Escape to Adelaide - A short story.
How good is Adelaide you ask? It’s so good!
Firstly an admission. I’m a Sydneysider. I grew up and loved its raw, unexpected and unvarnished corners. Corners which mostly seem to have been polished away these days, but this story isn’t about Sydney it’s about Adelaide. I married an Adelaide girl and have found myself here for Christmas’s and holidays over the years. Right now, during COVID, I find myself here again.
We had been living in Nepal and spent 3 months in lockdown earlier this year. It wasn’t so bad. We had a lovely garden and enjoyed endless lunches under its magical magnolia tree. The pollution disappeared and the Himalayas sparkled on the horizon but, after three months, we decided to leave. Who knew, who knows, how long this pandemic will last. So via two quarantines, Canberra and Adelaide, we arrived back here and (relatively) free from COVID.
It’s what happened next that was remarkable. The kids were in school by lunchtime on the first day out of quarantine and I was free! All the Adelaide attributes I used to turn my nose up at had become shining stars. The small, flat city? I ride my bike around in an hour, exploring alleyways and stopping here and there for food and coffee. The regimented square roads? No need for Google.
I’m a filmmaker, so my projects were all upside down, but it also seemed like a time to develop the ideas I’d developed over 10+ years of living in developing countries. An unexpected gift. A clear run without distractions.
This is where Adelaide really started to shine! It didn’t take me long to find St Paul’s Creative Centre. A government supported co-working space in an old church. It’s full of musicians, music promoters, app developers, with kitchens, printers, boardrooms, lounges, coffee and tea. Cool as heck! They hold events every week. A free sandwich here, a speaker’s event there. I’ve met executives from SA Music, Music Viva, SA Film and young freelancers of all stripes. It’s just two blocks from the city, so I can take a stroll to the Art Gallery, down the mall, or check out some clothes whenever I need some inspiration.
The creative agencies and government here seem to love the arts. They're not hard to find, willing to listen and happy to help. A friend of mine is editing at Lot 14 and its easy to see the ambition and possibilities.
I’ve started to think Adelaide doesn’t get how good they have it. They do, but do they really?
I’ve started to digitise and edit a documentary about a refugee-led education revolution in Indonesia, optioned and written a script for a film about crime and corruption on Hawaii’s North Shore, Welcome to Paradise, Now Go To Hell, and I’ve written a screenplay for an Antonioni-esque feature film set in the desert.
Thanks so much Adelaide. You’re the best. I might never leave!
Fela and the People
Part documentary and part rock- opera. Fela and the People is a kaleidoscope of colour, movement, rhythm and sound that will take its audience deep into the hidden cultural world of Nigeria.
My three years in Nigeria were some of the most valuable years of my life. As part of my debt to the country I have started a feature documentary Fela and the People. Below is the first synopsis for the film and some imagery taken from my time spent with Seun Kuti, Fela's youngest son.
Please get in touch if you would like to know more.
I'm activated!
After spending a week at our beloved Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre I am sitting at the airport with a renewed determination. What can we do to counter Trump, and an Australian government who supports his policies?
Well, I’m doubling down on supporting the CRLC. I’m coming back to Australia with new gusto and determination. Now it’s more important than ever to reach out from behind our government. We have to show the world that generosity of spirit, connection across borders and helping each other is the only way. Locking out defenceless people and bullying the most needy is not the right direction.
This week at the CRLC I spent the first few days watching family after family line up to register. 25 new names just this week! One family of six had arrived from Kunduz two days ago. You could still see war in their faces and in the way they held their bodies. I was thinking what can we do?
And then straight after that, the horror of this weekend. The realisation that this really is happening.
One of our best teachers is affected. After nearly fours years of valiantly waiting in 'the queue’, and two years of volunteer teaching at the CRLC, she was days away from going to the USA. No one knows what will happen now.
Another family, after three years has been asked to come to the airport on the 31st. We can only hope.
Samie, who was 14 and living on the streets outside the UNHCR when we met, was due to leave today. I just heard he has boarded the plane. What will happen when he arrives? Will they send an orphaned 16 year old boy back to the Jakarta streets? You can read more about his story in the NY Times here.
https://www.nytimes.com/…/trump-middle-east-refugees-ban.ht…
The school is running like clockwork under our fiercely determined and talented manager, Tahira. The students have advanced incredibly. Every kid comes up for a chat in English, which is now as good as any their age. The mornings are full of classes and bells and playtime, as teachers prepare lessons in the lounge. There are 50+ older women in the afternoons learning ABCD. Online classes run downstairs and Australian volunteer teacher’s voices ring out through Skype. The older students stay at school all day to work on presentations and projects.
I’m so proud of everyone there, and so proud to have helped make this happen.
I arrive back tomorrow morning and the work starts then. I’m going to be knocking on your door. Cake stalls, fundraisers, lounge room presentations, university talks. I’m in. If you want to know what the refugees are really like. Invite Muzafar and I to speak. We can screen our film for you. Want to volunteer teach via Skype? Let us know. We can arrange internships too, live with the refugees and get to know the community. You’ll see pretty quickly they’re not much of a danger.
Make a donation at Cisarualearning.com right now. It’ll go towards the education of some of the best people you are ever likely to meet - the teachers, managers and students at the CRLC.
The smartest woman in Africa
During my time in Nigeria I was lucky to become friends with Bibi and her partner Jeremy. They run Cassava Republic Press, Nigeria's premiere book publishing company, with a mission to encourage Nigerians and Africans to read stories about their lives, told from an African perspective. A mission they attack with religious fervour and zeal!
As part of the Nigerianstories.com web series I interviewed Bibi and have never forgotten what she said. For me, like her, no matter what anybody tells me, it is culture that sits at the core of everything else that we do. Everything. And that is why our stories, and who tells them, are so critically important. In Africa. In Nigeria. In Australia.
Enjoy the wisdom.