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Project background information and future plans for 2006 are described along with the planning stages that led to 3 weeks in East Timor in July 2005. Project outcomes and evaluation sections then provide dot points on the successes and challenges of the project for Arts Access Australia and the artsworkers as well as details of the artsworkers debriefing process. Background and future plans Project background information and future plans for 2006 are described along with the planning stages that led to 3 weeks in East Timor in July 2005. Project outcomes and evaluation sections then provide dot points on the successes and challenges of the project for Arts Access Australia and the artsworkers as well as details of the artsworkers debriefing process.Arts Access Australia, the peak non-Government organisation for arts and disability in Australia with members in every State and Territory, was funded by the Community Cultural Development Board of the Australia Council for a research and planning stage of what we hoped would be a longer term project called Hamutuk (Connections). Hamutuk is an arts and disability exchange project between Australia and East Timor that will also build links between arts organisations and disability organisations in East Timor. Arts Access Australia had originally planned to send three artsworkers, each with complementary skills who could mentor each other while working in East Timor. We were unsuccessful with a Myer Foundation application so had to alter the project to ensure most of our aims were achievable within the resources we had. Project planning in 2004 and early 2005 led to the three week trip to East Timor in July 2005 that aimed to identify needs, develop relationships, plan future projects and secure funding to make them happen. The two workers who went to East Timor were Zoe Scrogings from Brisbane and Guida Freitas from East Timor who is currently studying in Sydney. In an international development context as many as 50 % of disabilities are directly linked to poverty and are caused mainly by preventable diseases. Following the July 2005 trip to East Timor we are planning a longer term project in 2006. If funding is successful there will be three Australian theatre workers based in East Timor for several months at a time and a website will be created for the East Timorese disability working group. The three theatre residencies will be with Bibi Bulak (crazy goat) Theatre, the Alola Foundation and Ahisaun. Bibi Bulak is the most professional of the dozen or so emerging popular theatre groups in East Timor and the residency would have a train the trainer focus to develop their ensembles skills in a range of theatre techniques that may lead to the development of a disability theatre group. The Alola Foundation runs development programs for women and children and the residency would focus on a children's art space and theatre for residents of a local orphanage. Ahisaun is a residential facility for young people with a disability and this residency would focus on developing their performance and theatre skills. All three residencies will try to build links between people with disabilities and the arts. Disability remains a largely hidden issue in East Timor with many regarding disability as a curse. We are also seeking funding to create a website for the East Timorese Disability Working Group. While very few East Timorese have access to the web the site would aim to create International awareness of issues in East Timor and attract foreign donors while also showcasing the Hamutuk project. Longer term Hamutuk project objectives are to:
1. Develop the skills of East Timorese cultural and development workers
2. Improve the capacity of East Timorese people with disabilities to participate in cultural, civil and economic activities.
