www.bighart.org/projects/songs-for-freedom/

Songs for Freedom is an uplifting concert of original songs created by Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi artists in the Pilbara town of Roebourne WA. Alongside the concert is a campaign to highlight the high incarceration rates of Aboriginal children in Australian prisons. The concert and campaign will tour nationally in 2023.

It was an amazing experience to be involved in the Songs For Freedom tour in 2023, working alongside the amazing musicians in The Freedom Collective. Drawing from my residency in Roebourne in 2022, I aimed to create an abstract but meaningful visual world for the music and campaign messages to sit in front of. It was a privilege to be able to step into the Roebourne community with the trust built by Big hART over the last two decades - and to capture the beauty, and to be inspired by, the living culture and country in the Pilbara.

Since 2010, supported by Elders, the project has delivered workshops in the community, the school and the prison, creating digital content, music, theatre and performance to change the negative stories told about Roebourne. Songs for Freedom has its foundations in workshops involving the family of John Pat, who died in custody in 1983 and triggered the Royal Commission into deaths in custody.
• Aboriginal children are 24 times more likely than non-Aboriginal children to end up in jail.
• Of the six hundred 10-13 year olds in jail in 2018-19, 65% were Aboriginal.
• Aboriginal children spend on average 71 days in prison compared to 50 days for non-Aboriginal children.
• Evidence doesn’t support the idea that Aboriginal children commit more crimes, rather it highlights systemic issues such as over-policing.

Songs for Freedom is a moving and optimistic, family friendly, free concert, raising awareness of this urgent issue. Alongside the concert, Big hART is working with State and Federal Attorney Generals to change the systemic issues which lead to the damaging incarceration of young people like John Pat.

Songs for Freedom will work hand-in-hand with the community of Roebourne, to deliver a positive message to the country as a legacy to John Pat’s family by the 40th anniversary of his passing on September 28th 2023.

“ROEBOURNE ARTISTS BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER AT SONGS FOR FREEDOM CONCERT”
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN

Here are a selected of the pieces created for the concert, featuring particle work created in Touch Designer and Unreal Engine and composited in After Effects. I explored using video as the source for particle systems, including drone footage processed into point clouds.

TOURING DATES

Hobart – MONA FOMA – Thursday 23 February, 2023
Perth – Dyoondalup Point Walter  – Sunday 5 March. 2023
Darwin – Darwin Entertainment centre – Friday 23 June, 2023
Sydney – Barangaroo Reserve – Saturday 2 September, 2023
Canberra –  Llewellyn Hall (ANU) – Saturday 9 September 2023
Melbourne – Melbourne Recital centre – Friday 15 September, 2023
Roebourne – Ngurin Cultural Centre – Saturday 23 September, 2023