Gumbaynggirr, Ezidi, Congolese: We are all one under the Australian sun

Naomi Steinborner, the project coordinator, identified the need to create spaces for young people to come together across cultures.

“Young people have told me that they attend school with many culturally diverse students, and yet they are quite separated from each other and exist in their own little siloes. They don’t necessarily talk across cultural groups.

“By the end of the first song writing workshop, they were hugging and adding each other on social media. It was very easy for them to break down those barriers and to form strong bonds. They were able to share their experiences with racism and their hopes for the future.”

Naomi said a highlight of the program was a Song Writing Collective that brought together a culturally diverse network of young people to collaborate on writing, performing and producing a song that draws on lived experiences of racism and gives a voice to young people’s vision for a cohesive and inclusive community.

One of the young participants from the Song Writing Collective provided the following feedback in an anonymous survey: “I loved meeting other people who were as passionate as me about music. I also loved the feeling of knowing that our song could make an impact on other people’s thinking and understanding of racism.”

The All One Under the Sun project has responded to emerging issues between newly settled Ezidi communities and local Aboriginal communities. The project engaged young Gumbaynggirr and Ezidi men in hip-hop dance workshops with the aim of strengthening cross-cultural understandings and ties between two communities who have both experienced recent and historical trauma.

Naomi said All One Under the Sun “is very much taking the approach of strengthening understanding, relationships and respect for everyone involved in the project for First Nations culture and history. And at the same time sharing cultures and experiences of community from refugee backgrounds. We are finding that creating opportunities for people to come together and build relationships across cultures is creating a shared understanding and building resilience.” Naomi has also drawn on her professional experience as a theatre director and creative producer to support the All One Under The Sun project.

Another creative output of the project is the Stand Up, Stand By theatre show. This youth-led storytelling performance weaves real scenarios and experiences with poetry, hip-hop, film and dance to explore how racism feels, what it looks like and how the role of the bystander can have a positive impact when a racist incident occurs. Performers from local schools along the Mid-North Coast worked with theatre professionals and completed anti-racism bystander training to prepare for the show. Performances at Jetty Theatre in Coffs Harbour were sold out and the show also toured to the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta.

Kofela Lundindi, known as Roger, was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997 and settled in Coffs Harbour with his family in late 2016 as a refugee.

For Roger, the Stand Up, Stand By theatre production presents and highlights the challenges he faced upon arriving in Australia.

“Having been through the experience of being a refugee and settling into a new country, I can relate to the young people coming from similar backgrounds,” Roger said. “I have had to learn skills on how to keep centred and stay calm. I want to help young people when they are going through difficult times, so they don’t struggle and can have a happy ending in their life.”

Roger, who became a youth ambassador offering mentorship to other young people involved with the program, described the practical implications of the idea of bystander empowerment.

“As part of Stand Up, Stand By, I am a performer and a mentor to young people from Orara High School,” Roger said. “The play shows how bystanders can help when someone experiences racism. It asks people to think about what they would do. Would you stand up and help or just watch and let it happen?”

Roger said that he would like to find ways to use art and music to serve the community.

“Young people often don’t get a chance to speak. This [project] has been an amazing way to share our thoughts and experiences and has given our voices a public platform.

“I fell in love with the goals of the project, which are to spread awareness about racism and to make a change in our community.

“Even just one individual making that change, and learning about how it feels, makes a difference.”

WATCH: Creativity as a remedy to racism in Coffs Harbour

This powerful documentary follows the All One Under the Sun project from 2022 to 2024, capturing a community-led response to racism through the arts. It places a spotlight on migrant and refugee youth, including a courageous Ezidi woman who shares her harrowing story of survival and resilience as well as cross-community theatre and music projects.