extend opportunities to regional communities to embrace and acknowledge their region’s indigenous heritage |
Building organisational capacity | Strengthening MSOs’ understanding of indigenous culture; establishing relationships between MSO and indigenous communities and artists; strengthening links to regional communities |
Collaboration and partnership | Victorian Aboriginal Corporation of Languages (VACL), Short Black Opera, Indigenous artists, Victorian Indigenous nations and regional communities, Melbourne Museum, regional performing arts centres, UNESCO, Creative Victoria |
Creating a musical Acknowledgement of Country in Victoria’s Indigenous languages
2019 was the UNESCO International Year of Indigenous Languages. In an exciting collaborative project, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra commenced working with indigenous language custodians to develop musical Acknowledgements of Country in languages from each of the eleven indigenous language families of Victoria and gifting the works back to the community.
Image Melbourne Symphony Orchestra musicians on Country. Photo: Lucy Rash
An Acknowledgement of Country involves visitors acknowledging the traditional owners of the land and their continued custodianship and, unlike a Welcome to Country, it can be delivered by a non-Indigenous person. Committed to respectful and sustainable Indigenous community engagement and championship of Indigenous art and artists, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has embarked on this ambitious project to create a musical Acknowledgement of Country which can be sung and played by anyone in the wider community.
Snapshot:
“This is a highly nuanced project… certain to become a template for all major orchestras in Australia.” Deborah Cheetham AO
"My first and most important lesson has been that Indigenous culture lives on-country, and if we are to truly engage and commit to building long-lasting, rich relationships with the custodians of these cultures, we need to be there and be present on their land with them." Jennifer Lang, Senior Manager for Education and Community Engagement, MSO.
Program: Education
Building capacity for an ongoing complex systems change initative in South West Victoria
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Program: Arts and Culture
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Our grants matrix is a graphical representation of our matched objectives. Each column of circles represents one of the funding criteria, and the colour coded central row represents the program that funding was received in.
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