From the Sydney Festival program.  
Sydney Festival's vision for reconciliation is to formally and informally engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and communities, and to positively contribute to closing the gap between Indigenous and other Australians.

The Guide had the opportunity to email some questions to one of the Associate Producers, Georgia Mokak, about 2019’s First Nations program.  Georgia Mokak is a proud Djugun woman from Broome, grew up on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country in Canberra and is now based on Gadigal Country.

SAG:                 Thank you for taking the time to chat with us about the First Nations program for the Sydney festival.  There are so many vibrant activities for Festival goer to immerse in, from First Nations language classes to the campfire feel of Blak Box, aren’t there?

GEORGIA:     It’s super exciting to see such a spectrum of Blak arts in this year’s program. It is great to see some works that are really exciting and pushing boundaries around what defines First Nations art and encouraging important conversations and promoting a deeper understanding of Aboriginality today.

SAG:                    Performance-wise First Nations artists are presenting some thrilling  work, the diversity is amazing.  I’m greatly looking forward to Joel Bray’s solo dance work and any show by Ursula Yovich is a must-see.  Hard to pick a favourite I imagine?

GEORGIA:      It is always tricky to pick a favourite, especially if I haven’t seen the works yet.  After recently completing a personality test that came back with appreciation of beauty and excellence, kindness and fairness as my top three attributes, it’s fair to say that favouritism isn’t in my blood.  In saying that, I am always a strong supporter of local work.

I am really proud to see the majority of the Blak Out program supporting NSW based Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander works and companies including Baraya: Sing Up Country led by Nardi Simpson and Jacinta Tobin,  Ursula Yovich’s Man With the Iron Neck, Jacob Nash’s Always, Daniel Browning’s Blak Box project with local Blacktown elders and community members, Amrita Hepi’s The Ropes, Moogahlin Performing Arts’ Yellamundie and Henrietta Baird’s The Weekend.  

I am also always interested in learning from our brothers and sisters from across the world and am super excited for Canada’s Deer Woman and the development of The Future is Floating.  

SAG:             Can you tell us a little about the Sydney Festival’s Reconciliation Action Plan?

GEORGIA:     Sydney Festival is committed to four key areas that informs our vision and engagement.

• Respecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and cultures
• Offering employment opportunities to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• Offering development and presentation opportunities to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Artists and Arts workers
• Building Cultural Awareness and Understanding among our staff, stakeholders and audiences of the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories

SAG:                What Sydney Festival events do you suggest for parents who want their family to engage with First Nations works of art?

GEORGIA:     Language is how we share stories, and ultimately informs how we understand and see the world.  Knowledge in Aboriginal communities is passed down in a lot of ways, but primarily orally. Having our oral methods of sharing stripped away has had enormous impacts on our mob, that has taken nearly 250 years to start revitalising our languages that are all classified as endangered and currently losing around 1-2 languages each year, which is something that I learnt earlier this year from one of our collaborating artists, Lille Madden.   

It’s a responsibility of current and future generations, both First Nations and non-First Nations to start recognising this and start learning our languages and there are a number of ways in the 2019 program to engage with language.  Sign up for the Bayala courses across the city to learn from our local community leaders and language experts.  Experience Blak Box to listen in a purpose-built deep listening space and engage with the voices of local elders and future leaders.  Get amongst Spinifex Gum for a powerful and political conversation through song and music.

The Vigil will also be a special moment to take some time to reflect and have a yarn about what the evening before Invasion Day means for you, your family, your, friends, your community.  There will be performances and durational works and self-led experiences from dusk to dawn on the 25-26 January.

SAG:                Some of the partnerships for the Festival are really contextualising First Nations history, I’m thinking UTS’ Big Thinking Forum and Bayala: Out of the Vaults at the State Library.  Can you see this type of event becoming more widespread in future festivals?

GEORGIA:     It would be fantastic to see this sort of engagement that Sydney Festival practices more widely spread across future festivals.  I also think these programs need to go a step further. It would be great to see more institutions offering more support through regular access and engagement to these sorts of programs and opportunities throughout the year.

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