Suai Media Space

The Cultural Development Network and the City of Melbourne are presenting their first free public forum for 2011 ‘Home… Lands?’ on Wednesday 23 March, 2.00pm-5.00pm.

Constructing home and identity with young people from refugee backgrounds through media and technology.

This forum seeks to address issues arising from young people’s use of technology in construction of identity and home in a new country. Can re-settlement of young people from refugee backgrounds be more successful if identification and communication with home communities is maintained? How can technology assist with this?

Speakers:
Prof. Sandy Gifford & Dr. Raelene Wilding, La Trobe University Refugee Research Centre
Dave Nguyen, Artist
Jennifer Hughes, Digital Artist and Documentary Maker
Shakthi Sivanathan, CuriousWorks, Sydney

Wednesday 23 March, 2:00 – 5:00 pm
Blue Room, Multicultural Arts Hub, 506 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne
Registration:

Admission is free, but for catering purposes, RSVP via www.trybooking.com/LDN

How fantastic it was to see Shirley Shackleton receive the Walkley Book Award for her book The Circle of Silence – A personal testimony before, during and after Balibo, last night in front of Australia’s finest journalists.  Shirley has been writing articles about justice and the Balibo Five’s murder and cover up in East Timor for over thirty years. She set up a scholarship for journalists to study in the U.S. which saw several of our leading journalists educated through it. The Circle of Silence tells the story of the impact of the murder of the Balibo Five on Shirley and her family and the subsequent struggle against gigantic odds to inform people in this country as well as around the world about what was going on in East Timor. The roughshod treatment she received from the

Government and the television station who employed Shackleton following the journalists disappearance is eye opening stuff. Not always popular with local activists for her abrasive warts and all style,  her voice was the one that often cut through when others’ didn’t and she showed the courage of a true giant of democracy and truth putting aside the cost to her personally.  I highly recommend the book as a good read. Published by Murdoch Books.
In her speech Shirley said she ‘wanted to put down what I know to have happened so it’s on the record’.  She also called for help to pressure the Indonesian Government to send the bodies of the journalists. home. It seems at 78 Shirley still has unfinished business.

Chamot is the most active and talented student of video production to come out of YoMaTre. Training he had with Engage Media last year is paying off. He has posted a short documentary piece about women doing the Tebe Dai a beautiful traditional dance on the Engage Media site. You can download a high quality version for viewing on your computer or burning to a DVD.

You can see the video of the Tebe Dai here and download it or read more about it.

It appears Chamot has ideas of starting up an off-shoot video production company under the banner of Komunidade Arte Audio Visual Kamanasa employing his natural graphic art skills to produce this graphic for the top.

It’s not just East Timor that has problems with Woodside. The residents of Broome came out recently to protest against Woodside’s plan to process oil on the beautiful and pristine James Price Point, one of the few places in Australia where one can imagine living on this earth without our footprint. I stayed there in August 2010 and saw it for myself.

Group Model Comik was made by Ferdy using iMovie, a digital still camera and Dili Allstars Song – Liberdade.