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Local lovers of Yoga – and there’s an awful lot of them wandering the streets of West End – will be heading over to Bowen Hills next month to take part in YogaFest, Australia’s largest Yoga Festival now in its 8th year.
According to Festival organiser, Jonathan Murphy, YogaFest just keeps getting bigger and bigger, with this year’s event featuring more than 90 presenters, including some of Australia’s most experienced yoga teachers, dance, ayurveda, massage, delicious healthy food, yoga related market stalls, and inspirational music concerts.
“There’s something for everyone at the YogaFest,” says Jonathan. “Experienced yogis can choose from a large range of workshops over the weekend, or for those newer to yoga, there are gentler yoga classes available, meditation and relaxation classes, and the option to listen to music, enjoy delicious food, receive a massage, and relax in the garden between yoga classes.”
The festival features two full days of yoga and related workshops, finishing each day with music concerts.
Over 100 local Westenders attended a Fight for Public Parks rally in Davies Park on Saturday June 7.
Addressing the rally were Gabba Ward Councillor Helen Abrahams, West End Community Association President, Dr Erin Evans, Federal Member for Griffith, Ms Terri Butler, and Adjunct Associate Professor Phil Heywood.
I caught up with Cr Abrahams before the rally and asked her what she hoped it would achieve. She said the most important thing is to inform people about what is happening under the current Brisbane City Council Administration. “They’re increasing the number of people they propose to put into the West End and they are reducing the amount of parks…” she said.
Councillor Helen Abrahams
Cr Abrahams said the current city plan proposes seven new parks for the West End and South Brisbane, but that the new City Plan, which comes into effect on July 1, 2014, removes four of those parks and replaces them with plazas. Plazas she said, are not parks.
A number of local residents also spoke with me at the rally telling me they are concerned that parks and infrastructure are not keeping up with growth into the region. Click here to listen to residents who attended the rally
Dr Erin Evans, President of WECA
West End Community Association President, Dr Erin Evans kicked off the rally with an appeal to residents to sign an e-petition to the Brisbane City Council which asks Council to honour the plan for parks in West End, and to not replace them with plazas. A plaza, Dr Evans said, is not a park. “A plaza is privately owned land, it’s paved, and it’s probably got cafes around the sides, it is actually probably more for pedestrian corridors, rather than open spaces”, she said.
Stressing the importance of public parks as opposed to plazas, Dr Evans said that as the population grows at the projected rate, 89 percent of people in the area will be living in apartments, and many of those will be families with children. “We need the public space, we can’t just get what the developers leave over”, she said.
Terri Butler, Federal Member for Griffith
Terri Butler, Federal Member for Griffith, told the crowd that Westenders are not alone in their struggle, and that residents in Bulimba, Kangaroo Point and Coorparoo, are all facing development issues. She stressed that the question is not one of being pro or anti-development, “… it’s one of wanting sustainable development that takes into account the needs of the local residents into the future.” Parks, she said, are not a trivial or peripheral issue, “This is an issue about the quality of life of residents in our cities, and that should be front and centre on the agenda of all politicians”, she said.
Local Resident and Adjunct Associate Professor in Urban and Regional Planning at Queensland University of Technology, Phil Heywood, outlined seven ways in which he thinks residents can advance the cause of parks for the West End. “By talking to friends and neighbours…, attending demonstrations like this, signing petitions…, writing blogs, for those that way inclined, sending emails.., using social media, making your voice heard in community associations like WECA, the West End Trader’s Association, and Parents and Citizens Associations, and political parties; all political parties”, he said, adding, “We want a suburb that remains open for people, not just for big business”.
Associate Professor Phil Heywood
In the final address to the rally Cr Abrahams, borrowing from Shakespeare, declared that “Clearly all is not well in Brisbane City Council under this administration, clearly all is not well with the new city plan, and clearly all is not well in the West End.” She accused Councillor Amanda Cooper, chairperson of the Brisbane City Council’s Neighbourhood Planning and Development Assessment Committee, of not being transparent or consultative about the planning process and changes to the city plan. “This” she said, “is a disgrace”.
Leo Tsimpikas, President of the West End Traders’ Association (WETA) told me in a separate interview about a week before the rally that if it is to survive, the West End needs more people and new developments. “Without the new developments, we will be stagnant…” he said. He added that, “we don’t want the 30 and 40 and 22 story developments, we want sustainable developments…”
“I think the council, the government, should make the developer create some green space, instead of having little spots of green space”, Mr Tsimpikas said, citing as an example, the site at 68 Vulture Street, which he said will be compulsorily acquired to make a 940 square metre park.
