SL_Newsletter.Ed5-Iss1.0910

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Printed with complements of Cr Charlie Pisasale’s Electorate Office 1

Support Links Multicultural Group - Newsletter

Edition 5 - Issue 1: Oct 2009

For Enquiries contact:

Co-ordinator: Stella Gibbs

Tel: 07 3282 6852

Mobile: 0408 816 856

Email: [email protected]

Contribution to Newsletter:

If you would like to advertise a

function, festival, workshop, CD’s or

books, or you would like to share

some interesting anecdotes, stories,

poems, jokes, news items, please

contact:

Editor: Astrid Tholens,

Tel: 07 3202 2291


Support Links provides fun, learning,

support and friendship to people from many diverse cultures, faiths and back-grounds. The group meets regularly on Monday mornings at 12pm to 2pm at the Leichhardt Community Centre (Youth Centre building), Cnr Old Toowoomba Rd & Denman St, Leichhardt. It is proudly supported by: Ipswich City

Council, Ipswich Libraries, West Moreton

Health and Leichhardt Community Centre.

Support Links is now a sub-committee of

Harmony Arts Inc. Free English Classes:

Support Links offers free

English classes at different ven-

ues around Ipswich and sur-

rounding regions. Home Tutor-

ing is also available.

Enq: Stella 0408 816 856 8 or

Colleen 0409 003 028

Ipswich Library:

Mondays: 10am - 11.30am Tuesdays: 10am - 11.30am Thursdays: 10am - 11.30am Goodna Neighbourhood

House, Queen St, Goodna

Thursdays: 9.30am - 11am

Redbank Plains Library

Tuesdays: 9.30am - 11am

Support Links Meetings

Oct 5 Monday, 12pm to 2pm

Guest Speaker—surprise!


Art Session. Any ideas you’d

like to share?


Bring your favourite food and

recipe to share! For entertain-

ment bring a music CD you

love to listen to.

Oct 23 Friday, 6.45 for 7pm

Movie at Barry Jones Audito-

rium, Ipswich Library


Picnic at Roma St Gardens.

Leave Ipswich by train at 10am

and return by 2pm.

Community Garden plans at Leichhardt Community Centre

Are you concerned about the quality of fresh fruit and vegetables when you go shopping? Do you miss the opportunity to chat with others when searching for the best produce? Do you want to grow fruit and vegetables but you don‟t know how to or are unable to tend your gardens because of health problems? Perhaps it‟s time we get together so we can work as a team and become self-sufficient in our community. Cassie McMahon has offered to help in establishing a Community Garden in Leichhardt for all those who would like this opportunity. Come and find out more by joining a bus tour on 24 September to two other successful community gardens; Northey Street City Farm at Windsor and Westfalen Community Garden at Collingwood Park. The bus will leave from the Leichhardt Community Centre at 9am sharp and return at 3pm. The cost of the tour is $18 including transport and food for the day. Subsidies are available. Bookings are essential on 07 3812 1279. Enq: Cassie McMahon on 0404 677 781 For more ideas, visit www.actnos.com.au

Photos taken at the recent ‘Festival of Respect and Gratitude’ at the Humanities Building...

including a mixture of Tai Chi, Dance & Singing performances, speeches and Forums, which

provided an engaging day of celebrations. Even the young were keen to participate!

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Calendar of Events - Sept-Oct 2009

Sept 24, 2009 at 10am - 12pm

Maori Cultural Information Session

(followed by Maori Kai food).

Information Session to enhance under-

standing of and respect for Maori

culture. At Humanities Building, Auditorium,

56 South St, Ipswich.

RSVP’s by Thurs. 12 Sept - 07 3810 6655

Cath Sweeney: [email protected]

Oct 3 Thursday, 2009 at 2pm - 4pm

Moon Festival - organized by the

Ipswich Chinese Association, at

Leichhardt Community Centre,

Leichhardt. All are welcome, please bring along your

children. Free (gold coin donation appreci-

ated).

Oct 10 Saturday, 2009 at 6pm

Mantrita—Musical Meditations of

Enchantment

Sitting in the freedom of my Mind At BEMAC, 120 Main St, Kangaroo

Point. Enq & Bookings: [email protected]

Tel 07 3367 2146 or Mob 0411 200 015

Oct 11 Sunday, 2009 at 10am

Gold Coast Multicultural Festival

At Evandale Parklands, Bundall Contact: Ben Brauer, President

Ph/Fax: 07 5510 3340


http://goldcoastmulticulturalfestival.org

Oct 24 Saturday, 2009 at 6.45pm

International Cafe (IMP)

At St Paul’s Anglican Church Hall,

Ellenborough/Brisbane St, Ipswich. Booking phone 07 3812 9277

Multicultural

Christmas

Concert

at

Leichhardt Community Centre

Celebrating Western Christian tradition

with customs of multicultural song and

dance. All welcome.

