After conducting the Living Arts & Culture portfolio project in 2018-2019 which profiled 33 Aboriginal artists across the region, Outback Arts are thrilled to release the next aspect of this extensive program, Living Arts & Culture: ‘Our Stories’.
Delivering on the aspirations of the Aboriginal community in the Outback Arts region, ‘Our Stories’ delves deeper into the artistic and cultural practices of six artists.
Using videography and creative delivery methods to record and share stories, identifying how their artwork and cultural practices are inspired by the landscape and how their work connects with Country.
Sincere gratitude and respect to the artists, knowledge holders and custodians who have shared their stories and time to create this series.
OUR STORIES
OUTBACK OUTLOUD
Outback Outloud is a community podcast and oral history recording project by Outback Arts, delivered in partnership with Signal Creative.
The major outcome of Outback Outloud is a fully developed podcast series available on all major listening platforms. All community members are encouraged to come along and record their stories. These recordings are unique perspectives, 100% unscripted, and are the greatest stories never told.
This project also involves free community workshop sessions where attendees learn to use accessible tools to record their own stories and interview others in their community.
The early response to the podcast has been extremely heart-warming. Hearing local stories in this format has brought many listeners nearly to tears as they beam with pride. Outback Outloud will strengthen connections between people, teach the value of listening to each other and will promote a greater understanding that everyone’s story matters.
LIVING ARTS AND CULTURE
Living Arts and Culture is a project delivered by Outback Arts that celebrates the stories of Aboriginal cultural knowledge holders and artists living across the Far Western NSW communities of Bourke, Brewarrina, Cobar, Coonamble, Lightning Ridge, Walgett, Warren, and Nyngan. It showcases their cultural practices through storytelling, music and art making practices, sharing the stories of their challenges and triumphs in life.
The project holds strength in the honesty and depth of stories, with artists coming from many different nations and language groups. Just as the artists come together in this project so too does the theory and lived experience of art being a cultural way of life. Living Arts and Culture is not a comprehensive manifesto of all the practising Aboriginal artists of the region; rather it is a snapshot of the extraordinary contribution these artists are making to the rich cultural landscape of the region. The project has stimulated conversation and celebrated the positive effects of cultural practices within community.