Starting in five local primary schools in February 2023, ‘Something Happened Here’ is a new multi-media project linking local artists and Bathurst Wiradyuri Elders with students, teachers and communities.

Arts OutWest and partner The Project Zone have received $25,067 funding from the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund for the 7-month project.

‘Something Happened Here’ will focus on the topics of truth telling, treaty and the Voice to Parliament from which students will create short films, dioramas and soundscapes based on the stories and histories the students hear, research and develop in scripts.

Five schools in the Bathurst region will be involved: Trunkey Creek PS, O’Connell PS, Perthville PS, Rockley PS and Bathurst West PS.

‘Something Happened Here’ is led by author/script writer Paul Stafford and filmmaker Vince Lovecchio. Their Central West based enterprise The Project Zone delivers innovative projects utilising the power of story, technology and creativity. Past projects include the historical-comedy schools film project, History Here, (winner of a 2018 National Trust Award); Bigger than Ben Hall (winner of a 2019 Museums and Galleries national award), and STEM project Wahluu Racing Team, a collaboration with Bathurst Wiradyuri Elders.

‘Something Happened Here’ involves a combination of on-site skills workshops with the schools and follow up video-conference link-ups. Activities will include talking with Elders and First Nations community members, writing and film making, music/soundscape making with Mitchell Conservatorium of Music, and doing research with staff at the State Library Learning Centre at the Mitchell Library using the library’s digital archive.

“The focus is on skills development in young people so they feel they have agency, autonomy and are listened to in the political and social drive for change,” Vince Lovecchio said.

“The project is also about communication and relationships between Wiradyuri Elders and small communities around Bathurst, hopefully opening new pathways for reconciliation and a greater understanding of social issues and history,” Paul Stafford said.

The schools will bring together young people, their families and communities to talk with Elders, highlighting European – Wiradyuri first contact stories.

“The project will consult with First Nations people in the community regarding the stories and topics they feel safe to tell, and the way they wish to tell them, so that the young people can then express what those topics mean to them in context of their own lives,” said Paul Stafford.

The completed artworks will be shared in a community exhibition, virtual galleries and inclusion in 2024 bicentennial commemoration of Martial Law on Wirayjuri Country.

More about The Project Zone:  www.theprojectzone.com.au

IMAGE: Bathurst West PS students involved in a film about the tragic Potato Patch incident that occurred on a property in what we now know as Kelso, along the Macquarie Wambol River.