Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I start on the subject that I wish to talk about, I would like to congratulate the Labor Party on winning the New South Wales state election last Saturday because, from what we have heard, you would actually think that we did not win.

I rise tonight to highlight to the Senate Tasmania’s premier cultural event, Ten Days on the Island, which is unfolding as I speak. I had much pleasure in attending the launch of the event back in November of last year, with the official program of events kicking off last Friday and running through until 1 April. This year marks the fourth instalment of the biennial event and promises to be the most far-reaching and exciting yet, boasting a host of new commissions and world and Australian premieres to be held in 50 cities and regional sites across Tasmania.

The festival, which includes public displays of various different forms of artistic and cultural expression, such as dance, theatre and music, is to be a celebration of island culture and the uniqueness associated with living on an island such as Tasmania. The festival’s program includes performances and contributions from performers and artists from islands all around the globe, such as Cape Verde, Sardinia, Ireland, Newfoundland, Manhattan and New Zealand—people who have shared the unique experience of living and working on an island.

The festival is aimed at celebrating and exploring the uniqueness of island life by showcasing an array of local, national and international forms of cultural expression, all of which have been developed within the context of ‘the island’. The Tasmanian government has provided $2 million in funding for the festival, demonstrating its commitment to the arts, local communities and tourism in the state. During the last festival, in 2005, over 100,000 people attended the events in over 82 different venues around the state. Over 60 per cent of the audiences during that festival came from outside the towns in which the events were held, with 19 per cent coming from interstate and three per cent from overseas. Thus, the festival not only takes various performances and artists to local communities around the state; it also stimulates tourism and investment in such areas.

With ‘getting off the beaten track’ being the focus of this year’s festival, it promises to be bigger and better than ever with events scheduled in 50 towns across the state in all 29 local government areas. What an achievement! Events have been scheduled to take place in picturesque towns all over the state, such as Cygnet in the south, Bridport in the north-east and the lovely town of Stanley in the north-west of the state, which is Senator’s Parry’s area.

Anyone who has had the pleasure of visiting such places will know what a fantastic backdrop they provide for the scheduled events. Stanley, for example, with its rich geographical and historical landscape, provides the perfect setting in which to experience and explore the cultural and artistic elements associated with island life. The festival’s director, Elizabeth Walsh, said that one of her aims in organising this year’s festival was to ‘shine a light on Tasmania and its creative spirit, promoting our treasures across the globe and inviting artists from other islands to share their stories’. Indeed, guest international artists will join hundreds of local and interstate singers, actors, musicians, writers, filmmakers, dancers, puppeteers and visual artists whose stories of island culture, both modern and ancient, promise to inspire, challenge and delight audiences throughout Ten Days on the Island.

The festival opened on Friday with audiences in their thousands attending events all over the island. An estimated 10,000 people have already crowded into Salamanca Place to witness the Salamanca Arts Centre celebrate its 30th birthday with the world premiere season of the theatre spectacular ‘Dream Masons’. The decadent performing arts centre Crystal Palace, which was a hit at the last festival with 9,000 people watching performances in its lavish interior, is back again. However, this time it has been erected in the Princes Wharf area—instead of Parliament House Lawns, as has been the case in previous years—to cater for a bigger program of events. The Crystal Palace, which comes from New Zealand, has an interior that showcases Pacific Islander designs. It contains intimate booths, a circular dance floor and ornate glass designs. It will host performances by artists such as Christine Anu, David Walters, Paul Capsis, Mikelangelo and local artists such as Fabio Chivhanda, Cary Lewincamp, Esuko Sakai and the Red Hot Roosters.

The festival has attracted a number of superior quality international acts, such as Duane Andrews and Simona Salis. Duane Andrews, a jazz-folk guitarist from the island of Newfoundland, was named the instrumental artist of the year at Canada’s 2006 East Coast Music Awards. Singer-songwriter Simona Salis, from the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, will perform in her Australian debut.

Local acts such as the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Tasdance will demonstrate the immense artistic talent that continues to emerge from my home state. Tasdance, which has been described by Dance Australia as the ‘best dance ensemble in Australia’, and New Zealand contemporary dance choreographer Raewyn Hill have been involved in the creation of Ten Days on the Island’s first international dance co-commission, ‘Mercy: a dance for the forgotten’, which explores the universal themes of imprisonment and death, which are deeply rooted in Tasmania’s convict past and in the many repressive regimes that continue to exist around the world.

There will be other events and displays as part of the festival, including the project ‘Isle of Plenty’, which comprises site specific landscape installations of some scale, in the regional towns of Lillico, Cygnet and Bridport, which reflect and celebrate identity, people and place. For example, Hut Culture, by Nicholas Goodwolf, in the traditional apple-growing town of Cygnet, reconstructs an apple pickers’ village and celebrates the people, produce and tradition. Cygnet recently held a re-enactment of the culturally pivotal Apple Festival and the iconic Apple Queen float and parade as part of Ten Days on the Island.

These types of events allow the locals, as well as visitors to regional towns such as Cygnet, the opportunity to explore the unique cultural heritage of the towns. The Knitting Room exhibition, which opened in Moonah on Saturday, is another good example. Depicting memories from the 1950s, the exhibition involves remembering the elements of daily life from the era by converting them into domestic objects, large and small, through the traditional skills of knitting. The ‘waste nothing’ philosophy attributed to the era has led to the production of colourful floor rugs and an assortment of wall coverings, all made from odds and ends of scrap wool. The Knitting Room is the result of a four-year collaborative project and has evolved into one of the country’s leading community arts projects. It involves residents of residential care homes, their families, their friends and regional community groups.

In essence, the festival is all about bringing members of the community together to share in celebrating the island’s cultural heritage and uniqueness. It allows locals to be drawn together to acknowledge their common ties. It also allows interstate and overseas visitors to admire and associate with the Tasmanian experience. With rapid globalisation bringing a sense of sameness and universality to modern life, festivals and events such as Ten Days on the Island remind and encourage people to celebrate the aspects of their lives and experiences that make them different.

Ten Days on the Island prompts people to acknowledge and recognise as part of their experience the remoteness, the intense community bonds—for better or for worse—and the rich geographical and historical heritage of island life. Tasmania, I am proud to say, is fast establishing itself as an artistic and cultural mecca. Other events, such as the Taste of Tasmania, are drawing increasing crowds of visitors—local, interstate and overseas.

Events including national and international talent are becoming a regular feature on the Tasmanian events calendar. Large-scale music festivals, such as the Falls Festival and the up-and-coming Southern Roots Festival, are attracting a number of national and international artists. Such events cater for and fulfil the entertainment needs of Tasmania’s younger population. Judging by the Falls Festival attendance figures over the last couple of years, such events have provided a welcome change for the state’s youth.

Things are going ahead, and the state is beginning to acknowledge and embrace its isolation from mainland Australia as a positive rather than a negative. This turnaround is reflected in the ever-increasing number of tourists visiting the state and the increasing number of people looking to invest in its future. Most importantly, it is reflected in the generally positive attitude of the Tasmanian people, who are proud of their state and optimistic about the future. Festivals such as Ten Days on the Island have very much facilitated such an attitude and contributed to the state’s increasing prosperity. The festival is running until 1 April, and I would encourage all Tasmanians to get involved with the activities and events taking place in their local areas. I would also encourage interstate visitors to take advantage of the unique experiences on offer.