PALS Performance
On Friday 3 August, distinguished guests, parents, the Year 10 cohort and members of staff enjoyed an inspiring performance by the Newman College Years 7-12 Arts collective students. The students performed Koort Kadadjiny Kadidjiny (Heart Learning) as part of their PALS project – an initiative which encourages Western Australian schools to develop projects that promote reconciliation in their local community, and closely aligns with our Catholic social teaching values.
This is the first year Newman College has been involved in PALS. PALS complements the teaching syllabus and can assist schools in implementing the Aboriginal Cultural Standards Framework. PALS was developed in collaboration with the Department of Education, Catholic Education Office and the Association of Independent Schools WA. Miss Abigail Lamont the Project officer from PALS, and Aboriginal History WA Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries will attend the performance to evaluate our college entry in the Aboriginal History and Language category.
‘HEART LEARNING’ (Koort Kadadjiny Kadidjiny) is an original piece of Epic Theatre devised by the Newman College Arts Collective. The performance used Verbatim Theatre techniques, Aboriginal Noongar language, original music, and song, body percussion and movement, and digital projection of visual art to share a cultural history of Australia, 140’000 BC to the present day. This collaborative Arts work explores the Aboriginal history of Australia in its beauty, strength pain and weakness.
This theatre piece is a celebration of diversity, survival, transformation, and growth in the hope for reconciliation and a better future in the relationships between Aboriginal and Non Aboriginal people. The collective stories in this work reveal the burden of history for the Aboriginal peoples. Heart Learning aims to bridge gaps of understanding in an effort to enhance cultural competency and cultural sensitivity in a view to promoting social change. The hope for reconciliation that this piece presents links the Marist theme of ‘Hope’ for 2018.
The hopefulness embedded in ‘Heart Learning’ (Koort Kadadjiny Kadidjiny) can help us to acknowledge and face our past, and present actions as a nation, hearing voices rather than silencing voices is essential in our hope for reconciliation.
This piece features an original song written by Nicole Boddy, arranged and accompanied by Sue Bluck. The song lyrics have been translated into Noongar by Della Rae Morrison. The original didgeridoo composition is written and played by Phil Walley Stack and the original voice over recordings are by Maitland Schnaars.