3. Increase the visibility and voice of East Timorese with disabilities in Australian policy determinations affecting the sustainability of their future. Hamutuk is an art for social change project and the kinds of outcomes we might work towards are;
• a travelling theatre piece about the rights of people with disabilities and demonstrating the benefits of inclusion
• creativity in small scale enterprise and sustainable development
• a community radio program, short film or website promoting an understanding of disability and wellbeing. 2005 Project Information The Project had several clear components with Arts Access Australia providing continuity between them. 2004 and 2005 Contracting of Melinda Collie Holmes to coordinate activities
Melinda was contracted in 2004 to assist in developing the Hamutuk project concept and funding applications. Once funding outcomes and artsworker availability were known Melinda was again contracted in 2005 to recut the project timelines, budget and aims to make it achievable within the resources Arts Access Australia had available. Melinda also provided advice on artsworkers and did a handover to Zoe Scrogings. Melbourne meetings late 2004 and 25 - 27 May 2005
Arts Access Australia went to Melbourne to meet with organisations and artists interested in East Timor. Meetings were held with Steve Payne, Australian East Timor Association (Melbourne branch) and University of Melbourne staff who had coordinated Australian youth ambassador for Development (AYAD) placements in East Timor. Transformations conference 7-9 February 2005 Canberra
Arts Access Australia had a paper on Hamutuk accepted and presented at the Tranformations Conference. The paper is subsequently available on the FECCA website and will feature in an ANU publication from the conference. The paper discussed the issues Arts Access Australia had encountered in planning a cross cultural arts and disability project and is also available from Arts Access Australia. Project Planning meeting in Sydney 21 May 2005
Zoe Scrogings and Guida de Freitas had never met prior to their involvement in Hamutuk and were based in different cities. Zoe is based in Brisbane so Arts Access Australia flew her to Sydney to meet with Guida and also took the opportunity to have a planning day for the project. The planning day successfully refined a mountain of contact material down to an essential contact list and some achievable outcomes. 21 July 2005 Access for All guidelines and resources for disability inclusive International development workshop in Melbourne and joining the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID)
Arts Access Australia participated in this one day workshop coordinated by the Australian International Health Institute (AIHA) at the University of Melbourne. Prior to this forum Arts Access Australia had joined the Australian Council For International Development (ACFID) disability and development working group. Both have been invaluable sources of information on disability prevalence, needs and organisations in developing countries like East Timor. Zoe Scrogings and Guida de Freitas 3 weeks in East Timor 3 - 23 July 2005
Zoe and Guida spent three weeks in East Timor. Key activities in that time were site visits and meetings with Arts organisations, disability organisations, government representatives, media and other community sector service providers. Workshops in basic computing and video making were held with Ahisaun and the Maris Dias Pas clinic. Successes and challenges of the project Artsworkers - Successes
• A network of organisations within Australia and East Timor who are working in the area of arts, disability, international and community cultural development initiated
• Project partners identified and consulted in regards to developing a more long-term vision for the project
• Specific needs and desires identified and documented that will contribute to future project planning
• Commitment of future project partners enthusiastically expressed and encouragement gained for the continuation of a more long-term vision
• Project received tremendous support from the East Timorese community and identified partners are passionate about the further development of cultural exchange and skills development projects
• New expertise and international dialogue developed leading to exciting new insights into cross-cultural arts practice Artsworkers - Challenges
Working in developing countries has some challenges which certainly make an impact on the project. During the field trip to East Timor two incidents impacted significantly on the project;
• digital stills camera was stolen within the first week of the field trip
• Guida and Zoe got food poisoning and some workshops were cancelled due to illness Other challenges
• Meetings with key people subject to availability, key contacts being away or out of Dili on regional work duties.
• The negotiation of often complex cross-cultural relationships, differing opinions and values of artsworkers on the project was challenging. The challenge was met with good will and determination to accommodate and be flexible to different working styles. Arts Access Australia - Successes
• networks developed in Australia of CCD artists interested in East Timor (ET) and willingness of East Timorese organisations to work together
• clear sense of future project work needs
• strong support for future work from ET
• good choice of two workers to go to ET and Australian and mentoring based skills transfer did happen
• identification of skilled workers in Australia and East Timor to work on future projects
• development of AAA skills in International community cultural development practice and positioning of our organisation in this area
• partnerships developed with other Australians and organisations interested in East Timor
• identification of key policy intervention = Ausaid white paper on Australia's Overseas Aid Program - A Strategic Blueprint for the Asia Pacific Region
