Press Clippings 11

SAIL with the Flow

Every Saturday, at the May Street Hall in West Footscray, the Sudanese Australian Integrated Learning (SAIL) Program takes place. SAIL is a non-profit, volunteer–run, secular, education, recreation and welfare program for the Sudanese refugee community in Melbourne. Having begun with modest numbers, SAIL is now a thriving and lively community gathering, with approximately 150 members of the Sudanese community and over 100 volunteers.

A group of young Sudanese from the SAIL Program have been participating in a creative writing and performance workshop program as part of the Flow project. Working with community artist, writer and performer, berni m janssen, the group explored many aspects of ‘the river’, from the environmental to the metaphoric. The group explored how the river, as a metaphor, could relate to their life and their journey as refugees from Africa to Australia.

SAIL celebrated their second birthday on August 30 with birthday cake and the requisite singing, and performances by a group of young Sudanese and various members of the Sudanese community, including Akon and the Dinka Dancers. As part of this celebration the Flow project participants presented their text in their first public performance to their community.

The focus of the performance for the SAIL celebrations was ‘life as a river’. Stories of the participants’ journeys from and through Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Egypt, to arrive in the West, were interspersed with poetic reflections on the nature of rivers. Several pieces were further enhanced with music.

Hot, rapid, angry river runs down my throat and
Makes me shiver. The sun goes down and a moon awakes,
The river flows and shapes a snake.
The waves rise up and a tide,
The river rages on and destroys a village.
The river calms when the sun comes up.
The spirits rise to show the river never sleeps.
(Extract from group poem, 31 May 2003)

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