KIN - Dudi and Jojo, a music documentary animation. iTaukei artists and twin sisters Ruci Kaisila (Dudi) and Joanne Kaisila (Jojo) explore their deeply personal insights into Fiji, its culture, the diaspora and their lives as burgeoning cultural custodians and singers in a Gospel family. It is a story of ancestral consciousness.

"We’re looking at our life as twins and how we maintain culture, tradition and how music plays into that. I want to reach as many Pacific Islanders as possible. We all ask the same questions and we're all trying to answer the same questions. Where do we come from? What cultural tradition do we uphold here in our family homes? How do we identify ourselves? Who are we? Are we Fijian and Australian? Or more Fijian or more Australian? What affects these answers? Our opinions? Who are our influences in our lives that shape the answers to these questions?”

- JOANNE KAISILA (JOJO), CO-WRITER, PERFORMER AND COMPOSER 

VIGIL is a poly-vocal, multidisciplinary and site specific work imagined from the minds of visionary communities and creatives asking Australia—Do our lives matter? What lives matter? It brings together an eclectic group of writers and performers, a choreographer and community ensemble to examine the intersection of public and private safety with race, gender and terror in the streets of Naarm/Melbourne.

The VIGIL short film is part of the larger VIGIL project, that brings together an exceptional creative team of writers, performers, dance artists, filmmakers and community members to examine the intersection of public and private safety with race, gender and terror. It is currently screening on Australian, international and community film festival circuits.

THE AUDITION peels back the layers of the audition process to uncover what it means to seek asylum. The asylum seeker shares something in common with the artist in Australia. They are both outsiders of uncertain status.

“Irine Vela seamlessly directs The Audition to create electrifying theatre… the work shimmers, mirage-like, between asylum seekers claiming protection and actors preparing to audition, with cognate politics and piercing resonance.”

- CAMERON WOODHEAD | THE AGE

TE REO IPUKAREA
(THE LANGUAGE OF THE ANCESTRAL HOMELAND)
Te reo Ipukarea explores the role of Cook Island language and music in cultural preservation and the fault lines of immigration focusing on siblings Fakaoho and Tangata Tupou, and the role of their parents passing on cultural knowledge in outer north of Naarm. Born to a musically gifted family, Ta Tupou’s passion for music started in the family living room. Her Cook Island heritage has had a  huge influence on her musical journey, as she blends Maori and Pacific Islander influences into her original compositions. It also connects her with her sister Fakaoho. Together their harmonies are so tightly  lended it is often hard to tell them apart, but individually each is a unique vocalist. Ta is also a skilled guitarist with an original style and a dancer. Tangata and sister, Fakaoho have been performing together for many years. Both learned how to play musical instruments and singing from their father, Clerk Tupou who also plays the Pate.

“I just want to keep making art.”

- OLIVER MORGAN-TARRAN ACCESS AND OUTREACH PARTICPANT  

To celebrate Newsboys Foundation’s 125th anniversary, Outer Urban Projects collaborated with Newsboys Foundation, Melbourne Youth Orchestras (MYO) and Melbourne Recital Centre to present  125 BPM – a collaborative concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre’s Elizabeth Murdoch Hall. The concert remounted the Hip Hop Harp Concerto brimming with stories, raps and vocals from Outer Urban Projects artists.

A dance theatre work about what it means to give birth and where and what you are born into.

“A boat is a vessel, carrying life across dangerous seas, and a womb is a vessel, carrying life across a dangerous world. These concepts combine in this strikingly original dance work performed by six young dancers, a performer, a singer and two musicians… United by its theme, the piece conveys so many facets of life experience with great clarity”

- MICHAEL BRINDLEY | STAGE WHISPERS

 

Poetic License is a performance work about the power and limitations of words.

“Outer Urban Projects… delivers a successful platform for disparate and often unheard voices with a performative aplomb that speaks eloquently to a sophisticated Melbourne theatre audience.” 

- LEONARD MILLER | MELBOURNE. ARTS. FASHION 

 “There’s talent and charisma here in abundance...” 

- REBECCA HARKINS-CROSS | SYDNEY MORINING HERALD 

Grand DiVisions, a moved urban cantata. Balletic and symphonic in concept and communal in execution, Grand DiVisions features a dynamic hip hop harp concerto, a string orchestra, a solo harpist, virtuosic beat boxing, Indian tabla, darabuka, gospel hip‐hop, classical vocalists, contemporary dancers, rappers, spoken word artists and story tellers who strive to make sense of the grand divisions that continue to haunt and enchant us.

“Grand DiVisions… is an exhilarating glimpse of worlds and realities too often kept out of our plush temples of culture. The polished energy of 21 young singers, spoken word artists and dancers, backed by an orchestra, hits you right in the sternum.”

- ALISON CROGGON | ABC ARTS

Hip-hop collides with chamber music and urban dance in a multicultural ode to Melbourne – welcome to the new sound of our city.

“The raw talent and charisma of this group is enough to want to go see them…" 

-MATTHEW ZICCONE | THE MUSIC 

“The smooth transition of artistic piece after artistic piece soon convinced the audience that they are in the presence of a particularly unique and talented collaboration…” 

-TANIA HERBERT | THEATRE PRESS