Nina with some of the under-21s Men’s Lunsar Cycling Team. Feb 2020.
Earlier this year I was in Lunsar, Sierra Leone undertaking my PhD research. While there, I worked and rode alongside the Lunsar Cycling Team – and I had a great time! What a team! They are an incredible group of highly motivated cyclists.
I have stayed in contact and support them where ever I can.
One way to support the LCT is by supplying them with reliable road bikes so they can compete.
Currently, LCT has a very worthy fundraiser on GoFundMe which is inviting supporters to help them get 8 bikes for the team to use for competitions.
The Lunsar Cycling Team is based in a town of 30,000 people where there is no electricity and limited resources. Bikes are a popular way to get around, but having your own bike is out of the reach for many locals. The team have a few donated bikes they rotate between riders to get some training in – but there are not enough reliable bikes to take them to the next level.
The riders are strong, keen and motivated and they need reliable, well-performing bikes to match.
The riders have already made a name for themselves in the local, regional and national races – and now they want to take on neighbouring countries in West Africa.
Two LCT riders have already represented Sierra Leone internationally, competing at the Tour de Guinee in 2019. All riders who ride for the national team must compete on their own bikes. LCT would like to change that, so they can achieve a greater consistency at national competitions and give the Sierra Leone Team riders a fighting chance when they next compete abroad.
To do this, the Lunsar Cycling Team need to buy eight carbon fibre road bicycles on which to compete. They have a road bike supplier in Holland who is willing to give them an incredibly generous discount – which means they can get each bike cost around £600 where they would retail at £2,000.
The team need support because although they can get these new bikes at a discounted rate, it is still considerably more than most people in Lunsar earn in six months.
Currently the team has raised £3, 557 of the total £5, 000 needed.
Please support the Lunsar Cycling Team by giving generously.
I can’t wait to see them kick arse internationally!
Do you live in Adelaide, have a spare bike and are looking for a way to support the NRW theme of ‘Recovery – A future beyond a bin’?
Then this post is for you!
..And if you live elsewhere.. look for a similar program in your area!
Here’s a sneak peek at Lighthouse Youth Program’s November Bike Drive 2020.
What is Lighthouse Youth Projects (LYP)?
Lighthouse Youth Projects Inc (LYP) was established in Adelaide, South Australia in 2016. This program delivers a range of bike programs – including BMX and MTB mentoring programs to give hope to young Australians in crippling emotional, mental and financial situations.
Lighthouse Youth Projects Inc is a registered charity and volunteer supported not-for-profit organisation sharing a love of riding and living life to the fullest. LYP strives to help young people at risk of not being amazing, empowering them for a successful future.
They work with young people, regardless of circumstance, supporting them into positive pathways through our diverse range of programs.
Their services include a range of community and social events, bike skill coaching and events, and life skills and mentoring.
Do you want to help improve the lives of young people AND support the environment at the same time?
To mark Australia’s National Recycling Week LYP is teaming up with the City of Port Adelaide Enfield and the City of Charles Sturt to take your pre-loved bikes off your hands.
LYP welcomes old (or new!) bikes that need a new home, and we are excited to get them back on the road or recycle them when they are past their used by date!
Rescuing bikes from sheds, backyards, and garages allows LYP to continue to provide their mentoring and help at-risk youth to create positive change in their lives.
Join LYP at the Beverley Recycling and Waste Centre, 2-6 Toogood Ave, Beverley, South Australia this Friday 13 & Saturday 14 November 2020!
LYP can’t wait to see you there!
BIKE DROP OFF TIMES: Friday 13th between 8am – 4pm Saturday 14th between 8am – 4pm
So if you are around Adelaide and have a spare bike, why not head down and meet the LYP crew and support their Nov 2020 Bike Drive.
LYP Mentoring through bikes
Not only do Lighthouse Youth Projects offer a range of community events, BMX and MTB coaching, along with life skills mentoring, but they also have a range of videos online to encourage more people to get on their bikes and ride.