If you would like to perform on the night,

please contact:

Stella Gibbs on 00408 816 856.

Date to be announced.....

Sunrise Children to perform at Sydney Opera House-Thursday 1 Oct, 8-11pm The Sydney Opera House is opening its doors for an exclusive performance to raise funds for the Sunrise Children‟s Villages Cambodian orphanages. MC‟d by Ray Martin and with generous performances from Australian talent, the event will also be injected with the vivid colour and textures of Cambodia, when thirty orphaned children take to the stage for a selection of unique tra-ditional dance routines depicting daily life in Cambodia. Geraldine Cox AM is the co-founder and „big Mum‟ of this project. The event will be a milestone in the lives of every child performing. It has been a project in the making for over a year, to raise the profile and awareness of what Sunrise is doing in Cambodia and to give the Sunrise children confi-dence, dignity, pride and a sense of how, through their beloved music and dance, they can show the beauty and grace of ancient Cambodia to the world. For more information visit

http://www.scv.org.au/news/default.asp

Peace & Understanding

Lecture, featuring Gerald-

ine Cox AM Wed 7 Oct, at 12.30pm:

School is just a Dream Wed 7 Oct, at 7.30pm:

Wealth of a Different Kind

After the performance at

the Opera House, Gerald-

ine will travel to Brisbane

to present the 2009 speak

about the vast disparities

between the educational

opportunities enjoyed by

children in western coun-

tries compared to the piti-

ful state of the Cambodian

education system. Her talk

is aimed at people of all

ages to appreciate and

value what so many of us

take for granted.

She talks about the

plight of abandoned street

children who do not even

dream of ever going to a

school or sleeping in a

clean bed, or having access

to clean drinking water.

She talks about schools

with no desks, no cafete-

rias, no playing fields, cer-

tainly no computers and

often without qualified

teachers.

Enq: Caria Tromans

Tel 07 3721 2488

International House,

5 Rock St, St Lucia, Qld

Geraldine Cox & children

from Sudanese Children’s

Villages in Cambodia

Teaching About Freedom, Rights and Responsibilities Beat the Rap was created by the refugee and Immigration Legal Service (RAILS) with School students from refugee and migrant

backgrounds. The DVD includes: Boys Don‟t Talk - an exciting 12-minute drama about teenage attraction, rejection, rights and responsibilities, featuring two great hip-hop tracks and a funky old song.

* Peacekeeper - song about peace through rules, rights and respect. * Fighting Violence - song about vio-lence, racism and pride - why do we fight? Can we find a way to stop it? * Beat the Rap - song about our rights and responsibilities with police, lawyers and courts. The DVD has sub-title options and the sup-port material is suitable for people who do not have English as their first language. To order, please contact:

Refugee & Immigration Legal Service,

PO Box 5143, West End, Qld, 4101.

Fax: 07 3844 3073


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Perception ..something to think

about - by Tulsi Devi at

[email protected] Washington DC, Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007.

The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately two thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After three minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule. 4 minutest later...The violinist received his first dollar . A woman threw the money in the hat and without stop-ping, continued to walk. 6 minutes later...A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again. 10 minutes later ...A three year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard

and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly. 45 minutes later...The musician played continuously. Only six people stopped and listened for a short while. About twenty people gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32. 1 hour later...He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recog-

nition.

No one knew this , but the violins was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin valued at $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out at a Theatre in Boston where seats averaged $200 . This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro sta-tion was organised by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people‟s priorities. The question raised; in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context? One conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made...How many other things are we missing? Visit Joshua Bell on www.myspace.com/joshuabell

