Perth Voice Interactive

WHILE Aboriginal actors occasionally make it onto our TVs and movie screens, Aboriginal producers and directors on the other side of the camera are even more rare.

Murray Street-based Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company’s looking to change that, launching a crowdfunding campaign to get young trainees Shakara Walley and Ian Wilkes into a 12-month program so they can be the next generation’s auteurs.

“There is a shortage of Aboriginal people in leadership roles in the areas of producing, directing, production and project management,” Yirra Yaakin’s artistic director Kyle Morrison says.

Crowdfunding involves asking public for cash to get a project off the ground. Originally used to source cash for tech start-ups it’s increasingly used by underfunded sectors, and even schools (North Perth primary crowdfunded new play equipment).

Yirra Yaakin’s asking the public for $10,000, and every buck gets matched by Creative Partnership’s Australia.

“Our current resources are stretched to the limit as we struggle to maintain our core programs,” Mr Morrison says.

“We are reaching out to the community and asking them to join us in supporting Shakara and Ian so they have the opportunity to achieve at the highest level. They represent the next level of Aboriginal arts leadership, they are our future.”

Their page is at http://www.pozible.com/project/193834 and so far they’ve got around $1000 with the campaign wrapping up May 28.

by DAVID BELL

 

SCOUTING is booming in Perth, with so many kids desperate to sign up that Scouts WA is scrambling to find enough scout halls and volunteers.

Subiaco has a four-year waiting list for the woggle while the West Perth troop is looking for a new hall after the building it used was sold (it can stay till development gets under way).

“There’s no doubt that people want their kids to come into scouts, but we’ve got groups that are absolutely full,” Scouts group development manager James Maughmer told the Voice.

Scouts WA chief commissioner Larry Lucas says the organisation desperately needs more adults willing to help plan events and activities, supervise and fundraise.

He says volunteering provides busy parents with a great way to socialise while spending time with their kids.

As for the scout hall shortage, Mr Maughmer says “councils are not building halls in the way they used to”.

Instead of big spaces with sturdy floors and plenty of room to store gear, councils these days build “multi-purpose” function rooms that don’t always stand up to the rigours of scout games or crafting activities. Leases are shorter too, with the uncertainty preventing big retrofits.

Open spaces surrounding halls where scouts once did outdoor activities have been increasingly filled in with houses, shops and carparks.

Mr Lucas says the Barnett government’s directions 2031 blueprint—which aims to grow Perth by 500,000 new residents over the next 16 years—must include facilities and open space for activities like scouting.

“There’s a lot of change, there’s change everywhere and we understand that, but where are the kids going to go?” he asks.

He acknowledges the days of scouts having exclusive use of halls are “gone”. “We’re looking to partner with other organisations to share space,” he says.

If you’re looking to volunteer (or have a tip for a scout hall anywhere between West Perth and Mt Hawthorn) get in touch with Mr Maughmer on 6240 7712.

The organisation provides a certificate 3 training in business and volunteering will take up about four hours a week. And you’ll need police clearance to work with children.

by DAVID BELL

RESIDENTS face being slugged a 3.5 per cent rates rise if Bayswater council can’t recoup the $1.2 million it spent on the Barnett government’s aborted mergers process, a local councillor warns.

“There is a big hole in the budget now,” Cr Mike Anderton says.

“Pensioners will not be able to afford another three per cent plus on their rates.”

The council voted to spend up to $2000 on lawyers to see if it has a case in pursuing the state government for costs.

Cr Mike Sabatino says two grand won’t go far and “lawyers always tell you you have a good case”.

Mayor Sylvan Albert says Morley Liberal MP Ian Britza has spoken to WA local government minister Tony Simpson on behalf of the city. • 

“Legal action is a last resort,” the former Liberal state candidate for Maylands told councillors.

“We should wait and see how we progress with the lobbying options first. We have spoke to several MPs.”

WALGA has offered to coordinate a legal action for several councils, but Cr Barry McKenna says Bayswater should go it alone.

“We were the only council that went along with the mergers,” he says.

“We can’t be accused of rolling over to the state government without asking questions.

“Otherwise, they might only compensate those governments who criticised them and made a political point.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

A THIEF who hates the sound of children’s laughter has stolen one of the bronze Gumnut Baby sculptures from the CBD’s Stirling Gardens.

The two sculptures were installed a decade ago, inspired by May Gibbs’ characters Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and symbolic of the animals and trees that had lived in the gardens.

“Someone has cut through four steel anchors to remove it,” lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi notes.

“I’m sure someone must have driven past at the time and seen someone with those tools trying to cut it out of the ground.”

She’s calling for the return of the gumnut baby saying “the city is devastated by this unacceptable act of criminal behaviour”.

Stealing or vandalising art is an occasional pastime of Perth’s denizens, who also recently nicked the animal heads off the Perth GPO. Earlier this year goons snapped the Chen Wen Ling sculpture off its plinth on Vincent Street (after an entire sculpture was nicked from Sculpture by the Sea in 2012), and Ms Scaffidi once saw kids throwing jellyfish at the Claisebrook Cove boat sculpture.

Anyone with info on the gumnut babby should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

by DAVID BELL

FEDERAL and state MPs are backing a residents’-led campaign calling on Bayswater council to fly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags all year round.

Currently the flags fly only during national reconciliation week and NAIDOC.

The Maylands ratepayers and residents association says it’s not good enough.