Mentoring through bikes
These videos cover a rage of skills, from how to bunny hop, to ‘pumping’ for when you are on a pump track and some general bike maintenance skills (like the video below).
This is another way LYP help to mentors others and share a love of bikes, riding skills, energy and enthusiasm with the next generation, encouraging everyone around them to get stoked on life.
Impressive!
Keep up the awesome work LYP!
Some content and all images and video sourced from LYP website, Vimeo, FB & IG.
We don’t have a strong culture of celebrating Halloween in Australia. But given many readers of this blog are in countries that do celebrate Halloween – this post is for you!
Previously I have shared Halloween-themed posts – like the super-fun Homewood Witch’s Ride (Alabama, USA) where everyone dresses up in awesome outfits and go for a ride around town.
Also, the Mala Bruja Alleycat (New York City, USA), which is held the night before Halloween, on Witch’s Eve which is an all-women’s courier-inspired alleycat fun-but-serious race-ride where you tick off checkpoints along the way. (More events like this please!)
Halloween Bikes 2020: Ideas for events & costumes
So for a fun bike-themed Halloween 2020, you will need a bike-and-costume and a kick-ass bike event to go to….so here two ideas to encourage you to get your ‘spooky self’ (and family + friends) on bikes and riding your local neighbourhood for Halloween 2020.
2020 Zombie Bike Parade
The 2020 Zombie Bike Parade (what a wicked idea!) was a collaboration between local bike shop Davis Cyclery and BIKE City Theatre Company (Bike City USA). This event invited the local community to dress up and join in for an afternoon ride around the Davis Bike Loop for a massive Zombie Bike extravaganza.
As well as mixing with locals, the Bike City Theatre Company and their team of sketch writers, directors and actors provided entertainment and an event like no other! The dancers did a great job of zombifying dance moves that keep everyone humming along. They had fun, laughs, socially distanced photo ops and an unforgettable community bike-themed Halloween experience. Here are a few snaps from the event and you can see more here.
Bike-Themed Characters & Costumes
If you are just cruising around your neighbourhood for general spookiness (and not a themed event – like the Zombie Ride above) then you can diversify your costume – and anything goes!
Online, you can find heaps of websites, pictures and DIY videos of creative and fun bike-themed costumes. Some websites have links to buy the products featured – but like most people, I will ALWAYS opt to make my own version out of recycled materials.
Any mum’s DIY YouTube video is great for tutorials on how to make costumes at home. More sustainable, more personal! Here are a few of my favs from Bikes Reviewed.
Headless Horse (Biker) Man
Pac Man Pair
ET & Elliot (a classic!)
Evel Knievel
Pee Wee Herman
Image: aby7ny.com
So what ever you do for Halloween 2020 – have heaps of fun doing it on ya bike!
Recently, Nelson Aigbe, (the Founder/Director of Grace Foundation, Gambia) got in contact with me. He had seen news of my research in Sierra Leone and he reached out to share the important work he is doing feeding and educating street kids. I wanted to do a post for Grace Foundation to support their incredible work, spread the work and give readers the opportunity to donate and help Grace Foundation continue their work. In a time when many of us are house-bound and the world seems to have shrunk, it is even more important to keep our eyes and hearts open to needs of others. This post is written by Nelson and outlines what Grace Foundation is and how they help local street kids. Please give generously. Thanks, NG.
Lunchtime
Grace Foundation Gambia
Grace Foundation is a registered nonprofit organization in the Gambia that provides education and food for 400 street kids.. Many Gambian children turn up at schools daily on hungry stomach and return home hungry.
Their families are living in extreme poverty and do not have enough income to provide the barest minimum of food.
As a result of the poverty faced daily by these children, many are withdrawn from schools and are forced to engage in street trading in order to get food for their families at home, thus exposing these mainly children girl to sex abuse, child trafficking and child labour.
