Micro-doc: A Hazaragi Wedding


Hazaragi culture is no where more accentuated than in a traditional wedding. Bringing together every facet of cultural life, from traditional music, clothing, food and ritual. A Hazaragi Weddingtraces the events leading up to and throughout the wedding ceremony. A Hazaragi Wedding is underscored by traditional music, a collage of wedding photos and video, and of course the food, the celebration, mehmanies (public feasts) and dance.

Micro-doc: Between The Lines

The cultural history of Afghanistan’s most persecuted minority is one interwoven with the arts, from the Persian poetry they learn as children to reverence for the Buddhas of Bamiyan, monolithic sculptures their ancestors created in the 5th Century and destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. To bring these practices into modern times, Hazara artist, Fazil Hussain Mousavi, founded The Sketch Club in Quetta, to introduce young Hazara to the skills, techniques and history of painting.

The micro-doc, Between The Lines, follows the story of The Sketch Club from Quetta to the Artful Dodgers Gallery in Collingwood, where its first exhibition in Australia is hosted. Between The Lines is a story of young Hazara depicting the social circumstances of their country, the genocide of Hazara people and how their new found skills and art has helped them to express the complex issues of injustice and uncertainty, that has also connected them to and inspired Hazara youth who have sought asylum the world over.

Bamiyarra On Screen

Bamiyarra On Screen is the international premier screening of a short-docs series produced by young Hazara in Melbourne and Kabul in collaboration with Melbourne film-makers and media artists. Meet the film-makers, the producers and participate in a Q & A about the series and the media arts program these documentaries grew from.

When: 7pm, Wed 17 October, 2012
Where: ACMI, Federation Square Flinders St, Melbourne
Full: $12
Concession: $10

Bamiyarra On Screen was produced in association with Youthworx Media, Multicultural Arts Victoria, Mechid TV with the assistance of EngageMedia. Bamiyarra would also like to acknowledge the support of Wind & Sky Productions for dubbing services.

Purchase tickets online at ACMI or at the box-office.

Program

Migration / Duration: 09:07

Migration is the story of a Hazara family that sought refuge in Australia, how the open sea both carried them here and afforded one of their sons a future in the surf.

A Hazaragi Wedding: 06:50

A Hazaragi Wedding

A Hazaragi Wedding, incorporating family videos and memorabilia, traces the events leading up to and throughout a traditional wedding ceremony.

Hope In Life / Duration: 12:17

Hope In Life follows the aspirations of Hazara who sought asylum in Australia to pursue their education and arts practice, and how their ties to home land influences and sustain them regardless of the challenges they face.

Between The Lines / Duration: 14:00

Between The Lines

Between The Lines follows the story of the Pakistan based Sketch Club to a gallery in Collingwood, Melbourne, where its first exhibition in Australia was hosted.

Q & A / Duration: 20 – 30 mins

Hosted panel with film-makers, producer and researchers.

Bamiyarra is a Home Lands v2 project – a media arts initiative connecting young Hazara from refugee backgrounds to their home lands and separated communities.

Home Lands v2 is a collaboration between La Trobe University, Swinburne University of Technology, City of Melbourne and the Cultural Development Network. Home Lands is funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, City of Melbourne and the Cultural Development Network.

Exhibition launch

07-IMG_3193

Bamiyarra Not So Still(s) was launched on 3 August 2012 at Signal. We estimated around 120 people turned up to celebrate the culmination of year’s work with two teams of young Hazara working in Melbourne and Kabul. Special guests included Councillor Ken Ong and author Najaf Mazari.

Here’s a few snaps from the install of the exhibition and its subsequent launch.

Here’s a comprehensive selection of stills from our project on Flickr.

A poem at the heart of Bamiyarra

Poems are invaluable to the Hazara. Many young are taught a number of quatrains when young and carry the tradition of re-telling them into their elder years. Some, like Aziz Fayaz, are prolific poets. This, one of Aziz’s poems, a Hazara based in Kabul, has become increasingly important to Bamiyarra and is featured in the Not So Still(s) exhibition.

Consume me FISH! All my body parts
I am country-less, homeless and I have no one.

I have no heart, it is left behind
Consume my limbs that are remaining

Gave my heart to this world, what has it done?
Entered the sea, what has it done?

Grief took my livelihood away
Generosity of the sea took half of my life away.

My shovel and tools are left behind
Yet my foot-prints evoke memories of me.

Oh sea! Hear my heartache
You do not have a heart to feel my pain.

There is no one to wish me farewell
There is no eye awaiting my return.

Consume parts of my body
My eyes, ears, kidneys and head.

My child will live with my memories
In my absence, he will find comfort in them.

Worry not sea, long live your creatures
Long live the rocks and stones that have replaced my heart.

Visible are the reptile bite-marks on my body
Shattered are my life long hopes and dreams.

This is what happened, when I gave my heart to the sea
Look at me and my lifeless body.

No more is there, life in my body
No more are there, tears in my eyes.

