WELCOME TO THE WINTER ENEWS FOR THE AUSTRALIAN YOUTH PERFORMING ARTS INDUSTRY. LET’S KICK OFF WITH SOME TIMELY QUESTIONS FROM ALICE CADWELL, SPAGHETTI CIRCUS.
Three months since the floods ravaged the Bundjalung country Northern Rivers of NSW, not once but twice, and we are still experiencing the devastation. The challenges of climate change are fresh, real and unavoidable. Pre covid we experienced the extreme bushfires in our area; it was the last time the Mullumbimby Music Festival played to packed houses, with smoke-filled skies. These times seem like a distant memory of a time long past, yet somehow so fresh and raw. We measure flood recovery in years, not months.
On Monday, 28 February, the Mullumbimby Showgrounds, Spaghetti Circus’s home, sheds, containers, and vehicles were underwater with half a metre to a metre of water, mud and muck. Before then, like artists around the country, we had canceled our festivals, shows and tours. The vaccine mandates divided our small community, but the floods brought us together.
The floods have taught us that together we are stronger; we need to ask for and accept help. We need to listen deeply to the country we live on and our elders who go before us.
It’s an incredibly humbling and gratifying experience to know that our community loves our organisation. Artists, friends, families and communities rallied to support us; we helped each other. Because of charitable funds raised with allies like The Garden of Unearthly Delights, Brunswick Picture House, Aerial Angels and many others, we were able to offer flood scholarships to flood-affected families. The Spaghetti kids turned up daily for six weeks to clean, scrub and rebuild.
We are also human; we make mistakes, get back up and keep going.