Grace Foundation provides free school meals and education to 400 kids, most of them are girl s as a way to help stop sex abuse, encourage school attendance and stop hunger at schools.
A message from the Founder/Director
I write to you on behalf of Grace Foundation Gambia.
Grace Foundation provides free school meals and education to mainly girl street children sent to trade in the streets in order to help feed at home thus exposing these mainly girl street children to sex abuse, child trafficking and child labour.
Since the closure of schools these children can no longer assess the free school meals programme we provide daily, and most of these children are back in the streets, trading and hawking in order to be fed at home.
This street trading has once again exposed these mainly girl children to sex abuse, child trafficking and labour.
I pray for your attention in helping me with the continuation of the feeding and probably education of these very vulnerable poor Children.
My organization is a small one that depends on the magnanimous donations of good people like you to help keep these children safe from the streets.
Please feel free to ask any questions that may be useful to you.
Kind regards,
Nelson Aigbe – Founder/Director, Grace Foundation, The Gambia
Lunch at Grace Foundation
You can make a difference
Your contributions can help educate a child because your $15 will buy stationery for a child $25 will provide school bag for a child
$50 will provide Uniforms $100 will provide lunch for 2000 pupils
$150 will provide seedlings for school gardens $700 will buy 2000 acres of land
To support kindly send donations to: Trust Bank Limited (Gambia) Account Name: Grace Foundation (GF) Account Number: 110-243272-01 Swift Code: TBLTGMGM
For further inquiries please contact: gracefoundation.gm@gmail.com
In this post, we look at how Meg Ulman, Patrick Jones, their two children (aged 11 and 2) and pet dog used an incredible 6,000km family bike tour up the east coast of Australia as a way of putting into action their ethical, environmental and social principles. This is the fifth and last instalment of our August 5-part series written by Laura Fisher exploring how bicycles are used as a dissident object in contemporary art. Previously we looked at Ai Weiwei’s ‘Forever’, then ‘Returnity’ by Elin Wikström and Anna Brag, then ‘Shedding Light’ from Tutti Arts Oz Asia Festival. The last post was on how public space is being creatively activated as sites of protest using bicycles by the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination. Enjoy! NG.
The Art of Free Travel
A final project that demonstrates the power and promise of the bicycle is the 6,000-kilometre journey taken by “Artist as Family”: Meg Ulman, Patrick Jones, their two children (aged 11 and 2) and pet dog.
As writers, gardeners and environmentalists, Ulman and Jones exemplify the ecological sensibility that a growing number of us embrace. In 2015 they decided to take up this environmental imperative as an artistic-philosophical project.
Over a period of 14 months the family rode their bicycles from their home in Daylesford in Victoria to Cape York in Northern Queensland, during which time they lived by foraging (they had extensive knowledge of edible plants), fishing, trapping, exchanging labour for food on farms, and through the hospitality of friends and strangers.
Their blog posts and book attest to the heightened engagement with the world that bicycle travel affords: two-year-old Woody was able to identify an enormous variety of animals and plants, and meaningful connections were made with the many strangers who invited the family into their homes, sharing their knowledge and stories.
The physical demands of cycling focused their minds upon the needs of the body and the available sources of energy replenishment.
As these projects demonstrate, the bicycle is a nimble tool for individual and collective agency and a catalyst for knowledge creation, self-awareness and meaningful social encounters. It is a technology that serves our need for self-reliance and exploration, without surpassing the body’s capabilities.
In an era in which we are incarcerated by our affluence – through work, debt, declining physical and mental health, and an exploitative and wasteful dependence upon the declining natural resources – the bicycle is the ultimate dissident object and symbol of freedom.
Image: Still from ‘The Art of Free Travel’ film trailer.
