an uplifting education programme

Recently I was privileged to spend a day at Melbourne's wonderful Malthouse Theatre to watch students from years 9 and 10 perform exerpts from a play written by Angus Cerini - normal.suburban.planetary.meltdown. It had been specifically commissioned this year for their schools education programme - The Suitcase Series. I support the Malthouse and specifically The Suitcase Series after being introduced to it a few years ago. The Suitcase Series is an award-winning education program for Years 9 and 10 students to collaborate and devise short works around the themes of sustainability and climate change.

The marvellously converted Carlton & United Brewery Malthouse

As the Malthouse website states: "normal.suburban.planetary.meltdown is a play about Earth Hour, in a normal suburban suburb somewhere, an average man is suddenly having difficulty breathing. His impending doom induces an existential crisis which is only aggravated by lackadaisical conversations with his smart-arse dog, his #hashtag obsessed daughter, his fed-up wife and a voiceover which (annoyingly) he can hear. normal.suburban.planetary.meltdown is a wickedly ticklish take on Armageddon … and the importance of composting."

On the first occasion I was fascinated to watch students perform their chosen piece (often with just 4 students and occasionally with more than 6). The abilities of the participants covered a wide range, but I was amazed by the courage of those students to perform in front of their peers, teachers and the facilitator of the programme in a real theatre - right out of their comfort zone. At that age I couldn't have done it but perhaps students are different these days! I watched them 'network' and 'hang out' at the breaks. I watched them ask questions at the conclusion of each of their peer performances. I was 'bowled over' by the positives that the facilitator was able to come up with for each performance - even those that had little going for them! You could see the students blossom as the day progressed.

But the piece de resistance was when real live actors took to the stage and performed the play in its entirety. What those actors brought to the play with their performances had the students sitting on the edge of their seats with their eyes wide open! Suddenly they could see the possibilities that can be incorporated into a piece of writing and I'm sure they would have re-considered their interpretations on the piece in the future. You could feel the electricity in the air. It was fabulous. And at the conclusion of the play the actors sat at took questions from their special audience. 

I was hooked. The Suitcase Series was for me! It was where I wanted to donate using my small philanthropic fund (I have written about it here) Well time progressed until finally this year it all came together. I chose to 'underwrite' a country school - Boort District School. This year they had rehearsed with 6 students - and an enthusiastic and encouraging teacher - and then on the day the teacher plus 4 of the students left their Mallee town at 5.30 am to travel to Melbourne. That in itself was worth a 'gold star'! None of them had been to the wonderful Malthouse before nor had they ever performed on a stage before! So this was pretty exciting, overwhelming and just a little bit scary. They were the first school to perform on the day (the series saw over 900 students from 46 schools go through the programme this year) and they did a pretty good job when compared to the other school groups. Interestingly it was the 2 schools from outside Melbourne who I had the most admiration for. The opportunity for school students to perform and to see theatre when they live in Melbourne is far more accessible. This was a real adventure - and a positive one at that!

The teacher, the Boort District School students (including a happy 'dog') and the Malthouse facilitator

I watched as each school performed and then listened to the facilitator Vanessa O'Neill, the Malthouse Youth and Education Manager, discuss with them their reasons for choosing to play the piece as they had. One of the Malthouse actors (who played 3+ parts when performing the entire play that afternoon) also sat through the performances giving wise counsel and encouragement to each group. There were no 'put downs'. It was such a positive experience.

Terrible photo but... the actors and the facilitator (L) answering questions

normal.suburban.planetary.meltdown was about Climate Change and one of the characters was a dog. Each student playing the dog had worn a dog outfit. What a difference it made when the professionals performed in the afternoon. The dog wasn't dressed as a dog - but from the minute she strutted onto the stage (with one black eye) and rubbed herself against the pole (after sniffing one of the students!) there was no doubt in our minds that she was an overconfident terrier with 'attitude'. The students were enthralled by the actors and their performance. 

'The dog' with attitude!

At the conclusion the actors returned to the stage and questions were fired at them. They were so generous with their time and knowledge. I'm sure it was invaluable to each and every student (and teacher!).

"How did the dog get into character?"

"How did the actor play three different parts?"

"Why did the man walk and talk like he did?"

"How did the lid of the rubbish bin light up when it was opened once and not the other times?"

The questions went on and on - and if the facilitator hadn't stopped it they would still be asking! The actors were so generous with their time regarding how they get into their character, how they got into acting, how they prepare just before coming on stage. I could go on but I hope you've got the picture!. 

Afterwards I asked the Boort District School performers what had been some of the highlights of their day. 

"Coming to Melbourne". 

"Coming to this place" (waving arms around at the extraordinary building) 

"Seeing those actors and THAT DOG"

"Meeting all these people"

At the conclusion of the day I drove home uplifted by the experience. It confirmed to me that my money had been well spent! It also confirmed to me that from little things big things grow. 

