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Community

CAN’s program of community-led artistic and creative projects has been designed to transform lives and leave communities stronger.

Lullabies Belmont

Lullabies

Belmont

CAN’s award-winning music, art and language program, Noongar Lullabies is coming to Belmont!

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Now Sounds Hedland

Now Sounds

Hedland

Now Sounds Hedland is an intercultural dance, music and digital media project working with young people from First Nations and multicultural communities in the Pilbara town of Hedland.

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All Projects

Past Projects
High VisAbility

PROJECT

High VisAbility

Co-presented by CAN and Sir David Brand School (SDBS), High VisAbility is a project about possibility and hope.

Designed to give students with disabilities the opportunity to collaborate with professional artists to create artwork for public exhibition, High VisAbility enables students and their teachers, families and carers to see pathways into the arts for people with disabilities.

Yamatji artist Mandy White, an artist with lived experience of disability, and South African/Persian artist Natalie Scholtz will co-lead workshops for students with disabilities, to create artworks. A photographer will document the journey and take photographic portraits of the students to celebrate them as artists.

The artworks created in the workshops will be digitised and collaged, ready for display in an exhibition at the 2024 Awesome Festival.

Now Sounds

PROJECT

Now Sounds

Now Sounds is an intercultural dance, music, spoken word and video project that brings together young people from First Nations and multicultural communities in locations across the state.

Produced by CAN in collaboration with a renowned team of artists and youth workers, Now Sounds provides space for young participants to develop skills across a range of dynamic art forms, including beat-making, lyric-writing and rapping, dance, choreography and performance.

The inaugural Now Sounds project was led by artists Optamus, Flewnt, Mubanga Culture, Anesu and Jayla Davey in 2022, alongside film producer Bernice Jiang. This powerhouse artistic team worked with young people from Kununura, Canning and Stirling to create and release an original track and music video, entitled Your Way.

In 2023, CAN is taking Now Sounds to Hedland alongside returning artists Optamus, Flewnt and Mubanga Culture.

Now Sounds connects young people of diverse backgrounds with content that is cross-cultural and multilingual, building intercultural friendships and celebrating the experiences and ambitions of Western Australia’s diverse communities.

Place Names Melville

PROJECT

Place Names Melville

Weaving together community-held knowledge and academic research, Place Names uncovers and unpacks the original meanings of Noongar placenames in the City of Melville, and harnesses contemporary art forms to celebrate Noongar language, heritage and culture.

In 2022 the first phase of Place Names Melville saw CAN, Moodjar and the City of Melville work with local Elders and First Nations community members to decode and creatively explore 3 place names: Goolugatup (Heathcote), Willagee and Jenalup (Blackwall Reach). The process began with a cultural mapping process inspired by walks on Country, and culminated with the creation of multi-layered, multi-media collaborative artworks and poems capturing the community’s connection to boodjar.

This innovative partnership model is continuing in 2023-2024, with Phase II of Place Names Melville. Building upon the success of Phase I in 2022, the project partners secured additional funding from Lotterywest to continue this important work.

Lullabies

PROJECT

Lullabies

Since 2017 CAN has worked with Noongar artists, Elders and their families to shape the Lullabies program, reviving Noongar language through stories, music and song. Lullabies focuses on the creation and recording of original songs, written and performed in language by the Noongar community.

Songwriting, dollmaking and yarning have enhanced the understanding and sharing between generations, eliciting songs that honour family stories, memories and connections. More than 50 original songs have been written and recorded as a part of the Lullabies program, each song enabling the next generation to form a deeper connection to their language, culture, and community.

With each face-to-face ‘edition’ of Lullabies – at Midvale, Collie, Bunbury, Mandurah, Northam and Belmont – CAN has partnered with local community organisations such as child care centres and the South West Aboriginal Medical Service to support Noongar families to participate. In 2020, Lullabies online offered another way of delivering this unique and much-loved program.

All songbooks and albums produced during the project are available free of charge and available to view/listen to online via the project links below.

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Place Names

PROJECT

Place Names

Harnessing contemporary art forms to celebrate Noongar language, heritage and culture, Place Names combines community-held knowledge with academic rigour to unpack the original meanings behind Noongar placenames.

Inspired by Len Collard’s seminal research which highlights that every Noongar placename is a sentence often describing a place’s meaning, CAN and Moodjar Consultancy have developed a community-led model that decodes the ancient meanings embedded in placenames, through artistic expression. The process puts Noongar knowledge at the forefront, drawing on local Elders’ language and memories as primary sources, while drawing on historical documents and wordlists created by European settlers, to uncover the meaning of the placename.