• Membership of Australian Council For International Development (ACFID) Disability and Development working group
• Established NGO credentials with Air North allowing discounted flights between Darwin and Dili
• Identification of Asia Pacific disability project worker with ACROD (Margaret Gadd) based in Adelaide and the AIHI e-list and courses coordinated by Melbourne University. Arts Access Australia - Challenges
• no word processing program on the laptop computer hired for the project (discovered once the computer was in East Timor)
• no Tetun translation of project materials due to artsworker workload prior to leaving for East Timor
• no contact by artsworkers with ET prior to arriving due to their respective workloads despite having money available to reimburse costs of contact
• project aims overloaded - mentoring and consultation meetings and workshops in three weeks may have been a little unrealistic
• funding - got one of two grants applied for therefore dropped third proposed worker from the project and cut three weeks of post East Timor project planning
• change of lead artsworker to Zoe Scrogings successful but took time delaying the project from March to July 2005
• workload for AAA Executive Director in coordinating the project was significant
• securing future funding to continue the project 2005 Project Outcomes
The project was received with great enthusiasm and support from the East Timorese community, arts, disability, development sectors, with encouragement and offers of assistance to continue to develop the project. Support for the project was significant, many comments were made about how fantastic it was to see a young East Timorese woman partnered up with a mentor. Participants in the project were from communities with mental health issues, poverty and people living with a disability in Dili and surrounds - Becora, Tibar, Delta 3, Surigmas and regionally - Baucau, Vemassee sub-district, Wai Gai. The communities were engaged within a consultation process as both workshop participants and advisors. The communities were consulted in regards to needs and current aspirations so that their opinions and visions form the foundation of the next phase of the project. Consultation took the form of face to face meetings, site visits, and basic skills development workshops with key organisations and communities. The video workshops were a useful of gaining participants trust and devising role play and themes for the videos yielded useful consultation material. Key Themes emerging from consultations
• More advocacy around the rights of people living with a disability
• Capacity building, skills development, skills exchange
• Need for groups to have a more coordinated approach to addressing the rights of people living with a disability
• Integration of people living with a disability into mainstream Timorese culture was seen as a major issue
• Theatre, drama in education was highly supported as a method to advocate and educate
• With new building being built the need to advocate for access at the design stage was identified as a major need
• There is an opportunity over the next two years for disability projects to gain a higher profile with the implementation of an East Timorese policy on disability On the basis of this material Arts Access Australia has planned to continue the Hamutuk project in 2006. De-brief / Evaluation with Guida and Zoe in country - Friday 18th July 2005 Guida Freitas - Artsworker What was valuable for you in doing this project? What was good about the project?
• first time doing this kind of work
• learning about NGO's in my country and the work they do
• Trying to do our best for young people with a disability in East Timor
• Even thought I'm tired, I'm still happy to do this because I'm learning
• I've never worked so hard
• I felt I had responsibility on my head
• Each day I woke thinking I've got so much to do
• Working on this project was a big responsibility What was challenging about this project?
• Managing ourselves
• resources were difficult - need an office, access to phone, computer
• lack of time to do good preparation because of study commitments
• Differing opinions of how the project should be developed
• the fast pace of the work
• Culture shock coming back to East Timor and how that affects the work.
• Feeling like we've made a promise to all of the organisations we've talked to, I don't know how we can full-fill the next part of the project? What if we don't get funding? What would you do differently next time?
• be more organised
• go to the field, do workshops straight away, take plenty of tools
• not focus on Dili, focus on the districts who need more support
• focus on one or two groups Advice for future projects in East Timor
• focus on one thing, one or two NGO's
• Do workshops over meetings
• More hands on approach
• Double check equipment Challenges and impact of working together
• not knowing each other was very challenging, by the end of the project we understood each other better, but should have understanding at the beginning
• challenging not really knowing each others experience
• having very different opinions, and negotiating this
• learning about cross-cultural work What did you learn, what skills did you develop?
• learnt about responsibility
• learnt to be more patient
• learnt to overcome being shy
• learnt how to conduct a meeting and talk to people
• learnt how to approach people and how to lobby for the issues around the rights of people with a disability
• learnt how to ask the right questions
• learnt about how to talk about arts and disability
• learnt about Arts Access Australia From this what skills would you like to continue to develop?
• grant writing skills
• consultation
• lobby and advocacy skills
• project management
• the stages of developing a project, the components of a project Zoe Scrogings - Lead Artsworker What was valuable for you in doing this project? What was good about the project?
