It was a full house at Armagh for the community dinner to celebrate the grand finale film screening of Weaving Three Stories.
More than 65 people joined us on Thursday 25 June, almost a third of them first timers, in a night filled with extraordinary community spirit, creativity and generosity.
Guests were treated to spoken word poetry, song, film, Indigenous art pop ups and books. They were nourished with a delicious selection of multicultural dishes from all over the world, washed down with Stevie Thorpe’s handcrafted lemon myrtle drink.
A proud Gunnai, Gundjitmara, Yorta Yorta and Palawa man, social enterprise adviser to Barrbunin Beek Aboriginal Gathering Place and cultural adviser and program provider to IofCA, Stevie’s bespoke Acknowledgment of Country invited guests to tune in and feel the connection to this land ‘as our mother.’
‘We acknowledge that for the last 250 years there’s been the colonial story, the multicultural story, tremendous growth of technology and everything else that’s happened in this period. But from an Indigenous perspective there’s been the dispossession and destruction of Aboriginal culture, language, ceremony and dance.
‘So this is an opportunity to celebrate our culture and all the different ways it’s emerging, as well as the amazing things like the Treaty that’s happening currently in Victoria.’
Weaving Three Stories paid tribute to Noel Pearson’s naming of the three stories making up one Australia: the fuller expression of our nationhood through the ancient Indigenous foundation story, recognising and reconciling the ongoing impacts of British colonisation since 1788, and resolving difference by uniting in diversity through the gift of multicultural migration.
When filmmaker Mike Woods was thanked for his huge effort on the film, he said he was only holding up a mirror to IofCA, ‘a unique community of heart-centred changemakers.’
A raffle raised a thrilling $720 to support weaving, bush tucker and bush medicine workshops linked to the food, fibre and medicine garden at Barrbunin Beek.
Prizes were a bush food cooking lesson with Stevie Thorpe (also a chef), a ticket for two to The Elements that Connect Us: Sound Healing and Country with Stevie Thorpe and Romy Paltoglou, and an Always Was Always Will be Multicultural tee shirt.
The dinner began with Board chair Quynh-Tram Trinh acknowledging the gift of Armagh and IofCA’s mission to build trust across the world, as well as a strong, prosperous and peaceful Australia.
‘I’m one of those millions who make up the third story in the Indigenous, colonial and multiculturalism stories of Weaving Three Stories‘ she said.
The evening closed with a memorable goosebump moment when Quynh-Tram sang a traditional Vietnamese folk song, capturing the reverence she felt when first coming to Armagh as a cultural ambassador 35 years ago.
– Wendy Milsom and Sarah Naarden
The next community dinner will take place on Thursday 27 August at Armagh. Watch out for details in our weekly newsletter. Subscribe.