The Holiday and Travel Magazine: ACE LAUNCHES NEW CULTURAL FESTIVAL

Monday, 9 May 2022

ACE LAUNCHES NEW CULTURAL FESTIVAL

Established in 1984, Arts and Cultural Exchange is a Western Sydney based community arts organisation with five program pillars: First Nations, Youth Engagement, Multicultural Women, Artists with Disability and People in Aged Care, and Screen. We have a longstanding reputation for three things: we are committed to social justice, we use creativity to reverse disadvantage and we produce ground-breaking interdisciplinary, intergenerational collaborative projects co-devised with the communities with whom we work.

ACE’s hard won funding comes through grants from government departments and foundations, venue and equipment hire and donations. ACE is an ACNC registered charity with Deductible Gift Recipient status. Any donation over $2.00 is tax deductible. By supporting ACE you are investing in the creative empowerment and sustainability of some of Western Sydney’s most under-represented communities.

ABOUT BOURKE ABORIGINAL CORPORATION HEALTH SERVICE (BACHS)
Bourke Aboriginal Corporation Health Service (BACHS) was placed under administration by the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC) in December 2020. In the period leading up to and during the special administration, a significant portion of the Bourke Aboriginal Community stopped using the service and expressed their lack of faith in the organisation.

While BACHS was handed back to community control on 18 June 2021, with a newly appointed Board and senior management team, there are ongoing rifts in the community resulting in some community members not attending the service and therefore not receiving culturally appropriate health care they deserve.

MAYI Festival 2022 will involve BACHS working in partnership with A.C.E. and other service providers, organisations, community groups and critical individual community members over some time to develop elements of a shared community event.

MAYI will culminate in a single community healing event which will include an art show with prizes for age groups and their work. Other activities feeding into the more significant event may include cultural dancing by the Men's & Women's groups, handcrafts made by the BACHS lead Women's group Winarr-Karri and more. BACHS staff will actively participate in these groups, which will provide community members with a safe space on neutral ground for them to share their thoughts around the BACHS service and deal with past issues. The community event will also provide local services with the opportunity to have a stall.

The event will be free for the Bourke community and the Brewarrina L.G.A.

In partnership with the Deadly Blues/Maroons public health campaign, BACHS will have Deadly Blues/Maroons ambassadors and NRL players attend the event and contribute to improving our community's health outcomes as our staff NRL stars will model healthy behaviours and educate our community.

The community healing event will include live music and cultural performances from some of the finest evolving artists in Australia. This festival will demonstrate BACHS's commitment to cultural safety and its identity as an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service to the Bourke community.