The Wizards of the Wire workshops invite local young people living on Bundjalung country to experience the therapeutic benefits of 'funambulism' (wire walking with a balance pole) and to be part of the cultural activation of reclaiming Con Colleano as a Lismore-born, Gamilaroi man, the original Wizard of the Wire. The workshops are a post-flood creative recovery initiative which has received funding from the NSW Government through Create NSW and the Office of Regional Youth.
SeedArts has partnered with The Rivers Secondary College to offer the workshops for local staff and students from the three College campuses - Richmond River High (totally decimated in the 2022 floods), Lismore High and Kadina High. The workshops are part of our mission to co-create socially engaged arts experiences with by and for regional communities, celebrating local stories, people and places.
The Wizards of the Wire workshops are designed to provide leadership opportunities for Indigenous young people to ‘walk in Con’s shoes’ through walking the wire. Con’s extraordinary life and legacy will be explored through a series of complementary visual arts sound and photography workshops that place young people at the centre of the cultural activation of Con, as the elders of tomorrow. The workshops are delivered in the Lismore Quad, on site where the work is being made during SeedArts’ residency from May 25 to July 10 2023.
The first Wizards of the Wire workshop is on June 16 2023 with students from the Rivers’ Secondary College’ , the Widjabul Wiyabul Indigenous leadership team and two Aboriginal dance troupes. We then seek to invite a willing and able Indigenous participants for further training in the lead up to performing an assisted walk with professional Indigenous circus artists for large-scale highwire event, The Xrossing, July 8 & 9 2023 in the Lismore Quad.
A second set of workshops are delivered on 26 - 28 June for Rivers’ Secondary College Years 7 - 10 Drama and PE students to also learn about Con Colleano through funambulism, visual arts, music, movement and photography. Eligible workshops participants will be invited to participate as 'community walkers' in The Xrossing. Further funambulist training will be offered at the Quad from July 1 - 4, with rehearsals on July 6 & 7 and shows July 8 & 9 2023.
For more community-activated international Funambulism in 2022 events see below. Thank you to Australia Council funding, we went, we saw them & wanted to Do This (back) At Home!