• Advocating the value of arts within a disability and development context
• Advocating for people with a disability to access arts
• Raising awareness of the potential of developing an arts and disability cultural exchange project between Australia and East Timor
• Gaining a first hand insight into East Timorese culture
• learning new ways of negotiating cross-cultural work/collaborations
• Meeting people, learning about projects that are inspiring and exciting
• Opportunity for the development of further skills in working within a cross-cultural context
• transferring skills and exchange with Guida and within workshops
• Seeing Guida develop skills over the three weeks - initially being shy, but by the last week being confident
• Having Guida's knowledge and skills to guide the process, and other contacts What was challenging about this project?
• Not enough time for preparation due to other work commitments
• Very quickly developing a working relationship with Guida
• Availability of people, meetings changing, different work ethic
• Differing opinions of how the project should be developed
• Negotiating and accommodating diversity of opinions
• Language barriers
• Creating a balance of responsibility
• Seeing the effects of war and destruction first hand What would you do differently next time?
• Spend more time in preparation in particular getting to know artsworker and their professional development needs
• Acquire more language skills
• Made more contact in East Timor with orgs before departure
• Project info translated into Tetun
• Overall more preparation
• Jump straight into workshops, strong plan, but be flexible in the delivery Advice for future projects in East Timor
• Spend time developing trust and strong working relationship with artsworkers
• Develop 'hands-on' learning by doing
• Focus on capacity building of the East Timorese people to develop skills in managing and facilitating their own projects/programs
• Incorporate the districts into the project
• Focus developing projects or access to projects for the regional centres outside of Dili
• Develop a fact sheet or advice on cultural do's and don'ts, protocol and other important info on life and work conditions in East Timor
• Continue to work strongly with the Disability Working Group, Alola Foundation, Arte Moris, Bibi Bulak, Ahisaun, Assert.
• Continue to develop relationship with DFAT, by developing application for the Community Assistance Grant Scheme
• Projects involving a combination of arts, recreation and vocational training are likely to be successful and of great benefit
• Drama in education and health promotion is strongly valued
• Projects that focus on the integration of people living with a disability into mainstream society is high need Challenges and impact of working together
• Developing quickly a working relationship
• Overcoming the language barrier
• Managing differing opinions What did you learn, what skills did you develop?
• History of East Timor
• How to develop projects within East Timor
• The challenges and strengths of NGO's operating in developing countries
• First hand insight into the culture and people of East Timor
• Saw first hand the effects of war
• Navigation skills in East Timor
• How to navigate a path within arts, disability, international and community cultural development in Australia and East Timor
• Skills in promoting and advocating for people living with a disability
• Further skills in facilitating arts processes with people living with a disability
• Developed further skills in negotiating often complex cross cultural collaborations
• Developed skills as a mentor From this what would you like to continue to develop?
• Negotiating the development of projects within international contexts
• Skills as a mentor Follow Up Arts Access Australia
ed@artsaccessaustralia.org Margaret Gadd
Project Officer, ACROD Asia Pacific Partnerships
mgadd@ucwpa.org.au AIHI Uni of Melbourne
http://www.aihi.unimelb.edu.au ACFID
http://www.acfid.asn.au/about/policies/disabilities Alola Foundation
http://www.alolafoundation.org Ausaid White Paper
http://www.ausaid.gov.au/hottopics/topic.cfm?Id=9996_3128_4708_6307_9857 Bibi Bulak
http://www.artemoris.minihub.org/bibi_bulak.htm Credits for Image below:
Ahisaun workshop participants singing a popular love song. The participants worked with Zoe Scrogings and Guida Freitas to devise, shoot and edit a short film of themselves playing and singing the song in Tetum. Copyright Arts Access Australia Photographer Zoe Scrogings 
| | Copyright Arts Access Australia - see project description for image credits |
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