The Big Day of Belonging
A big day of belonging. What could be better! I have spent my morning reflecting on my experiences on Saturday 16th January 2016 at our State Library of Queensland. A delicious day. A gentle day. A day of creativity and connection. And chai.
To begin: those of you who know my work over the last fifteen years, know that I have focused hugely on what it means to belong, working with artists and the community to awaken their infinite talent, energy and commitment to living a life of purpose, joy and enthusiasm (www.4change.com.au). Margi Brown Ashs website
I love this quote about roads to belonging:
Each one of us
should speak of his roads, his crossroads, his roadside benches, each one of us should make a surveyors map of his lost fields and meadows. Thoreau said that he had a map of his fields engraved in his soul
(Gaston Bachelard)
So you can imagine how excited I was to learn that there was a brilliant team of SLQ staff organising a day where the entire community would be invited to focus on belonging. This day of belonging would give us a chance to speak of our own roads of connection and to make our own surveyors map.
I leave home in plenty of time, go via Metro Arts where a delightful festival for young artists is happening (2High Festival with Backbone Theatre), rescue a dying plant in my studio on the third floor and finally make my way across the river to the cultural precinct. It is a dullish day, a welcomed day after the heat of the past week. The clouds keep the direct sun at bay and there is a light breeze from the river.
The Big Day of Belonging has been planned by Linda Barron, Executive Manager of Community Engagement, Brendan Ross, Senior Programming Officer, Kevin Wilson, Curator along with their substantial team. Today they are launching the librarys new theme for 2016: Belonging 2016.
A most welcomed theme: There have been many disruptions in our town recently, violence has reared its ugliness on the streets, violating our sense of belonging in our community. So to have a day to step into, a day where State Library Queensland dedicated its passionate staff and substantial resources to create what they called a belonging day well, it was a delight to participate.
On arrival, first things first. I must find a program so I know what I am to do. I am greeted by a smiling face next to a huge table with large colouring-in sheets and hundreds of coloured pencils. People are standing, quietly drawing, filling in, gentle breathing. Ahh. This will slow me down I think and I stand next to a small person and slow down to her pace, pick up a pink pencil and begin to colour in. This is serious business. No one talking, just focusing on the task at hand. Ill find a program afterwards this is too yummy to rush. People come and go and a feeling of theres enough time, enough time filters through the enclosed courtyard.
After a time, I turn around and see a beautiful cardboard house, with lots of rooms, little homes to play in. Tables with craft supplies and engaged faces. My chance to find a program I think as I wander through the courtyard. A flower filled table and three young artists catch my attention.
Anna, Hanna and Dani are taking pictures of people who have flowers, scarves and beads in their hair. The atmosphere is peaceful yet electric as I watch these three designers dress people up and take their photo before the next eager child or woman steps forward. I stand transfixed. I chat with Kevin Wilson, the curator at SLQ, as I watch the scene unfold. We both agree that this activity really encapsulates a sense of peace and quiet. A sense of belonging -beautiful flowers and happy faces I stand for a long time. My body rhythm has slowed right down. As things go, I have no phone (forgot it AGAIN), no mini Ipad, no camera. so there is nothing to distract me. I stand and watch the process. Finally I decide its my turn and the designers then create a marvellous array of flowers, scarves, beads, everything they could lay their hands on. They dress me up a treat an exotic form of what it could mean to belong in our great town flowers, colour beauty all the things i like to surround myself with. After a substantial amount of time had passed I decide I need that program so I wave goodbye after leaving my phone number (I dont want to lose contact with these vibrant artists). I move on.
I decide to enter the library. The only thing I struggle with at SLQ is the actual entrance. The need for a security guard is understandable, but I always feel as though I am a suspect rather than a guest/shareholder of this brilliant building of ideas, stimulation and passion. I quickly move through the barriers and race up the stairs to find the choir. I had bumped into a friend and his daughter earlier who were on their way to choir practice, so I thought I would join them, and on the way I even might find that program.
So glad I climbed those stairs. I found Kiri Waiata-Green, a dynamic woman artist who had the enormous task of creating a choir of strangers in one and a quarter hours. Kiri had composed several songs for us to learn, simple, beautiful l songs about belonging:
One step at a time
Travellin on our road
Walkin through life alone
Yet we seek to share the load
One step at a time
goin over, under and through
Makin it so much easier
Givin thanks for hlep from you
(Kiri Waiata, 2016)
I watched with awe and fascination as Kiri talked us through the sops (soprano) middles and lows. Kiri divided the auditorium up into three sections. I came in late so found myself sitting in the sops. Ive never been a sop before so I thought Why not?. I decided to embrace my head voice for a change.