Laura Fisher is a post-doctoral research fellow at Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney. In October 2015 she co-curated Bespoke City with Sabrina Sokalik at UNSW Art & Design, a one night exhibition featuring over 20 practitioners celebrating the bicycle through interactive installations, sculpture, video, design innovation, fashion and craft. This event was part of Veloscape, an ongoing art–research project exploring the emotional and sensory dimensions of cycling in Sydney.
Shedding Light – Tutti Arts & Oz Asia Festival (2015)
We left off the previous post on the ‘reversed engineered’ bike project ‘Returnity’ by German art duo Elin Wikström and Anna Brag, with the idea that experimentation can be used to engage cory and mind in such a way as to galvanise both personal autonomy and social affinity.
This was further demonstrated by the Shedding Light project that featured in the 2015 OzAsia Festival in Adelaide.
Shedding Light was a two-year collaboration between Tutti Arts, a multi-arts organisation for artists with a disability in Adelaide, and Perspectif, a sister organisation in Yogyakarta 2013.
Among the many mediums through which the artists explored the Indonesia–Australia relationship were creatively constructed carts inspired by the Indonesian kaki lima (street vendor carts), and vehicles inspired by Sepeda Lampus, the four-wheeled pedal cars augmented with neon lights and sound systems hired out at the Sultan’s Palace square in Yogyakarta.
This part of Shedding Light was realised in collaboration with James Dodd, an artist who has long engaged in bicycle modification as part of a practice concerned with informal and incidental forms of public creativity.
Dodd fabricated the pedal cars using two bicycles so that they could accommodate a Tutti artist, a support companion and a passenger.
The neon light frames were modelled upon designs created by three Tutti artists: a unicorn (William Gregory), a shark (Joel Hartgen) and a three-headed snowman (James Kurtze).
Over several nights, passengers would be taken a short distance around the Adelaide Festival Centre Plaza to a special location where a short performance by another Tutti artist was staged for them.
Like Returnity(see our previous post Part 2) , Shedding Light involved modifying bicycles to facilitate a creative social intervention, in this case tied to the aim of enhancing the visibility of Tutti artists.
As Dodd relates, what made the project so rewarding and unusual was that it created intimate encounters between festival audiences and the Tutti artists out in the streets, far from the organised formality of ticketed events.
Image: James Dodd
Laura Fisher is a post-doctoral research fellow at Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney. In October 2015 she co-curated Bespoke City with Sabrina Sokalik at UNSW Art & Design, a one night exhibition featuring over 20 practitioners celebrating the bicycle through interactive installations, sculpture, video, design innovation, fashion and craft. This event was part of Veloscape, an ongoing art–research project exploring the emotional and sensory dimensions of cycling in Sydney.
I returned a week before COVID lock down and quarantine was made mandatory (phew!!). Since then I have kept in close contact with Stylish and many of the amazing people I met in Lunsar.
Since my return, I have been worried about Stylish and my Lunsar friends – dreading the arrival of August because of that is when the seasonal torrential rains come.
As well as being an incredible bicycle advocate and business man, Stylish is also very active supporting his community in a number of roles and ventures. Some of these ventures are bicycle-related, others are not.
Stylish’s VBP bike shop supplies COVID precautions for all riders, customers, visitors and staff.
This post looks at one of Stylish’s most significant community program that occurs outside of his role as ‘The bike king of Sierra Leone’ – yet one that is arguably just as important – his annual August Nourishing Young Minds and Bodies in Lunsar.
August is the most difficult month in Sierra Leone
The rainy season in Sierra Leone runs June – September. August is always the most difficult month. Every August, there are devastating rains, storms, flooding and landslides and thousands of the most vulnerable lose their homes, crops, livelihoods and sometimes lives. Schools, markets and health services shut down and people are forced to stay home because it is too dangerous – people and children get swept away and killed.
Last year, there was a particularly devastating mudslide in Freetown that killed many living in shanty towns and locals called it ‘the day the mountain moved’. These communities are still rebuilding even now as the rains come. The video below showing the build-up last year gives a sense of the gravity of the situation.
