Virtual choir project a celebration of culture, connection

Centre For Multicultural Youth Ballarat and Wimmera launched the final product of its intercultural choir project Awa earlier this month.

Sixty young people and their families from across the region participated as vocalists, musicians, dancers or artists in the virtual music project and were featured in the performance video.

Centre For Multicultural Youth Ballarat and Wimmera team leader Shiree Pilkinton said the aim of the project was to keep people connected and engaged throughout the pandemic and lockdown periods.

"It was a creative way of establishing something where there was at least that weekly contact to help with our general health and well-being through social connections," she said.

"The purpose of it was to have something positive. At least 12 different cultures got involved, which was a great outcome."

Watch the virtual choir performance video below.

Awa is a traditional Ghanaian children's song that means 'excited to hug you'. A youth group in Ghana was involved in the project and submitted performance videos.

One of the project's youth mentors Soe San Di Myint Shwe Ta Lee, from Horsham, said she was proud to be a part of the project and leader of the Karen dancing group featured in the video.

"It is very special for me because I love to show and share my culture," she said.

"During this whole lockdown I have felt very unproductive and it made me feel a little bit useless, but looking back, being part of such an awesome project boosted my confidence and made me feel proud."

Fellow youth mentor Karissa Cribbes, from Ballarat, led the visual arts elements of the project. She said the final video represented people from a variety of cultures and communities.

"It was a rare opportunity to be able to connect from Ballarat to Horsham and Nhill which maybe wouldn't have happened if everyone wasn't online," she said.

Ms Pilkinton said Centre For Multicultural Youth had started its program in the Wimmera only five weeks before COVID-19 hit, so this project was also a response to the challenging task of gaining traction in a new region without a physical presence.

More than 60 young people and their families joined the online launch party for the project on August 1. Centre For Multicultural Youth staff organised a delivery of party packs to each participant to share food and pop party poppers together during the video call.

"You don't really expect to be able to connect to people through a screen, but in the launch party it was really fun, especially coming home to party poppers," Ms Cribbes said.

"Everyone got the same thing, as if we were all in the same place eating the same food. It was really creative," Ms Shwe Ta Lee said.

"It was the closest thing to being together in one room you could get in the circumstances," Ms Pilkinton said.

The Awa video has been viewed more than 8500 times on social media. Visit youtube.com/watch?v=J4JaR5B_H3c.