Year 10s
In Step With Human Rights
by John Collins, teacher of Individuals & Societies/History
It was a cool, grey Melbourne morning when the Year 7s & 10s gathered at Federation Square for the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival youth forum at ACMI. A light drizzle was hazing the sky and across the road where the throngs of people were going in and out, but mainly out, of Flinders Street station, a dance of umbrellas was hurrying through the intersection. The students huddled together until it was time to venture into ACMI.
We all heard the keynote address by Elliot Costello, co-founder and CEO of YGAP (Y-Generation Against Poverty). YGAP aim to empower and enable local leaders and entrepreneurs to make local positive change in communities to alleviate and ultimately eradicate poverty. This was followed by a panel discussion involving Melbourne’s creative collective Cheeseagle - contemporary and street artist, Kaff-eine and creative director and producer, Emily Cheesman. They were joined by 24-year-old Wiradjuri woman, Charlotte Allingham, an illustrator whose works focus on representation and activism. They discussed their creative process and how that crosses over with their wider aims of using art as a vehicle to create action through raising awareness of social issues.
At this point in the morning, students began going into different workshops of their choice. Some watched an amazing documentary called Step (dir. Amanda Lipitz, 2017) which follows a step team from a girls’ Baltimore high school. This was followed by a Q&A with Tayla Solomon, one of the stars of the team/film who had flown over for the HRAFF youth forum. In the audience was the US Consul General Frankie A Reed who also grew up in Baltimore. She picked up on some of the themes in the film and spoke about the importance of community and of forging connections between people to enhance the lives of all.
Others students had gone into a UN Youth simulation where they had to work in groups to deal with an asylum seeker crisis. They got a taste of the complexities that governments (federal and state) and non-governmental organisations have to work with in order to effectively deal with humanitarian situations. Other sessions gave students an opportunity to use virtual reality technology to go inside the Manus Island detention centre or experience life as a subsistence farmer.
Everyone had taken something out of the day. It was inspiring and uplifting to see how such a diverse set of people was able to use such different methods to address human rights issues in the world.
For the Year 10s, the theme will be continued with an excursion to the Immigration Museum to undertake the “Global Citizenship: It Starts With Us” workshop, facilitated by the amazing educator and ex-Preshil staff member, Margaret Hepworth. After that Year 10 students will also be visiting the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Elsternwick as part of their studies in Individuals and Societies, for what is always an incredibly powerful experience.
Back at ACMI, once everyone said their farewells, I went out to my bike which was chained up at Fed Square only to find that, while I was in these inspiring presentations on human rights delivered by some incredible people, someone a little less incredible had stolen my bike. It was probably a good thing that I’d been given a hefty dose of perspective by the day’s presentations, so I set off for the tram to make my way home. The drizzle started again… and my raincoat was in my bike bag!