08:30am

Registration

09:30am

WelcomeUncle Stephen Williams
Violet Roumeliotis, CEO Settlement Services International (SSI)
Nikita Karvounis, Acting Director Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre

10:00am

Keynote: Artist in Focus Guo Jian, an exhibiting artist in Refugees, will share his views about the relationship between art practice and the notions of identity, exile and displacement.

10:30am

Morning tea

11:00am

Against the clock!
In three 10-minute presentations, speakers will endeavour to give a brief overview of their subject area before the clock runs out.

#1: War Child – a book presentation
Speaker: Annette Janic

#2: Heartdancers: Bringing Aboriginal and refugee artists together
Speakers: Sandra Morales and Binowee Bayles

#3: Strength and Resilience: An intergenerational oral history approach to refugee narratives. Speaker: Tim Carroll, Bankstown Youth Development Service

11:30am

The dialectics of displacement: aesthetics, encounters and community arts practice

The opening panel will seek to answer questions including: what are newly arrived artists interested in creating? How are artists from refugee and non-refugee backgrounds creatively and critically exploring the refugee experience? How should their work be labelled, if at all? And, what protocols and ethical considerations are ­– or should be – put in place when creatively engaging with refugee communities and artists? 
Speakers: Hani Abdile, Ali Mousawi, Tina Posunkina, Katie Green, Safdar Ahmed, Hussein Nabeel, Dr Omid Tofighian (Facilitator)

01:00pm

Lunch

02:00pm

Mother’s Spice – A case study of community creativity
Producers, artist facilitators and community-based performers engaged in the Mother’s Spice project –an initiative by Information and Cultural Exchange I.C.E. – will examine the process required to produce a community-focused performance (and culinary arts) project, driven by the experiences of refugee and migrant women in Australia. Speakers: Eddie Abd, Yamane Fayed and Mouna Zaylah.

02:45pm

Origin-Transit-Destination: The challenges and obligations of non-refugee artists creating work with refugee artists.
Through a frank and open discussion, this session will explore the challenges artists and producers faced while creating Origin-Transit-Destination – a mobile performance the Australian Performance Exchange created in collaboration with people from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran who have sought asylum. Speakers: Annemaree Dalziel, Sally Sussman and participating artists.

3:30pm

Afternoon tea

4:00pm

Breakout sessions

Breakout one: The Confined Hearts Project (90 min)
Join artist Penny Ryan in a hands-on exploration of her latest project making small terracotta human hearts – one for each person in detention on Manus Island and Naru 

Breakout two: Storytelling through photography (45 min)
Can still image render the wholeness of the experience of seeking asylum? Join freelance photographer Nadine Koroleva as she seeks to answer this question and more.

Breakout three: Beyond Refuge (45 min)
The Beyond Refuge project supports young and older artists with lived experience as refugees, or as children of refugees, to build their original artistic projects. Participating western Sydney artists will discuss their experiences in the project, a CuriousWorks three-year initiative. 

Breakout four: Oral storytelling and the refugee community (45 min)
Wollongong-based storyteller Lillian Rodrigues-Pang will share the structure of her storytelling approach and the role it can play in the refugee community. 

Breakout five: How can artists covertly express critical thought under repressive circumstances? (45 min)
Iranian-Australian artist Mojgan Habibi – a ceramic and sculpture PhD candidate – will discuss the ways in which hidden meaning in artistic work can provide hope for everyday people in times of political repression.

5:30pm

Yarning Circle
Australian-Chilean brother and sister, Guido Gonzalez and Karina Gonzalez and young artistic members of CuriousWorks’ Beyond Refuge project invite local artists, singers, storytellers, listeners and all people with rich life experience to an open story circle for an hour of sharing. This format honours the Yarning Circle of First Nations Elders, creating a place to gather, to sing, to share stories, around a campfire. CuriousWorks will invite some pre-arranged community speakers to kick things off and then anyone is free to step up to the circle to speak, sing, dance and share. Short, sweet, deep, funny, real – all stories are welcome in the circle.