UBUNTU
UBUNTU
A Theatre Training and Upskilling Initiative for Young People of African Descent
What is it?
Ubuntu Theatre Project, led by JUTE Theatre Company in partnership with Centacare FNQ and Cairns African Association, is an extension of the 2022 pilot program ‘Breaking Ground’. The project aims to establish a culturally strong and creatively independent theatre company led by and for refugees and migrants.
It focuses on teaching transferrable skills through an arts-based model rooted in Ubuntu philosophy for young people aged 15-26 from African, refugee, and migrant backgrounds Ubuntu is an indigenous African Philosophy. The word ‘Ubuntu’ is derived from, ‘Umuntu’ meaning, a human being, from the southern African Nguni languages (isiZulu/isiXhosa/isiNdbele). Deeply rooted in the value of collectivism, which stresses the importance of community as opposed to individualism, which focuses on the person on an individual level, it gave rise to the Zulu maxim of ‘Umuntu ungumuntu ngabantu’, meaning, my being is tied to your being, or as widely interpreted today, I am because you are.
Project Aims:
– Create inclusive, creative spaces for new Australians to express themselves.
– Increase access to public platforms for their stories.
– Develop a theatrical work by and for African youth.
– Improve wellbeing, identity, belonging, empathy, and community inclusion.
Project Schedule:
Ubuntu Theatre Project is a 12-month program commencing on the 1st of July 2024 – 30 June 2025. The project will be delivered in three stages.
– Stage 1 (July – September 2024): Stakeholder consultations, program co-design workshops, and auditions for 20 participants.
– Stage 2 (September – December 2024): Workshop series and script development.
– Stage 3 (January – June 2025): Creative development, rehearsals, and final showcase.
FACILITATOR / DIRECTOR: GRACE EDWARD
Grace is a Playwright, Director, and Creative Producer from Yei, South Sudan. Grace fell in love with the power of storytelling as a child and was able to nurture that raw passion into a craft through the years.
Through her Bachelor of Arts in Contemporary and Applied Theatre, Grace was able to find a medium of storytelling that made space for community advocacy and development; a tool to understand one another better.
As a storyteller, Grace explores different aspects of what it means to be a third-culture child and a person of African descent, living on stolen land. Grace has co-written, produced, and directed four theatre productions in Brisbane, ‘Linking Generations project’ 2018, ‘Skin Deep’ 2019, ‘Tales from the Colony’ 2020, ‘People of Colours’ 2021. She has also been honing her skills as a creative producer, project manager, audience development strategist and arts worker in various roles with some of Queensland’s leading theatre companies and performing arts centres.
Grace has also completed a Master of Creative Industries with a major in Creative Production and Art Management and co-founded the Youth CALD Disability Collective in 2020.
