Awa project is a musical, virtual hug

MUSIC, movement and illustrations are bringing intercultural young people from Ballarat, Horsham, Nhill and Ghana together to creatively connect and collaborate.

Coordinated by the Centre for Multicultural Youth, a virtual choir, band, art, and dance performance piece called Awa is digitally uniting Africans with Australians – some of which are also Karen refugees, South Sudanese, and Indian or Filipino migrants.

CMY Ballarat team leader and project coordinator, Shiree Pilkinton said Awa is the title of a traditional Ghanaian children’s song that has been rearranged by musical director, Coco Sounds’ Stella Savy.

Working with Savy’s husband, Mishael Gyabeng, and a similar youth foundation he has links to in Ghana, CMY began facilitation of cyber-safe online rehearsals during the COVID-19 lockdown to introduce young people to other cultures and skills.

These sessions prepared them to film singing, instrumental, dance or artistic parts, which are being edited into one video, inspired by the Couch Choir.

“I wanted to maintain contact and social connection with our young people and their families, keep spirits high, and help with any mental health and general wellbeing challenges, while being socially distanced,” Ms Pilkinton said.

“We had the perfect people, just in our mix, to make this happen through a virtual project, including production people, so I rang Stella.

“She chose the song and made it a little bit more contemporary, creating seven vocal parts, and multiple music and percussion parts for participants to choose from.”

The lyrics express the excitement one feels to hug another person they have been apart from, and Awa’s new arrangement has made the collaboration accessible and inclusive for any young person that wanted to be involved.

“It’s a fairly straightforward rhythm, there are only two guitar chords to learn, and the singing parts match different vocal ranges.

“For those that didn’t feel comfortable doing any of that, they could make a visual art contribution. One of the workers in Horsham had spent time working in Africa and suggested we could look at West African Adinkra symbols,” Ms Pilkinton said.

“People could create their Adinkra art and photograph it. These could be mixed in with the tiles for the final YouTube clip so there’s visual and performance art.”

Between 50 and 60 young people from age 12 to 25 have been part of the project along the way, and the Victorian performers are excited to see what their Ghanaian counterparts have produced.

“They’ve made videos, too, of dance and percussion, but their very weak internet connection has been a challenge, so we hope we find a solution to ensure their videos are mixed in,” Ms Pilkinton said.

Ballarat Youth Advisory Group member, Abby Ashmore is a musician and Awa project mentee.

She said week after week, participants have become more confident in Zoom rehearsals, while socially mixing with diverse performers.

“It’s so nice to see so many different walks of life singing, learning, sharing and exchanging things,” she said.

“It was a bit tricky to get people excited at the start because everyone needs to be muted while they rehearse at home and play in their own time, but it’s improved a lot.

“It’s nice working with Mishael. Since he is in Ghana, I don’t get to talk to him much, but in this project I get to see him more which is great fun, because he’s very talented.”

Ms Pilkinton said it’s rare for a Ballarat collaboration to feature so many cultural perspectives in one piece of work.

“There’s this whole mix of people coming together. Hopefully along the way, it’s meant people are gaining a better understanding of each and everyone’s journey, experiences and lives they’re having wherever they now live,” she said.

CMY is making a donation to the foundation in Ghana to express their gratitude for their input and skills.

The Awa clip will be released next month.