August rains often constrain access to essential services due to flooded streets and bridges, debris blocking roads and poor communication networks. A lack of electricity means the full impact on the most vulnerable families is not known until much later. This year preparations are more acute given additional COVID lockdown.
Every August many schools in Lunsar shut down. This means kids are missing out on continuing their education and often they fall behind.
In an account on Study, Read , Write, but most importantly: Listen, traveller Zoe details her experience being in the rainy season in Sierra Leone. Her experience highlights the impact torrential rains have on locals and slum communities, especially in regards to sewage, electricity and health via spikes in malaria and other diarrhoeal and vector borne diseases.
Nourishing Young Minds and Bodies in Lunsar
Stylish with participants of the 2019 Nourishing Young Minds and Bodies.
Last August, Hellen Gelbrand set up aGo Fund Me: Nourishing Young Minds and Bodies to help Stylish run a month-long feeding and schooling program for 100 local kids. This meant kids got a meal for lunch (for most it was their only meal of the day) and were able to continue their studies.
Hellen writes ‘August is the hardest month in Sierra Leone, well into the rainy season with dwindling food supplies in subsistence farming communities. It’s especially hard on kids. In what has become an annual program, Karim Kamara, a young Sierra Leonean, is planning a month of extra schooling and nutritious meals for 125 students at the King Kama primary school in Lunsar. Five teachers, including head teacher Mr. Alie F. Kamara (no relation to Karim), will be employed to teach the children—many of whom are orphans, and all from poor families where one meal a day is the norm for August.”
The 2020 Nourishing Young Minds and Bodies program starts this week and needs your help to raise $3, 100 to make this program happen.
This program is a remarkable example of a grassroots community-driven initiative made possible by Stylish – a person whose first love is bicycles, but who saw a need and took action to make positive change for those who need it the most in his community.
Husband and I have supported this program and we are rallying others to do the same.
Please give generously and support Stylish and the children of Lunsar.
I am always looking for stories where bicycles create positive community change. Inclusive bike-focused programs that support First Nations and minority groups is a special interest for this blog.
Previously, I have posted on programs that increase bike use, access and participation for Indigenous Australians such as:
This week, I came across a US community-based project working at the forefront of 3 critical intersecting issues: diabetes, first nations (Native American community) health and using bicycling to mitigate chronic health issues.
This project works with the Pascua Yaqui people in the US. Obesity and diabetes is a major individual and community health issue in many communities – and the Diabetes Community Empowerment Project is using bicycles to help address this issue. What an awesome project!
Pascua Yaqui cyclists participating in the El Tour de Tucson
Since 2012, the Diabetes Community Empowerment Project has been working with the Native American community helping them move towards better health. This community sees a high incidence of diabetes and obesity and DCEP empower native people to exercise more and be role models for each other.
The programs work in resource poor communities by removing the barriers between people and the healthier, happier versions of themselves.
The project began when James Stout (DCEP Executive Director) was training in Tucson Arizona. At the time, he was making a living as a cyclist. Having spent time riding through the reservation and working with nonprofit outside of the US, he noticed the high rate of diabetes among Native American people and wondered if there was anything he could do to help.
As someone who lives with diabetes, James was motivated to share the joy, and health, he found in riding his bike. Taking a clapped out station wagon and as many old bikes and helmets, as it could fit, James took time out from his PhD I began to work on the reservation in order to better understand the barriers between Native people and better diabetes management.
Although access to medication is an issue in many Native American communities, a lack of access to exercise and education is often equally dangerous. Through working with the healthcare team on the reservation, the program engages people with diabetes and encouraged them to try cycling with the goal of completing a El Tour de Tucson event.
3 years after it started, each of the initial riders have returned to serve as a mentor and bought friends and family with them. By 2016 the project has seen over 100 participants finished their goal event, thousands of pounds have been lost and blood glucose management has seen drastic improvement.
