Details
Date: February – March 2024
Location: Echuca
Fund: Quick Response Grants – Regional Arts Fund
Grant amount: $3,000
Why was this project supported? It had community focus at its core.
What part of this project was funded? This grant funded a portion of artist fees, travel costs and cultural consultant.
Project
Forming a Rivers Edge is the result of a newly formed creative collaboration between Maggie Ellis, Rhae Kendrigan and Kris Tito. Presented as part of the Shepparton Festival, it offered a creative place-based exploration of Loch Garry Wetlands in Bunbartha – a small community outside Shepparton.
Maggie Ellis, Rhae Kendrigan and Kris Tito met through the Borders Project – a creative recovery project exploring the Murray River. Over the last two years they have been investigating their relationship to the river via place-based research and Body Weather (embodied movement) methodologies.
In April 2024, the artists spent six days in residence at the local Bunbartha Community Centre and Wetlands, which included connecting with the Yorta Yorta community, and visiting the Wetlands with Elders.
The project then facilitated an open studio gathering for local community/festival audiences to connect with research, participate in informal yarning circles to share stories. It also included a 5-hour workshop at Loch Garry Wetlands, with gentle movement/drawing based provocations, activities/tasks made up of accessible forms of Body Weather.
Through this ‘collective research’ the artists created a new performance work to be showcased as part of the festival program. The Wetlands and surrounding communities have been heavily impacted by recent flooding of the Goulburn River. As part of Forming a Rivers Edge, the artists held an event especially for Bunbartha locals, with support from local Council’s Flood Recovery officers and Wellways Shepparton. Community members had the opportunity to share stories and connect in a safe caring environment.
