157 What Can We Learn From Activist Artists in Australia? Part 1

When I describe BIGhART to folks in the U.S. theyaccuse me of making it up.What if telling a story could rewrite history, heal generational trauma, and reclaim a community’s stolen legacy?In a world where the voices of marginalized communities are often silenced or distorted, this episode explores how the arts—through projects like BIGhART and the Ngapartji Ngapartji and Namatjira initiatives—can become powerful instruments of cultural justice, truth-telling, and transformation. If you’ve ever wondered how creativity can confront systems of power and elevate unheard voices, this story offers living proof.In this episode we:Discover how a small arts organization in Australia sparked a global movement for Indigenous rights, language preservation, and youth empowerment.Learn how performance, storytelling, and community-led creativity dismantled colonial narratives and reclaimed stolen intellectual property.Be inspired by Scott Rankin’s vision of sacred, process-centered artistry that goes beyond performance to become a force for healing, justice, and deep social change.BIOScott co-founded Big hART with friend John Bakes in 1992. As CEO and Creative Director, Scott leads the overarching vision for all Big hART projects – from pilot through to legacy. A leader and teacher in the field of social and cultural innovation, Scott provides daily mentorship and knowledge transfer to all Big hART staff so that they can in turn lead our projects with confidence.An award winning writer and director in his own right, Scott’s works have been included many times in major arts festivals. His reputation is built on a quarter of a century of work, creating, funding and directing large-scale projects in diverse communities with high needs, in isolated settings.Big hART is Scott’s passionate contribution to the arts and society.Notable MentionsBIGhART: Authentic, high-quality art made with communities.Big hART brings virtuosic artists into communities to collaborate and create authentic stories which illuminate local injustice. We present these stories to mainstream audiences to help raise awareness. This builds public support for change and helps to protect vulnerable people.Everyone, everywhere has the right to thrive.Big hART works with communities experiencing high levels of need. Rather than focusing on the problem, our unique non-welfare projects build on community assets, strengthening vulnerable individuals, and creating long term attitudinal shifts. Our hope is for all communities to flourish.Positive, generational change begins as a cultural shift.Big hART designs and delivers transformative projects to address complex social issues. Our cultural approaches are evaluated and acknowledged as best practice. Decision makers seeking better solutions can use our award winning projects to help develop new and better policy. We aim to drive generational change.Ngapartji Ngapartji: Big hART designed the Ngapartji Ngapartji project to raise awareness of Indigenous language loss, and the lack of an national Indigenous languages policy. In order to create visibility around these issues, we launched a language and culture teaching portal, offered audiences the chance to learn Pitjantjatjara through a small teaching show, created short teaching films, as well as music and CDs with a Pitjantjatjara choir. We made a high profile documentary, and finally, a large award winning touring show for national festivals. By creating this range of art products, we attracted exceptional media and gained high level political interest in the issue. This assisted in driving a new Indigenous language policy and increased funding to help prevent language loss.Trevor Jamieson is a veteran of stage and screen with over 25 years of experience in the entertainment industry, and a long time creative partner with BIGhART. He is known as an Actor, Dancer, Musician and Storyteller and his portrait, taken by Brett Canet-Gibson, took out the People’s Choice award for the 2017 National Portrait gallery exhibition in Canberra.Trevor is not only an accomplished actor but is also known for his ability on the guitar and didgeridoo. Trevor has also received acclaim for his dance performances across the globe.Trevor was announced as a Permanent Ambassador for the Revelation Perth International Film Festival in 2017.Some of Trevor’s screen work includes Storm Boy; Thalu: Dreamtime is Now; Boys in the Trees. His stage credits include the Australian tour of The Season; the Sydney Theatre Company’s The Secret River; and the performance of Namatjira at Southbank, London in front of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.Art and Upheaval: Artists on the World's Frontlines - Citizen artists successfully rebuild the social infrastructure in six communities devastated by war, repression and dislocation. Author William Cleveland tells remarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict, heal unspeakable trauma, give voice to the forgotten and disappeared, and restitch the cultural fabric of their communities.Pitjantjatjara: The Pitjantjatjara (/ˌpɪtʃəntʃəˈtʃɑːrə/;[1] Pitjantjatjara: [ˈpɪɟanɟaɟaɾa] or [ˈpɪɟanɟaɾa]) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are varieties of the Western Desert language).They refer to themselves as aṉangu (people). The Pitjantjatjara live mostly in the northwest of South Australia, extending across the border into the Northern Territory to just south of Lake Amadeus, and west a short distance into Western Australia. The land is an inseparable and important part of their identity, and every part of it is rich with stories and meaning to aṉangu.[2]They have, for the most part, given up their nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle but have retained their language and much of their culture in synergy with increasing influences from the broader Australian community.Today there are still about 4,000 aṉangu living scattered in small communities and outstations across their traditional lands, forming one of the most successful joint land arrangements in Australia with Aboriginal traditional owners.Melbourne International Arts Festival: Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festival held in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne" rel="noopener noreferrer"...