DCEP Mission
To research and implement peer mentored, exercise based lifestyle interventions in resource poor diabetes communities. Focusing on goal events, we aim to use community based education and exercise programs to empower people to live healthier and happier lives as well as to be changemakers in their own communities.
Moving forward
The DCEP website has not been updated in a while, so I hope this project is still ongoing! Even if it is not, the project is a great example of an how bicycles can be used to improve indiviviual and community health and well-being.
It also serves as a reminder that we need a broader, more inclusive methods of providing specialist, community-focused responses to support the needs of First Nations communities and minority groups.
DCEP Founder James Stout
All images and some content of this post sourced from DCEP.
Ocean Academy student Micheal. Image: Planterra Foundation
Belize is a small Caribbean country in northeastern Central America. It has many beautiful islands and atolls and is a popular tourist destination.
However, life for locals can be difficult. Belize is ranked 166 in the world based on GDP, around other lower-income countries like Lesotho, Suriname and Timor Leste.
Caye Caulker is one of Belize’s beautiful islands. Like many other islands, it has shifted from traditional life to embrace a different way of life in order to survive. Caye Caulker’s now depends on ts hospitality and tourism industry. While tourists enjoy natural environs and leisure activities, life is very different for locals.
Being such a small island, there are limited services. Previously, the Caye did not have a high school. This meant that when local children turned 12, they would have to move to the mainland if they wanted to continue their studies. This is not only financially difficult, but having a young family member away can be stressful and add extra pressure for struggling families, so many would not continue their studies and stay on the Caye. This meant there was a growing population of youths who had not completed their education.
Addressing a Critical Need
This situation is an obvious problem for the young students and families of the remote island of Caye Caulker. In many cases, it is not possible for students to travel to the mainland to receive a quality education.
This barrier leads many by the age of 12, to choose to quit school and join the workforce. Nation-wide, only 40% of secondary-aged youths are enrolled in school.
Opening a local high school – Ocean Academy
The Ocean Academy school opened in 2008 as the very first community high school on the island of Caye Caulker.
There are currently 58 students enrolled in the Academy.
Its programs aim to reduce school dropout rates and reverse the growing unemployment issue by providing hands-on and practical tourism education, in addition to the traditional curriculum.
How Planterra Foundation helped
Planeterra raised donations to fund needed bicycles and other materials for the Ocean Academy to develop a student-led bicycle tour of the island. Planeterra also connected the Ocean Academy to a market, G Adventures travellers, on some of G’s tours that visit the island.
This activity is included into some of G Adventures, and bike rentals are available for all travellers, with proceeds funding educational programs for the students at Ocean Academy.
Impact: Student-led bike tours
This project aims to provide youth on Caye Caulker with training for future employment opportunities. It is a social enterprise in tourism, giving students from Caye Caulker’s Ocean Academy the chance to practice guiding skills while giving traveller’s a unique experience on their visit to Caye Caulker.
Ocean Academy prepares students for careers relevant to island tourism and conservation science. In order to ensure the success for the new program, Planeterra supplied Ocean Academy’s Bike with Purpose program with 40 extra bikes at the beginning of the partnership.
This meant students could show tourists around, gaining valuable leadership, communication, business and tourism skills that can then be taken forward. Costs for the student-led bike tours all go to the students.
This is a wonderful example of how bicycles can be used to help support local education, families and employment opportunities. Key to this approach is integrating and enhancing already established local initiatives (the Academy) as well as addressing a need that has immediate and long-lasting positive impacts for local youths and their families.
Along with Dr Sherilyn Lennon, I co-convene Griffith University’s New Materialism Special Interest Group (SIG). New Materialisms (NM) is an emerging post-qualitative research approach that has a significant take up in education, queer and gender studies, environmental science and arts-based disciplines in particular, but is gaining traction more widely as well.
