Naisda Limited Board Facilities Officer Karen Bluff Raymond D
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ANNUAL REPORT CONTENTS VISION AND PRINCIP LES 02 FROM THE C HAIR 02 T HE NAISDA FOUNDATION 02 E XECUTIV E D irector’s REP ORT 02 GENERAL M ANAG er’s REP ORT Y ADAH G Ayi – G U DARKINJUNG T HE NAISDA BOARD AND S TAFF 02 NGURA N AYA WA YUG ALI 02 WELCOME TO NAISDA 2013 HIG HLIG hts – A Y EAR IN REV IEW 02 D ARKINJUNG LAND N ATIONALLY A CCREDITED C OURSES 02 S TATISTICS 02 GRADUATION 02 C ULTURAL R esidency – M OA I SLAND 02 GARAB ARRA NGURRA 02 ‘ NGALP UN M udth’ O UR H OME 02 M USICA VIV A 02 NAISDA A CKNOW LEDG EMENTS 02 FINANCIAL REP ORTS 02 This report may contain the names or images of people who are now deceased. Some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities may be distressed by seeing the name, or image of a community member who has passed away. OUR VISION FOR NAISDA FROM To create and sustain a unique, world class, THE CHAIR cultural organisation providing excellence in Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island dance and performing arts education and 2013 marked a significant milestone in the training: and preparing its Developing Artists NAISDA story. The important and consistent in New South Wales and Western Australia. The response to be enterprising, to engage in lifelong work of the previous six years – building from children and teachers alike has been resounding. learning, and to lead fulfilling lives This partnership creates employment opportunities for our training resources and infrastructure; planning Developing Artists and for our Yolgnu cultural tutors to share for growth and development; working tirelessly their knowledge with the school children of Australia. to secure increased funding; achieving We also wish to thank the Garma Festival (NT), Quantum sustainable increases in Developing Artist Leap (ACT), Bundanon Trust, Campbelltown Arts Centre and numbers and diversifying the career pathways the Sydney Opera House Message Sticks Festival (NSW) for their time and energy in making so many wonderful creative available to them – began to yield results. projects in 2013. Most importantly, we wish to thank the Federal Government In 2013 we achieved a 22% increase on the previous year’s for the increased and quadrennial funding agreement – initial intake. In 2014, we anticipate there will be a further similar achieved through the funding of the National Cultural Policy, increase – with approximately sixty young Developing Artists that commenced this year. The quadrennial agreement will commencing or continuing study at NAISDA. These exceptional give further certainty to NAISDA’s planning and operation retention and growth rates have not been experienced before over this period. NAISDA is the only Indigenous Arts Training at NAISDA. They provide compelling evidence that the Organisation to be a member of the Federal Government’s investments and decisions made by the Board in recent times Arts8 Roundtable. This is both a considerable honour and a are building a strong and substantial organisation. guiding responsibility for the NAISDA Board. For the past 36 years NAISDA has been a cultural leader in the After many years in the planning, the NAISDA Foundation was development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island contemporary launched on 14 December 2013 at the NAISDA End Of Year dance culture and with the continuing support of the Federal Performance, Our Home (Ngalpun Mudth) at CarriageWorks. and State governments, philanthropic organisations, private The Foundation is honoured to have Her Excellency Professor donors, and sponsors it will continue to thrive into the future. Marie Bashir AC CVO, Governor of NSW as Patron. The I would particularly like to thank ArtsNSW, NSW Department Foundation has set an ambitious target of $10 million to of Education & Communities and Department of Industry for OUR be raised over the next three years for Stage One of the their continuing support this year. A special thanks must go to Developing Artist accommodation and training facilities. I wish Jawun for assisting NAISDA and all Central Coast Indigenous to thank my fellow Foundation Directors, Nihal Gupta, Kingsley organisations to further develop their capacity. UNDERLYING Mundey, Elizabeth Butcher and Kim Walker for their energy i would like to finish by thanking my fellow naisda Board and commitment. Directors, and in particular former Deputy Chair Rick Shapter As part of NAISDA’s twenty year vision, the NAISDA Board who retired from the Board at the end of the year. rick’s PRINCIPLES tireless and visionary work through a less stable period of commissioned distinguished architectural firm tonkin Zulaikha NAISDA history has given us the resilient foundation that we We are informed by and respond to needs and aspirations as identified by our constituent Greer to prepare the concepts for this development - Naya build on today. members and by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia. Wa