Homelands Tour 2023 was an intimate and beautiful collaboration with SSI.
In June, CuriousWorks partnered with Settlement Services International (SSI) for the Homelands Regional Arts tour. Artists from the Refugee Artist Development Program and Stories of Welcome travelled across the east coast of Australia to showcase their work.
SSI’s Homelands Regional Arts Tour program aims to raise awareness and understanding of refugee experiences through arts, music and storytelling to increase social cohesion at regional and metropolitan settlement locations in New South Wales and Queensland. The tour began during Refugee Week 2023, with stops in Newcastle, Coffs Harbour, Gold Coast and Brisbane, for which SSI is partnering with the Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre (BEMAC), Home of Arts (HOTA), Aquarius Arcade, King Tide Brewery, Newcastle Museum, and University of Newcastle to deliver an impactful multidisciplinary artistic showcase that elevates the voices and experiences of refugees.
From the Refugee Artist Development Program, artists Ali Rezvani, Adeeb Razzouk and Smitha Peter were able to perform and showcase their works. These artists first showcased their work at our Urban Stories: En Route showcase, and the tour provided the wonderful opportunity to share their art to communities outside of our own. From the Stories of Welcome program, CuriousWorks presented a collective exhibition of short films, photography and digital and visual artworks. The works all tell a story of the artists’ experiences of being welcomed into their new communities.
Participating in the Homelands tour meant that not only did these artists get to exhibit their work widely, it also gave several of the artists the opportunity to tour with the works. Artists Ali Resvani, Adeeb Razzouk, John Cham, Zozik Abdo and Khishkok Abdo were able to travel through different legs of the tour and speak to the works they created.
You can check out photos from the Homelands Tour during their stop at Coffs Harbour below. All photos by Bernard Kelly Edwards.