The aim of this SIG is to provide a supportive space for GIER students, ECRs, mid-career and more senior Academics to explore, discuss, experiment and share complex and emerging post-qualitative ideas, methods and approaches.
For this session, we discussed 3 papers and one of the most essential questions plaguing NM What is ‘new’ about New Materialisms? and then had a presentation by Dr Natalie Lazaroo (Griffith Uni, Theatre Studies).
Vulcana: As if No One is watching. Image: Nothing to do in Brisbane
The Readings
The first two papers (Monforte, 2018; Banerjee & Blaise, 2013) are advocating for NM as a new way of thinking about research and the other one is pushing back saying it’s all been done before and there is nothing new to see here (Petersen, 2018).
For this SIG we had 3 readings
Monforte, J. (2018). What is new in new materialism for a newcomer? Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 10(3), 378-390.
Banerjee, B., & Blaise, M. (2013). There’s something in the air: Becoming-with research practices. Cultural Studies – Critical Methodologies, 13(4), 240-245. doi:10.1177/1532708613487867
Petersen, E. B. (2018). ‘Data found us’: A critique of some new materialist tropes in educational research. Research in Education, 101(1), 5-16. doi:10.1177/0034523718792161
In the session, we provide a spectrum: on one end ‘nothing new’ and on the other end ‘everything is new’
We invited participants to take a position on this spectrum and be ready to justify your answer/position. People could positions themselves into a any camp. And once people had contributed their ideas to the spectrum, we talked about the positions and the reasons why we had taken that stance. We used the readings to inform our opinions, ideas from elsewhere/other scholars, experience and other ideas to help explain why we chose that point and to better understand where other people were currently positioned.
The aim of this discussion was to plumb what’s new about NM and see what makes sense to the group.
Following this discussion, we had a presentation from Dr Natalie Lazaroo.
NM SIG discussion Continuum: ‘Whats ‘new’ in NM?
Dr Natalie Lazaroo – Vulcana Circus: Stronghold
In this session, Dr Lazaroo returned to her PhD work (two years ago) to untangle the mess to make new discoveries. She reflected on her early methodology and locates a poem titles ‘Expressions of longing’ which she wrote in response to NM SIG provocations.
This return poem captures the essence of articulations that emerged during her artistic collaboration over a 4-month period of fieldwork with Vulcana Women’s Circus to create a community performance called Stronghold, which involved people with disabilities.
Natalie’s presentation was a real highlight – hearing about her work and research highlighted many NM tensions and opportunities. The group was blown away when she shared her poem which was evocative, agential and very moving. The conversation that followed was interesting, insightful and unexpected.
We all left this session deep in thought about these NM approaches might relate to our own work and in awe of the amazing work Natalie and Vulcana does.
I can’t wait to see more from both!
Dr Natalie Lazaroo Image Griffith EPS
Image: Natalie’s PhD
Stronghold
Stonghold was a project run in conjunction with Horizons Respite and Vulcana Women’s Circus. This partnership 16-week workshop program culminated with a final performance called Stronghold which engaged 10 Access Arts members. During this project, participants had the opportunity to learn skills puppetry, performance, circus and theatre. Stronghold was performed as part of Access Arts 30th Anniversary celebration at Brisbane Powerhouse.
Vulcana
Vulcana is a Brisbane-based circus that was established in 1995 to counter a major discrepancy between women’ and men’s experience of circus, both in training and in the expectation of how and what they perform. Vulcana now welcomes women, trans and non-binary gendered adults, kids and teens of all genders, to its inclusive circus training, performance making projects, and community engagement programs. It is an incubator for new, emerging and professional artists who have developed their passion as practitioners, performers and teachers in this art form that offers everybody a place to explore their uniqueness and their creativity. Vulcana respects diversity and the feminist principles of equity and inclusion which are central to all our work and the starting point for engagement with students, participants, communities and artists.