If you like the sound of The Suitcase Series then I encourage you to assist a financially challenged school to attend and perhaps change just one students life! We're not talking mega money here - maybe just registration fees, travel expenses etc. The rewards for those who participate will only be judged in the years to come. 

If you would like more information then contact please feel free to contact me by email jangwilliams@iprimus.com.au or go straight to the Malthouse Theatre and speak to Rachel Petchsky about The Suitcase Series - email rpetchesky@malthousetheatre.com.au

You won't regret it! I hope to see you there next year!

Oh to be in Melbourne!

Oh to be in Melbourne

Now that spring is here

With apologies to Robert Browning! I don't know if you have noticed the flowers this spring. They are amazing. Is it the wet winter or the dry winter we've just had (I can't remember!)? Whatever it is they are bloomin marvellous! They are bursting forth at every opportunity! On a stroll through Richmond and East Melbourne on a beautiful sunny day recently this is what I came upon. And it wasn't even the purpose of the stroll! What a strolling bonus!

Gorgeous red roses dripping off the fence

Looks like these 2 cottages are competing - and what a competition!

The prettiest laneway I happened upon

Even the public nature strip is bursting forth!

Geraniums making a statement in an unloved block of flats

Love these red geraniums against the tree trunk

And just in case you haven't seen enough flowers I just loved this window display at homewares store The Works in Hawthorn - made out of paper patterns and ..... mock flowers - aren't people clever!

A scrunchy crunchy paper patterned skirt and flowery bodice

But I'll leave you with these lovely roses - on the fence of my short stay rental cottage

Uplifting when I walk in the gate - and my clients agree!

A speech for the ages

It's not often that we continue to hear and read about a speech praised as one for the ages. So I went to find the eulogy that Aboriginal lawyer, land rights activist and founder of the Cape York Institute, Noel Pearson gave at former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's memorial service in Sydney last week. I wanted to read it. Even though it is being hailed universally it wasn't easy to find a full copy of the eulogy he gave. So having found it I thought I would share it with you.

I hasten to add that this is NOT a political post. I encourage you to either read it below or listen to it here - his voice is worth it!  It is quite remarkable. (The actor Cate Blanchett also spoke - listen here)

Noel Pearson speaking at the Whitlam memorial service in Sydney (Peter Rae - The Age)

"Paul Keating said the reward for public life is public progress.

For one born estranged from the nation's citizenship, into a humble family of a marginal people striving in the teeth of poverty and discrimination, today it is assuredly no longer the case. This because of the equalities of opportunities afforded by the Whitlam program. Raised next to the wood heap of the nation's democracy, bequeathed no allegiance to any political party, I speak to this old man's legacy with no partisan brief. 

Rather, my single honour today on behalf of more people than I could ever know, is to express our immense gratitude for the public service of this old man. I once took him on a tour to my village and we spoke about the history of the mission and my youth under the government of his nemesis, Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen. My home was an Aboriginal reserve under a succession of Queensland laws commencing in 1897. These laws were notoriously discriminatory and the bureaucratic apparatus controlling the reserves maintained vigil over the smallest details concerning its charges. Superintendents held vast powers and a cold and capricious bureaucracy presided over this system for too long in the 20^th century. 

In June 1975, the Whitlam government enacted the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Queensland Discriminatory Laws Act. The law put to purpose the power conferred upon the Commonwealth Parliament by the 1967 referendum, finally outlawing the discrimination my father and his father lived under since my grandfather was removed to the mission as a boy and to which I was subject [for] the first 10 years of my life.

Powers regulating residency on reserves without a permit, the power of reserve managers to enter private premises without the consent of the householder, legal representation and appeal from court decisions, the power of reserve managers to arbitrarily direct people to work, and the terms and conditions of employment, were now required to treat Aboriginal Queenslanders on the same footing as other Australians. We were at last free from those discriminations that humiliated and degraded our people.

The companion to this enactment, which would form the architecture of indigenous human rights akin to the Civil Rights Act 1965 in the United States, was the Racial Discrimination Act.

It was in Queensland under Bjelke-Petersen that its importance became clear. In 1976, a Wik man from Aurukun on the western Cape York Peninsula, John Koowarta, sought to purchase the Archer Bend pastoral lease from its white owner. The Queensland government refused the sale. The High Court's decision in Koowarta versus Bjelke-Petersen upheld the Racial Discrimination Act as a valid exercise of the external affairs powers of the Commonwealth. However, in an act of spite, the Queensland Government converted the lease into the Acher Bend National Park. Old man Koowarta died a broken man, the winner of a landmark High Court precedent but the victim of an appalling discrimination.

The Racial Discrimination Act was again crucial in 1982 when a group of Murray Islanders led by Eddie Mabo claimed title under the common law to their traditional homelands in the Torres Strait. In 1985 Bjelke-Petersen sought to kill the Murray Islanders' case by enacting a retrospective extinguishment of any such title. 

There was no political or media uproar against Bjelke-Petersen's law. There was no public condemnation of the state's manouevre. There was no redress anywhere in the democratic forums or procedures of the state or the nation.