“The flags are flown all year round at other local WA governments, including Bassendean, Melville and just recently Rockingham,” says MRRA member Jan Wheare.

“In the eastern states the Koori people are acknowledged with flags in council chambers too, alongside our national flag.

“As has been said ‘if Australia does not acknowledge its indigenous history then it has only half a face.’”

Mayor Sylvan Albert is unconvinced and wants only the national, state and city flags on the daily roster.

“The city believes that reserving the flag for these important occasions will promote greater understanding of indigenous people and culture,” he says.

“The city follows the protocol determined by the department of the prime minister and cabinet.”

Clare Goodall, the convenor of the East Metro reconciliation group, says a 2013 petition asking the council to appoint an Aboriginal liaison officer was also unsuccessful.

“I think the flags would be a great way of promoting relationships and harmony across the community,” she says.

“It would be a real olive branch.”

Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker says the council has made progress with indigenous recognition, but it still has gaps.

“Residents have been waiting for three years for indigenous art pieces to be added to the entry of the Maylands Rise,” she notes.

“Last year on behalf of Maylands residents I successfully lobbied the city to include a plaque recognising WA’s indigenous war heroes on ANZAC centopahs.”

The flags proposal is backed by federal Perth Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan.

“Given the recent uncertainty over remote Aboriginal communities in WA, this would be a great gesture,” she says.

“There is a long way to go in the reconciliation process.”

East Metro Liberal MLC Donna Faragher did not return the Voice’s call.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

ARTISTS across Perth have garages full of paintings, sculptures and other strange creations, all because they never get around to selling them.

Mt Lawley painter Sioux Tempestt says many artists are so immersed in the creative process they can neglect the more worldly side of the business and hardly ever make a buck from their work.

When she started the Uncharted Collective as a shopfront for local artists’ and artisans’ work, she had a huge response from people wanting to get their work out there: the studio opened up on Beaufort Street last week and items from 40-odd creators were represented.

Ms Tempestt, who’s spent 20 years as a graphic designer by day to support toiling on her art by night, says she had so many people keen on getting in she had to carefully curate to make sure the place retained an edgy theme.

Ms Tempestt says there are not many places for working artists to display their work, who are yet to reach Jackon Pollock prices.

The Beaufort Street art market further south is one such venue, which has have proved a good place for budding artists and students to sell wares on the weekend and some are making a great trade there, but it’s only on once a month.

Many artists Ms Tempestt has on board are Perth locals but there’s also a few from the country, where it’s especially hard to get pieces on display for sale: country artists can find themselves out of luck if the Quairading hall committee won’t hang paintings because there’s a boob on display.

“There’s some fantastic stuff out there [in the country],” Ms Tempestt says. “Some of them are self-taught, and a lot of artists are completely overqualified, so you get mix of both.”

And while there’s a bit of divide in the arts community over whether you can be an “artist” if you don’t have a degree in fine arts, Ms Tempestt says for her collective it’s not relevant and you don’t have to present a degree to get some shelf space.

Once she’s settled in, Ms Tempestt wants to hold art workshops in the space, and you can keep an eye on that at http://www.facebook.com/UnchartedCollective

by DAVID BELL

LABOR’S Alannah MacTiernan (right) will hold a meeting on the NBN at Bassendean community centre on April 1—no, it’s not a joke.

The federal MP is pushing for local suburbs including Bedford, East Perth, Inglewood, Maylands, Morley, Mt Lawley, Highgate and North Perth to receive fibre-to-the-home broadband, as Labor had proposed when it first started rolling out the NBN.

The Abbott government has abandoned free FTTH, citing higher cost, and is rolling out a mixed-technology NBN which it says will be sufficient.

Suburbs once slated for FTTH are now slated for fibre-to-the-node (a box in the street), with copper connecting homes to the node. “Many households are unable to connect to basic ADSL 2 speeds, and in some cases are unable to even have reliable voice service,” Ms MacTiernan says.

“A large part of the current problem is due to the appalling state of the copper wire.

“It is inconceivable that this copper infrastructure could deliver high speed broadband through the fibre-to-the-node fraudband model proposed by minister Turnbull.”

Labor shadow assistant minister Michelle Rowland will attend the meeting.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

MOUNT HAWTHORN will have its own streets and laneways festival, following the runaway success of similar events in Beaufort and Angove Streets.

Community organisation Mt Hawthorn Hub and Vincent city council are planning for about 20,000 to come down for the inaugural event on May 3. They’ve mapped out terrain from the Cabin to Axford Park and are snaking out into the alleyways like Anvil Lane, Fairway Street and the Mezz.

While Beaufort Street has trended towards a music festival, up in Mount Hawthorn they’re going for a bit of a village fayre feel with traders rolling out into the streets and laneways.

by DAVID BELL

SPORTING clubs in Bayswater who lease buildings on council land will now get free rubbish removal.

Cr Alan Radford, who pushed for the move, says clubs will save more than $300 a year.

“It will help struggling clubs who already pay a lot of money for electricity and other utility bills,” he says. “Plus it will indirectly get more people exercising and off their iPads.”

Over the past decade, spiralling maintenance costs on old buildings and plummeting membership have put pressure on clubs to merge and become more self-sufficient.

In 2013, then-mayor Terry Kenyon ordered a review of bowling and tennis clubs which lease buildings from the council at subsidised—in some cases negligible—rates.

Council has since voted to drop the preparation of a report on amalgamations and closures, but has asked clubs to present finances in person each year.

The free rubbish policy will cost the city $15,000.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK