Australia's dance and music comes to Tonga [1]
Saturday, February 26, 2005 - 13:24. Updated on Saturday, May 3, 2014 - 18:03.
Audiences in Nuku'alofa will have a new experience in contemporary music and dance on Monday 28 February and Tuesday 1 March, when the celebrated Australian Group Platypus, performs in Tonga.
Platypus brings together traditional and modern Australian artists of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Anglo-Celtic descent. Their performances are a story telling through song, movement and instrumental improvisation evoking the vast Australian landscape and its complex cultural heritage.
The group, led by wind instrumentalist, Paul Jarman, will bring to its performances the skills of singers, multi-instrumentalists, dancers and choreographers, painters, composers and instrument inventors. Their two day programme includes a Public Concert at the Queen Salote Memorial Hall on Tuesday night of 1 March at 7.30 pm,
They will spend the afternoon of Monday, 28 February, in professional workshops with students at Tonga's `Atenisi Institute, sharing experiences and skills in music making, song and dance.
The visit by Platypus to Tonga is funded by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (images by Australia Branch) through Musica Viva Australia, and is being supported locally by Westpac Bank of Tonga and the ANZ Bank.
The Australian High Commissioner to Tonga, Mr Colin Hill, said an ...Australia Incorporated... approach to the presentation of Australia's cultural diversity was welcome. "The support of Australia...s major banks in helping bring cultural performances of this kind to Tonga assists in broadening Tonga's understanding of modern Australia."
Westpac Bank of Tonga will provide ground transport for the group and is also providing funding to enable concerts to be staged on Tuesday, 1 March at the Queen Salote Memorial Hall for more than 650 primary and secondary school students, and for a public concert that evening.
The ANZ Bank is supporting a private recital at the Australian High Commissioner's Residence.
The Platypus group consists of virtuoso wind instrumentalist Paul Jarman; Colin Offord who plays the "Great Island Mouthbow" an original instrument he invented; the acclaimed Aboriginal choreographer-dancer Bernadette Walong; didgeridoo player and Koori musician Adam Hill; and Torres Strait Island dancer-singer Albert David.