Christelle Wehrmuller‟s story cont....Section 4: Absorbing the Differences in Italy. I returned to Alsace for the seminar, which I had booked to attend, to apply as a volunteer in Italy. After the seminar I started researching, ringing different associations, environmental, social, artistic..and trying to explain in English what I wanted to do. I had prepared short pres-entations in advance, such as: “Hello, my name is Christelle, I am French. Do you have a place for a volunteer in your associa-tion?” Lots of rejections later, I was excited to receive a positive reply from Italy. I didn‟t speak Italian at all, so I bought a tape on basic conver-sations and had three weeks to practice the lan-guage. This time I went there by train and the view was beautiful. When I arrived in Italy (Ceparana, Toscany), Paola, the Director of the Public Assistance Association, was waiting for me. He looked like a big happy bear; he made me feel at ease straight away. He made the effort to use the little French he knew. “Bon voyage? Tu as faim?” (good trip? Are you hungry?) He gave me a Bacci chocolate; it means „kiss‟. We drove to the association where they had ambulances parked at the front of the building. We entered a large lounge room and a strong smell of coffee hit me. Men were watching soccer on TV and shouting away. Paolo gave me a tour of „publicca assistenza‟. There was a kitchen, a bedroom, a room for the children who came after school, and next to it was a room for coffins. I found this mixture of services bizarre. Then I met all the young locals who surrounded me and all I could re-member in Italian was “my name is Christelle”, and that was all! They were talking to me and I couldn‟t understand a thing, it was a blank for me, how frustrating it was! We went to the restaurant with Paulo, plus another Italian man, and we literally spent the whole afternoon there. In the evening, back at the association, someone came with a stack of pizzas, the best pizzas in the world. Light and crispy, with fresh ingredients, all cooked in wood fire ovens.......No wonder Italians liked to eat pizzas so much! To be continued.....

Toscany landscape (Italy)

Pizzas in Italy

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The Magic Stone

Puppet Play by

Astrid Tholens

Oma (Grandma)

Anu (son) Alicia

(bird) Manu(donkey)

“I found it near the creek bed, and it seemed to speak to me, like it wanted me to pick it up.” “The trees have all gone now,” Oma sang to herself. “I‟ll never see them again. But the river remembers.” His Oma smiled a very old smile. She was pleased her grandson had heard the song of the trees. The next morning, Anu was determined to talk with Manu and Alicia about his plans for a far away journey to the ‟lost forest‟. “Manu will you carry me on my journey? And Alicia, will you look out for me and be my eyes? The two faithful friends nudged and pecked him as if to say: Oh yes, my dear friend. I want to take this jour-ney too. So the three-some set out on their journey in earnest. Anu knew it was going to be a long journey so he packed his bags with a blanket and some food and water and set out across the desert. He said good-bye to his Oma, and saw her crying tears of joy as she waved farewell. They came upon a small village where he saw some children playing. He wanted to play with them and rest for a while, so he stopped to say hello. “Hello, my name is Anu. Do you want to see my beautiful magic stone?” He told them the whole story, how the pattern on the stone was a picture of a leaf that belonged to the „lost forest‟, and how the dry-creek bed near his home had foretold that the stones could lead them to the forest! His new friends, Michelle and Jean-Paul, had a great idea. “Why don‟t we paint some pictures of leaves and trees so that when we find them we will know what they look like.” Anu was pleased with this idea and the next day, as the sun was just beginning to rise, they all be-gan to paint and paint. Anu drew a picture of a bright red leaf, with yellow spots. Michelle drew a picture of a blue pole with flags. And Jean-Paul drew a picture of a chimney. No-one really knew what a leaf or tree looked like. The children became even more excited about the journey to the ‟lost forest‟ and soon Anu‟s friends decided to join him on his journey. Everywhere they went they asked people they met if they knew where the forest lived with the exquisite leaves,

but no-one seemed to know. They rode further and further and almost gave up. But Anu‟s animal friends, Manu and Alicia, kept encouraging them to continue, almost as if they knew something. For Alicia had travelled far and wide, and she was not afraid of adventures.

Anu carried the magic stone in his pocket and rubbed it with his fingers so he wouldn‟t forget the hope that inspired him to take this journey! To be continued.....