Kiri doesnt just help you sing. She makes you laugh and we spent a delightful hour singing, laughing, standing, sitting and getting our groove on. We were then invited to tea Oh sorry the urn has exploded so instead we had water, OJ etc with nibbles. So good. A terrific afternoon. I joke about the way Kiris lyrics will no doubt stay inside our heads for the next few days. And then Im off. I know there is more to see and time is ticking by. Before I exit the building I enter the gallery space curated by Kevin. I was unsure if the gallery was opened or closed. It looked closed. I stand in the doorway, hoping and the door opens. Magic. Then a second door opens. And I enter a huge gallery space with community work hanging all around. The criteria for this exhibition was that anyone could submit, no judgement, no critical review. The result is an explosion of images, some magnificent, some colourful and alive. All of them wonderfully alive. I know I need to return with my camera to unpack our communitys message of peace and quiet. It is a dynamic space, a cacophony of shapes and colours. A place where artists could find enormous stimulation, and not just those who call themselves artists, but people who embrace the artistry of life.
I then slip out of the gallery, skip down the stairs (Im feeling good you can tell), pass the guard that I have now transformed into a delicious gnome, and I exit into the cool air. Now where is that program? I think and I turn right and head up to GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art, one of my favourite galleries in the world). And I stumble into the sister of an old friend. Do you have a program? and sure enough she does. Finally. My hunger for a program is satisfied and as I look through it I realise that I didnt need it at all. The whole day has been so beautifully curated that it would be hard to miss the gems. On the lawn in front of me, the space that separates GOMA and SLQ, lots of people sit listening to the band Verandah Chix. They were fabulous, singing up a storm. They told us they sung in 14 different languages! I spy the glorious Pauline Maudy who is one of Brisbanes strongest vocalists lined up with other powerful women I still need to meet. By this time Bill, my patient partner has joined me: he cycled from outer Brisbane where we live. I decide we need to create a house lantern, the main activity on the lawn apart from the fabulous entertainment. He prefers to sit and soak up the talent, so I make my way over to the art tables:
The activity was carefully planned challenging I cant do this! sort of thing. But the art workers on the tables were fabulously encouraging. Not so the young one next to me. I felt truly judged as my lantern-home well, it hit the dust more than a few times. And if I didnt keep my wits about me the glue stick would disappear in a jot. There goes the scissors wait!!!! And the sticky stuff damn So there I was standing there feeling like the whole world was against me making this thing these kids really know how to survive the craft table i can tell you. I need some lessons! After swallowing any pride I may have had and asking for substantial help, I finally did it! Windows in the wrong places, holes where holes should never be, but I did it. I stuck a tea light candle inside. Attached a bamboo stick and got out of there!
I found Bill, showed him my beautiful lantern and then sat and listened as the evening entertainment continued. Speeches came and went, welcoming us and announcing the year-long theme of Belonging. People listened,chatted, ate food (you could eat from the different food vans along the park: traditional food sold by Dale Chapman of Traditional Wellbeing, Muooz, Korean and The Curious Caravan). Children danced. Parents scolded, grandmothers moved with the music. Not over crowded, just right. Then it was time for the lantern parade. Kiris choir gathered (I did not. As a brand new sop, I thought I would serve the evening better recording what was going on so I could write to you all today) and sang the songs we had learned earlier in the day. The lanterns started moving across the stage:
The parade began with lanterns with the words that spelled out B E L O N G I N G glorious. Voices sang out in the now cool river air, children and prams and dads and uncles and aunts and mums and teenagers all moved with the parade, beautifully held by the choruss percussion and chanting. On arrival back in the internal courtyard,The Knowledge Walk, there was a wonderfully rich Welcome to Country, followed by two songs performed by the 1.15 hour long choir.
A wonderful day. A wonderful evening and one I will remember for some time. I know the library has lots of ideas for the rest of the year I know Ill be there, and before that I think I will take some craft lessons! No, Ill just show up and get the kids to help me. After they have moaned and giggled about how incapable I am, they will be terrific and guide me home we all belong.