Yugali (‘We dance’ in darkinjung language). the inspiring drawings, showing the state-of-the-art buildings situated my final heartfelt thank you goes to the executive and staff Our underlying principles include a commitment to the provision of a learning space that culturally around a performance bunggul ground can be found later in at NAISDA who give so much of their time and energy to the affirms and supports our developing artists as well as contributing to their development of this report. developing artists and the college. at naisda we don’t just intellectual and performance skills. The capacity-building within the organisation has also talk about Closing the Gap, we do it! central to this is our… included the commencement of the work of the Board of • Relationship with our traditional communities Studies. Chaired by Dr Nerida Blair, the Board of Studies provides overall guidance and direction for the curriculum • Provision of dynamic, relevant and responsive training programs delivered by NAISDA. • Provision of quality facilities Over the year we have partnered with many organisations in highly successful creative projects. Special mention must • Recruitment of highly skilled and experienced staff go to Musica Viva with whom NAISDA has been working for Warren Mundine • Sound leadership and governance to maximise the outcomes several years to create a cultural touring show to schools Chairman NAISDA Ltd 2 3 THE NAISDA FOUNDATION After many years of discussion about setting up a formal fund-raising program, The NAISDA Foundation has been formally launched by Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO, Governor of NSW, who has honoured us by agreeing to be the Foundation’s Patron. the launch event was held on 14 december 2013 to coincide with the final night of NAISDA’s famous end of year production at CarriageWorks that all the guests also attended. This added an exciting dimension to the evening and enabled guests to appreciate the skills and talents of the young artists they were being asked to support. The experience was clearly beyond what many had been expecting: “this is the most fun i’ve had in years,” one said, and another “We went to the lion king last night and i’m enjoying this more”. the Foundation has identified stage one of the proposed accommodation and training facilities project – naya Wa Yugali as their first priority for fund-raising. With a target of $10 million to be raised in three years, the Foundation is planning an intensive fundraising program to meet their target. 4 5 It is wonderful to see NAISDA evolve as a College in this new We also continue to develop our partnerships with arts space, but also to see it being more broadly used for artistic organisations as detailed in the 2013 highlights – the year and community collaboration. This year NAISDA hosted In Review. EXECUTIVE Bangarra’s Birrang project funded by Arts NSW, Quantum Finally I wish to thank all of our teachers and staff for their Leap and Tanja Liedtke Workshops which were open for the continued passion and commitment to developing tomorrow’s public as well as various choreographic residencies. DIRECTOR’S Aboriginal and Torres strait islander artists – their passion for We continue to improve artistic outcomes for our Developing DA development is inspirational. Artists through rigorous training and ongoing connections Though 2013 was a year of success we were also touched by to the Arts industry. It was with incredible pride that we REPORT incredible sadness with the tragic passing of Developing Artist, brought iquail shaheed to australia for the first time. iquail is Rininya Johnson Page. Nini was remembered with a spiritually a Master of the Lester Horton Technique – a technique that and culturally powerful Memorial Day early in 2014. The 2013 marked our second full year in our has the ability to fast track a dancer’s physical capabilities, Memorial highlighted the great depth of connectedness and technique and mental attitude and passion. NAISDA will be new premises. It also marked our increased bonding that past DAs, graduates, alumni, teachers, family heavily investing in Horton, not only to further raise the bar commitment from the Federal Government and staff of NAISDA have in coming together to celebrate this and technical standards of our graduating artists but also to wonderful girl. through the Ministry for the Arts which become australia’s Horton Technique specialist. There are enables us to further plan for the future. plans to offer open classes and workshop programs to the In remembrance of Rininya, NAISDA is taking positive steps in general public and other institutions. regards to her passing. Another milestone in 2013 was the establishment of the new nini’s List records the names of people committed to NAISDA Board of Studies led by Dr Nerida Blair. Dr Blair has a supporting actions that help reduce suicide rates in Aboriginal long association with naisda and is eminently qualified to lead and Torres Strait Islander communities.