Working through this model, the community reaches consensus and begins the creative process resulting in collaborative artworks – developed by local Elders, students and emerging creators, alongside professional artists. This powerful collective action promotes intergenerational learning, a shared understanding of cultural identity and reconciliation as the use of Noongar placenames spreads throughout the wider community.

Place Names is a Community Arts Network Project supported through the Australian Government’s Indigenous Languages and Arts program, The Australia Council for the Arts and Principal Partner Moodjar Consultancy

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Hillview Community Art Project

PROJECT

Hillview Community Art Project

The Hillview Intercultural Art Project is a community mural project that celebrates the unique multicultural ‘home’ and heritage of the City of Canning. Through a participatory design process, led by artist Nick Zafir the project provided a platform for community members and artists from migrant backgrounds living in the City of Canning to tell their stories of ‘home’ and share their cultural heritages with each other. The project aimed to strengthen intercultural connections within the City and in doing so express the unique multicultural identity of Canning. Proudly supported by Lotterywest and the City of Canning.

Ngaluk Waangkiny

PROJECT

Ngaluk Waangkiny

Meaning ‘Us Talking’ in Noongar, Ngaluk Waangkiny is a landmark, multi-media storytelling project designed to honour and preserve the legacy of Elders. Serving as a continuation of CAN’s Rekindling Stories on Country program, this project will document the significant stories of the Elders; their fight for human rights, their unique experiences and their contributions to the cultural landscape.

This project is creating a legacy for our Elder’s families, for our state and for our country.

The first iteration of the program in Boorloo (Perth) is partnering with ABC Perth, City of Perth and the Aesop Foundation to produce a film, podcast and book that will shine a light on how the Elders’ lived experiences have influenced their contribution to the City’s Reconciliation Action Plan, with the resulting creative works representing an important legacy for future generations of Noongar people.

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Intercultural Lullabies

PROJECT

Intercultural Lullabies

Intercultural Lullabies celebrated language and culture through song. It brought together Noongar and intercultural communities to share lullabies, language and culture, creating lullabies in multiple languages.

Intercultural Lullabies created a space where children, families and communities could share their culture and build a deeper connection to the land we are all living on.

This project was led by talented Noongar language facilitators and musicians. It was underpinned by CAN’s First Peoples first principle, building on the past five years of Noongar Lullabies programs delivered throughout Noongar country.

Intercultural Lullabies was launched in 2021 in Mandurah. CAN worked alongside accomplished Noongar language facilitator Charmaine Councillor and award winning musician Phil Bartlett to bring Intercultural Lullabies to Mandurah as part of the Mandurah Arts Festival, in partnership with the City of Mandurah.

In 2022 Intercultural Lullabies headed to Bunbury.

Mavis Phillips nee Walley Collection

PROJECT

Mavis Phillips nee Walley Collection

Mavis Phillips (nee Walley) is one of Australia’s earliest known Indigenous photographers. Through her box brownie camera Mavis captured the everyday moments of her community in Goomalling, Western Australia from the 1930s.

Her photographs capture joy, spontaneity, pride and hope from the thriving wheatbelt Aboriginal community. The photos are extremely rare in that they capture daily life from a Noongar perspective.

In 2021 a partnership between Perth Centre for Photography, Community Arts Network and the State Library of Western Australia, a selection of images was exhibited at the Perth Centre for Photography, with satellite exhibits, projections and screenings around Perth, including a smaller selection in the Nook at the State Library.

Splash of Colour

PROJECT

Splash of Colour

In 2018 Water Corporation and CAN partnered to deliver a Splash of Colour model using a community art and cultural development approach to celebrate the community’s connection to water, water conservation and the important role this plays in the future of Western Australia.

Over the next two years CAN delivered two colourful murals in Westminster and Guildford that were designed by and developed with the community, working in partnership with Local Government and local community groups. This approach worked to deepen engagement with local community and stakeholders while increasing community awareness and ownership of the project.

CAN Perth Head Office

Monday - Friday, 9am - 5pm

PO Box 7514 Cloisters Square WA 6850

King Street Arts Centre
Ground Floor 357-365 Murray St
Perth WA 6000

08 9226 2422

admin@can.org.au

ABN: 72106364407

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