The Magic Stone - story by Astrid Tholens (This story was also produced as a puppet play and performed by my grand-children)

Once upon a time there was a young boy called Anu. He was restless and wanted to have an adventure, so he took his animal friends, Manu the donkey and Alicia the bird, and rode off into the country. He was happy with the warm sun on his skin, and the gentle breeze blowing. He felt excited, as if something was going to happen. His parents had died when he was very young, so his Oma had taken him into her home and raised him. The country was desert-bare and there were no trees. He had heard from his Oma that many trees had died. And every time his Oma used to tell this story, he would cry. If only there was something he could do! He knew that somewhere there was a „lost forest‟ and one day he would find it. One day Anu was sitting near the dry river-bed and asked it for an answer: “Oh river, you used to be so strong and beauti-ful. What has happened to the trees? Can you help me find them, please?” And the dry river-bed sighed with sadness: “My river dried up long ago, and I don‟t re-member seeing any trees. But dig into my banks and maybe the stones will show you the way back to the forest.” When he looked down into the dry river-bed he saw the strangest stone he had ever seen. It was shining, just as if it was pleading with him to pick it up. As he held it, the stone vibrated in his hands as if it was alive, and then he saw the mysterious patterns on the stone - it was a „magic‟ stone! He ran home at great speed to find out from his Oma what it meant. His Oma looked at the stone intensely with her ageing eyes and her face lit up as she cried: “That‟s a picture of a leaf!” “What‟s a leaf, Oma?” “When we used to have trees in this land, the trees had leaves on them. Over time, the stones pressed down on the leaves and that‟s how you see this leaf‟s pattern. This must have been one of the prettiest leaves of all. Where did you find it?”

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Origin of Circle Dancing Once upon a time, they say, we danced our lives through—as we worked, played, ate, slept, fought, and loved. We danced to petition and ap-pease the gods, to help the sun rise, the rivers flow, and the plants grow and thrive. By dancing we un-derstood our power and our place in the universe, and through dance we transmitted this understand-ing to the next generation. We danced to celebrate life‟s rites of passage, from birth to death; through the dance we attuned to and imitated the rhythms, cycles and the awe-inspiring process of nature, and we danced to ex-press our joy, fear, grief, and hope. According to Bernhard and Maria Gabrielly Woslen, “Dancing has always been an imitation of the divine mystery in manifestation.” To live was to dance. Most importantly we danced together. We danced in a circle, the very symbol of unity and wholeness. Our circles created a sacred space, a Temenos, within which we created and recreated our cosmos and our realities. Outside was chaos and the unknown—within the circle was order, power and community Then came the rise of cities and trade, suppres-sion of “pagan‟ forms of celebration and worship and the ravages of industrialism. We lost touch with our earth and our communal unity. Our dance became more purely social; the circle became opposing lines and squares, then broke into couples, until recently we see the ultimate in disassociation—dancing alone, unaware of the whole and isolated from one an-other. The circle of the dance was broken, but the need for it remained deep in our psyches, in the places where we remember our wholeness. Excerpt titled ‘Dancing in Circles’ by Rowen from ‘Sacred Circle Dancing’ www.inthedance.com/CircleDance.html

Circle Dancing for Seniors - Every second Saturday at

Humanities Building, Ipswich, from 10am - 12pm.

Enquiries at U3A office or phone teacher on 0408 881 640.

FREE ACTIVE BREAK - 21Sept & 2 Oct The Free Active Breaks program is on again during the Sept-Oct school holidays. There will be rugby league sessions pro-vided by JETS, T-ball suitable for children with disabilities, plus martial arts, gymnas-tics, Samoan dancing, touch football, belly dancing, AFL, handball, softball, cheer-leading, hockey, indigenous dance and much more! Activities will be available during morning and afternoon sessions at four locations in Ipswich Limestone Park, Bill Oval Clubhouse Springfield Lakes Oval Clubhouse Evan Marginson Park, Goodna Soft-

ball Field Redbank Plains State School Oval For more information contact Kids Sports on 07 3030 9292 or visit www.kidssports.com.au.

Billy Cart Race: Springfield

11 Oct 2009—Start 9am Held at USQ Springfield.

Track location:

Sinnathamby Boulevard

FREE TO ENTER Minimum Driver age 10 yrs

All cars and drivers

will be tested prior

to commencing the race.

For more info:

www.usq.edu.au/springfield

Or contact Claire Morrison:

[email protected]

Circle Dancing

by members

of

Support Links

MAW—RAW Multicultural Active Women join Real Adventure Women

CANOEING .........COME & TRY Sat 10 Oct at 9.30am to 12.30pm, Cost $5 Springfield Lakes, Springfield What to Wear: Comfortable light clothes, hat, closed in shoes that can get wet. What to bring: Change of clothes, towel,your sense of adventure. You will be provided with:

All equipment & instructions, morning tea, gift bag, water bottle To Book: Mandy 07 3510 2719 or [email protected]

SL_Newsletter.Ed5-Iss1.0910

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pm movie

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ipswich library

westfalen community

community garden plans

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ipswich libraries