By Aziz Fayaz

 

Exhibition launch 3 August 2012

Photo by Muzafar Ali.

On Friday 3 August we are launching our final project for 2012, the Bamiyarra Not So Still(s) exhibition at Melbourne’s Signal, a creative studio and gallery for young people.

Young Hazaras in Melbourne and Afghanistan have collaborated with artists Andrew Garton, Werner Hammerstingl and Yandell Walton to explore the art of the photo essay, projected video and sound in a mixed media exhibition.

Our special guest is Najaf Mazari, author of The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif and co-author of The Honey Thief.

Bamiyarra Not So Still(s) is presented by Home Lands v2, a collaboration between La Trobe University, Swinburne University, City of Melbourne Arts and Participation Program and the Cultural Development Network. Home Lands is funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, City of Melbourne and the Cultural Development Network.

Launch: Friday 3 August, 6:30pm, Signal, Flinders Walk, Northbank
Exhibition: Saturday 4 August to Saturday 11 August, from 1pm to 5pm. Screenings commence after dark.

Micro-docs

On location. Photo by David Wardell (Youthworx).

Five micro-docs were proposed for production. Two were completed in association with Youthworx Media as part of their inSite program.

Hope in Life

Duration: 12:17

Hope In Life follows the aspirations of Hazara who sought asylum in Australia to pursue their education and arts practice, and how their ties to home land influences and sustain them regardless of the challenges they face.

Produced in association with Youthworx Media.

Migration

Duration: 09:07

Migration is the story of a Hazara family that sought refuge in Australia, how the open sea both carried them here and afforded one of their sons a future in the surf.

Produced in association with Youthworx Media.

Between the Lines

Duration: 14:00

The cultural history of Afghanistan’s most persecuted minority is one interwoven with the arts, from the Persian poetry they learn as children to reverence for the Buddhas of Bamiyan, monolithic sculptures their ancestors created in the 5th Century and destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. To bring these practices into modern times, Hazara artist, Fazil Hussain Mousavi, founded The Sketch Club in Quetta, to introduce young Hazara to the skills, techniques and history of painting.

The micro-doc, Between The Lines, follows the story of The Sketch Club from Quetta to the Artful Dodgers Gallery in Collingwood, where its first exhibition in Australia is hosted. Between The Lines is a story of young Hazara depicting the social circumstances of their country, the genocide of Hazara people and how their new found skills and art has helped them to express the complex issues of injustice and uncertainty, that has also connected them to and inspired Hazara youth who have sought asylum the world over.

Produced in association with Mechid TV.

A Hazaragi Wedding

Duration: 06:50

Hazaragi culture is no where more accentuated than in a traditional wedding. Bringing together every facet of cultural life, from traditional music, clothing, food and ritual. A Hazaragi Wedding traces the events leading up to and throughout the wedding ceremony. A Hazaragi Wedding is underscored by traditional music, a collage of wedding photos and video, and of course the food, the celebration, mehmanies (public feasts) and dance.

Bamiyarra Reflections

Status: pre-production

Although young Hazara from refugee backgrounds in Melbourne have immersed themselves in education with high goals and aspirations they are never far from the issues they had left behind. Bamiyarra Reflections is a conversation between Hazara youth in Melbourne and Afghanistan exploring complex and challenging issues such as forced migration, youth suicide and drug abuse.

Interwoven with the opportunities found in Australia and the constraints still faced in Afhganistan, Bamiyarra Reflections describes the transformations taking place in the first generation of Hazara to receive an education in over 200 years.

 

Trailer: Bamiyarra

In August 2011 we launched Bamiyarra, a project of Home Lands v2. The name combines the home of many Hazara, Bamiyan, and the Yarra River. The name connects their origins with their now home and for many, the river represents how they got here.

The trailer is a snap-shot of young Hazara in both Melbourne and abroad collaborating to produce a micro-docs series, a video installation, public screenings and exhibitions, mentored by media artists and creative producers.

Premier screening

Premier screening of two Bamiyarra micro-docs, Migration and Hope In Life, at the Emerge Film and Arts Festival presented by Multicultural Arts Victoria.

Migration is the story of a Hazara family that sought refuge in Australia, how the open sea both carried them here and afforded one of their sons a future in the surf. Hope In Life follows the aspirations of Hazara who sought asylum in Australia to pursue their education and arts practice, and how their ties to home land influences and sustain them regardless of the challenges they face.

The micro-docs were mentored in collaboration with Melbourne film-makers Penne Thornton and Naina Sen and produced by Andrew Garton.

Premier 6pm, Tuesday 3 July, Treasury Theatre, Melbourne.

Bamiyarra is a Home Lands v2 project – a unique concept that asks artists to collaborate with young Hazara to make art and engage in conversations about cultural origins and transformations, youth identity and aspirations.

Home Lands v2 is a collaboration between La Trobe UniversityCity of Melbourne and the Cultural Development Network. Home Lands is funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage GrantCity of Melbourne and the Cultural Development Network.