Michelle Evans

Indigenous Ways of Teaching and Knowing: A case study of teaching Indigenous Arts Management

Michelle Evans — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:07:48 PDT

Community Cultural Development - A Policy for social change?

Michelle Evans — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 01:46:18 PST

This thesis explores the area of Community Cultural Development (CCD) through a longitudinal Case Study. It postulates that the potential long-term outcomes of a successful CCD process, including the creation of communities and networks, as well as continuing cultural development for the participants, are frustrated by arts policy and funding. The analysis of the Case Study is contextualised by an examination of the history of CCD in Australia and the cultural policy framework for the funding of CCD projects.

This thesis addresses the following question: Do the long-term outcomes - of creating networks, creation of communities and continued cultural development - succeed? It is hypothesised that CCD can achieve social change through two types of long term outcomes. The two types of longterm outcomes are - personal level outcomes and community level outcomes. Both levels of outcomes are examined in relation to the Case Study. However, the cultural policy framework for CCD does not support long-term CCD. It is problematic on many levels - funding, evaluation, and the infrastructure support of CCD. It is asserted that there is urgent need for a re-assessment on the way in which CCD is supported in Australia. And that this assessment examines whether the sector is in fact supportive of the aim of CCD - to effect social change.

CCD is a process and an artform underpinned by a social change agenda. This research aims to further develop the academic body of work in the field of CCD, to create new questions, ideas and problems for further research to build upon.

Talking the Walk: A communication manual for Partnership Practitioners

Michelle Evans — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:16:23 PDT

Genuine partnership engagement requires clearly identifying those who may be marginalised or excluded. This identification entails looking beyond individuals and organisations who ‘speak’ on behalf of a partner or stakeholder group, to those who do not. In making such an assessment, partnership practitioners need to recognise that the space for different voices to be heard is shaped by particular contexts and cross-cutting issues such as age, class, cultural beliefs, ethnicity, gender, rural/urban background, political affiliation and education/health status, all of which may change over time and will need careful unpacking.

Review of Creating Frames: Contemporary Indigenous Theatre by MaryRose Casey

Michelle Evans — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:09:53 PDT

Casey has written this collection of stories/memories using a critical framework of contested social memory. Her accounts throughout the book are based on individual interviews with many of the founding members of Australia’s Indigenous theatre scene. This qualitative approach and framework remains subject to contestation based on the memories of the practitioners. And in fact, this book exemplifies the lack of documentation of Indigenous theatre.

The Courage to Speak Out

Michelle M. Evans — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:00:03 PDT

The Wilin Centre’s Courageous Conversations National Talking circle was held in April 2009, and its focus was on the Indigenous performing arts. Ten individuals were asked to present a courageous conversation, as a matter of public record, about the state of the nation’s Indigenous performing arts and training sectors. The brief prepared by Wilin for these artists and arts leaders asked them to present their experiences, ideas for the future, and challenges and opportunities for the sector and for training Indigenous artists.

Bibididen Wilin: 'sparking' a fire

Michelle Evans — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:22:18 PST

The Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development at the Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts (University of Melbourne) presented an address by the Head of the Wilin Centre Michelle Evans framed by a traditional welcome to country by the Chair of the Wilin Centre Senior Elder of the Wurundjeri people, Aunty Joy Wandon Murphy, an introduction by the Patron of the Wilin Centre, Mr Mark 'The black' Olive, and a short duologue by Ms Maurial Skuthorpe Spearim and Ms Uraine Mastrasavas, Indigenous drama students of the Faculty.

Fan their flames: a collaborative model for information delivery to Indigenous students at the Victorian College of the Arts Library, University of Melbourne

Michelle Evans et al. — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:04:02 PDT

In 2006, a new postgraduate course in Indigenous Arts Management was offered by the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development, in association with the School of Production at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), Melbourne. This Graduate Certificate course aims to provide applied education in the area of Indigenous Arts Management and to facilitate empowerment and self-determination amongst Indigenous artists and community leaders who seek to manage, market and protect Indigenous arts product in local, national and international contexts.

This paper will examine the collaborative model used to provide library orientation, information literacy training, information services and collection building services to the specific cohort of students enrolled in this course and their teaching staff. Staff of the Lenton Parr Library at the VCA, and the Wilin Centre developed specific programs to assist students in accessing information requirements for their units. Students are sought and drawn from all over Australia, including remote areas, arriving with different educational achievements and information literacy levels as a result. Students generally require individual assistance, as well as encouragement in participative learning, at the same time developing their professional networks. It is this mix of requirements and differences that have inspired a more holistic program for this cohort of students. Issues to be examined include intensive delivery of information literacy using multiple teaching styles, remote resource access requirements, electronic resources, collection development and relationship building. These will be presented alongside an overview of the course and the generic skills students are expected to develop, as well as how these are aligned to their information needs while completing the course and beyond, to assist in life long learning.

Growing Indigenous Arts Leadership

Michelle Evans — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:00:15 PDT

The arts inspire and express the many cultures and societies of the world. They reflect the spectrum of the spirit, from the inspirational to the darkness of humanity. The arts and culture in Indigenous communities function on many levels – as tradition, as expression, as story - song, - dance, and as an economic activity. Through the arts, Indigenous communities link the past, present and future. The Indigenous arts and cultural sector is vibrant, complex and the site for much consideration of the leadership artists and arts managers play in Indigenous cultural and economic development.

This paper aims to explore what’s known of Indigenous leadership development in Australia through a scoping study of the literature available. This will then be compared with other Indigenous leadership development literature from around the world, I seek to clarify key themes and concepts for the development of Indigenous leaders like the acknowledgement of the diversity of Indigenous approaches and the importance of place and community in leadership work. I will place this body of knowledge into an arts and cultural context through a case study on the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural development.

The Wilin Centre is situated in the Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts at the University of Melbourne. It is a unique Indigenous centre in that it is 95% philanthropically funded and based on a strategic purpose of cultural transformation. The paper will explore how the Wilin Centre supports the leadership development of individual Indigenous artists and their communities.