Bass Coast Arts news and features

Please share our journey

28/10/2020

Safina Stewart: “Many of my artworks are best described as a pilgrimage. A journey into silent depths …”

By Safina Stewart

NAIDOC Week! The stage is ours to shout, ‘This is the magnificence of our people! This is the ancientness of our lineage! This is the sacredness of our land; hear the beauty of our languages, see the creativity of our culture, feel the depth of our stories, the gravity of our struggle, the power of our passion! Meet us where we are at.’

I’m a storyteller. With Aboriginal (Wuthithi Country), Torres Strait (Mabuiag Island), Ambonese, English and Scottish heritage I am a bridge builder striving for restoration and healing. As a member of the local community in Bass Coast I honour those who have gone before, those who are here now, and those who are yet to come.

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History with a twist wins non-fiction prize

14/10/2020

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Linda Cuttriss’s story At Screw Creek will be published in the next issue of the Post.

By Catherine Watson

BASS Coast writer Linda Cuttriss has won the 2020 Bass Coast Prize for Non-Fiction with At Screw Creek, part true detective story, part local history, part family history.

The judges commented that this was local history at its best – not just a succession of dates and events but an engaging story with a narrative drive and a search for understanding.

Second prize has gone to Drouin writer Jeannie Haughton for Who Speaks for the Trees and Creeks? Part memoir, part polemic, this is a powerful piece of writing, concluding with an urgent call to action and a plea not to give in to despair.

Equal third prize went to Lucinda Bain of Eltham for Paper Thin and Max Hayward of North Melbourne for Sometimes Nothing Can Happen But Fire.

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Armchair arts tour

1/10/2020

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The Coastal Connections project combines words, images, music and film.

Music in the Bass Coast Air

Spring is here, the blossom is out and there is music in the air. Nature writer Michael McCarthy thinks of spring birdsong as blossom in sound. We’d like to hear how you experience the songs and sounds of the natural world.

The call out to Bass Coast composers and musicians for the Coastal Connections project is generating some wonderful conversations and collaborative possibilities. We have heard from multi-instrumentalists, acoustic guitarists and digital artists who create experimental music with loops and pedals. We have listened to the recordings of a musician who interweaves sounds of nature into his compositions; birds at dawn, frogs at dusk and ocean waves in which smooth pebbles in the water rub against each other and create a percussive sound. A local musician has shared a draft of a composition in which he has set to music the words written by a community member about her special place by the sea.

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The bright lights of Coronet Bay

1/10/2020

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By Di Lutz

A RAINBOW Garden has appeared on the foreshore at Coronet Bay. A marvellous display using hundreds of plastic bottles donated after a call went out to the community, it’s a sight to behold against a back drop of coastal beauty, or in the evening when it is lit under a starry sky.

It was all done with the help of a happy band of artisans and volunteers, a couple of talented tradesmen who gave freely of their time and support from Bass Coast Council.

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The Bass Coast sound

18/9/2020