If there were no Racial Discrimination Act that would have been the end of it. Land rights would have been dead, there would never have been a Mabo case in 1992, there would have been no Native Title Act under Prime Minister Keating in 1993.

Without this old man the land and human rights of our people would never have seen the light of day. There would never have been Mabo and its importance to the history of Australia would have been lost without the Whitlam program.

Only those who have known discrimination truly know its evil.

Only those who have never experienced prejudice can discount the importance of the Racial Discrimination Act.

This old man was one of those rare people who never suffered discrimination but understood the importance of protection from its malice.

On this day we will recall the repossession of the Gurindji of Wave Hill, when the Prime Minister said, "Vincent Lingiari, I solemnly hand to you these deeds as proof in Australian law that these lands belong to the Gurindji people and I put into your hands this piece of earth itself as a sign that we restore them to you and your children forever."

It was this old man's initiative with the Woodward Royal Commission that led to Prime Minister Fraser's enactment of the Aboriginal Land Rights Northern Territory Act, legislation that would see more than half of the territory restored to its traditional owners.

Of course recalling the Whitlam Government's legacy has been, for the past four decades since the dismissal, a fraught and partisan business. Assessments of those three highly charged years and their aftermath divide between the nostalgia and fierce pride of the faithful, and the equally vociferous opinion that the Whitlam years represented the nadir of national government in Australia. Let me venture a perspective.

The Whitlam government is the textbook case of reform trumping management.

In less than three years an astonishing reform agenda leapt off the policy platform and into legislation and the machinery and programs of government.The country would change forever. The modern cosmopolitan Australia finally emerged like a technicolour butterfly from its long dormant chrysalis. And 38 years later we are like John Cleese, Eric Idle and Michael Palin's Jewish insurgents ranting against the despotic rule of Rome, defiantly demanding "and what did the Romans ever do for us anyway?"

Apart from Medibank and the Trade Practices Act, cutting tariff protections and no-fault divorce in the Family Law Act, the Australia Council, the Federal Court, the Order of Australia, federal legal aid, the Racial Discrimination Act, needs-based schools funding, the recognition of China, the abolition of conscription, the law reform commission, student financial assistance, the Heritage Commission, non-discriminatory immigration rules, community health clinics, Aboriginal land rights, paid maternity leave for public servants, lowering the minimum voting age to 18 years and fair electoral boundaries and Senate representation for the territories. 

Apart from all of this, what did this Roman ever do for us? 

And the Prime Minister with that classical Roman mien, one who would have been as naturally garbed in a toga as a safari suit, stands imperiously with twinkling eyes and that slight self-mocking smile playing around his mouth, in turn infuriating his enemies and delighting his followers. There is no need for nostalgia and yearning for what might have been. The achievements of this old man are present in the institutions we today take for granted and played no small part in the progress of modern Australia.

There is no need to regret three years was too short. Was any more time needed? The breadth and depth of the reforms secured in that short and tumultuous period were unprecedented, and will likely never again be repeated.The devil-may-care attitude to management as opposed to reform is unlikely to be seen again by governments whose priorities are to retain power rather than reform. 

The Whitlam program as laid out in the 1972 election platform consisted of three objectives: to promote equality, to involve the people of Australia in the decision-making processes of our land, and to liberate the talents and uplift the horizons of the Australian people. This program is as fresh as it was when first conceived. It scarcely could be better articulated today.

Who would not say the vitality of our democracy is a proper mission of government and should not be renewed and invigorated. Who can say that liberating the talents and uplifting the horizons of Australians is not a worthy charter for national leadership?

It remains to mention the idea of promoting equality. My chances in this nation were a result of the Whitlam program. My grandparents and parents could never have imagined the doors that opened to me which were closed to them. I share this consciousness with millions of my fellow Australians whose experiences speak in some way or another to the great power of distributed opportunity. 

I don't know why someone with this old man's upper middle class background could carry such a burning conviction that the barriers of class and race of the Australia of his upbringing and maturation should be torn down and replaced with the unapologetic principle of equality. I can scarcely point to any white Australian political leader of his vintage and of generations following of whom it could be said without a shadow of doubt, he harboured not a bone of racial, ethnic or gender prejudice in his body. This was more than urbane liberalism disguising human equivocation and private failings; it was a modernity that was so before its time as to be utterly anachronistic. 

For people like me who had no chance if left to the means of our families we could not be more indebted to this old man's foresight and moral vision for universal opportunity. Only those born bereft truly know the power of opportunity. Only those accustomed to its consolations can deprecate a public life dedicated to its furtherance and renewal. This old man never wanted opportunity himself but he possessed the keenest conviction in its importance. For it behoves the good society through its government to ensure everyone has chance and opportunity.

This is where the policy convictions of Prime Minister Whitlam were so germane to the uplift of many millions of Australians.

We salute this old man for his great love and dedication to his country and to the Australian people. When he breathed he truly was Australia's greatest white elder and friend without peer of the original Australians."