“I think that’s negative…” Mr Tsimpikas said, adding, “With all that, I want green space myself, but that’s got to be the responsibility of the developer coming in here, because he has to satisfy the people that buy the units….They want green space, they want to put their feet on the grass, so I think we can work together…”
I am seeking a comment from Cr Cooper about the City Plan and the Council’s planning process.
Shadowland sails us across a dreamscape that is familiar, challenging and beautiful
Truly exquisite.
Fans of the illustrated novel and cartoon love the imaginative freedom of the line to draw anything the mind can imagine.
Imagine, then, that a group of dancers decide to use their bodies as ink and the freedom of perspective provided by light and shadow to free that ink from the constraints of size and gravity. These eight dancers, then, have the power to fly, to grow and shrink – to become taxis, animals, aeroplanes, castles and opera houses.
Imagine that this imagining travelled the world and came to Brisbane and you will be somewhat prepared for Shadowland now playing at QPAC for ten (now nine) short days.
Many of us have seen shadow play at camps or country halls, sausages being hauled out of the innards of an authority figure held up to ridicule. With international travel almost more common than local entertainment the shadow puppets of Bali and northern India may be more familiar.
Shadowlands takes these traditions of storytelling and weaves them into a contemporary dance piece that is savvy, sassy and clever but, above all, beautiful – achingly beautiful.
The play opens with three actors flying through the air, lightly leaping from knee to shoulder to extended hand of the supporting members of the company, as they are dressed, in front of us, in mid-air, as they move. We step through a range of theatrical devices familiarising us with the power of shadow to bend perspective and, more importantly, establishing the relationship between the monochrome, dream world of silhouettes behind the screen and the real, coloured and fleshy world on our side.
We are prepared, now, to believe that the hand of fate can shape a beautiful woman into a travelling dog, two men into a satyr or three dancers into a jellyfish that can consume the beautiful woman/dog floating in the ocean and we can watch her being digested inside the jelly fish.
We are so completely transported that we can move seamlessly from the simple pathos of a stray dog enjoying a car ride, head out the window and all, to one of the most moving sensual love scenes ever portrayed on stage.
Shadowlands is magnificent on many levels. It is a celebration of being human, of the human body and our creative spirit. It combines physical theatre, ballet, comedy and shadow puppetry in a soaring performance that lifts you so far from the everyday that you cannot help being improved as a person. A transcendental experience. Truly exquisite.
I write to you and the board of QYAC on behalf of the FOSI committee and all our members to support the commencement, last Friday, of QYAC’s High Court challenge to the Newman government’s amendments to the 2011 North Stradbroke legislation.
FOSI confirms its strong opposition to the November 2013 amendments because they permit the further expansion of sand mining at the Enterprise mine by abolishing the 2011 restricted mine path and also allowing mining to extend into ML 1120. In addition, FOSI strongly opposes the Newman amendments because they are designed to permit, in 2019, sand mining leases at Enterprise mine to be extended again – until 2035.
As an environment group committed to the protection of the island’s landscape and its diverse flora and fauna, we applaud QYAC for its High Court challenge. We appreciate that, in addition to environmental concerns, QYAC is motivated by the need to protect the cultural heritage of all native title owners and their rights and interests over the land currently under mining lease.
We also are aware that, consistent with the Federal court orders of 4 July, 2011, the native title rights and interests are exercisable on the expiry of the mining leases. Any expansion or extension of sand mining beyond the restricted area or time limits legislated in April 2011 obviously substantially interferes with these rights and interests by degrading the land and/or postponing, for years, the rights and interests.
We realise that standing up to a State government is not an easy task. No doubt there will be critics. However, the 2011 extension was the result of special, legislated renewal of expired leases which bypassed usual processes and extinguished the pre-existing legal rights of organisations and individuals opposed to any renewal. Legal advice indicated that there were good prospects of overturning expired lease renewals under existing legislation. Rest assured that FOSI fully supports QYAC in its endeavor to have the High
Court declare the Newman government amendments to be invalid. FOSI agrees that there should be no further extension of the Enterprise mine beyond 31 December, 2019.
Bassidi teaches rhythm on the Djembe and Balaphon at Kurilpa this month
The theatre space at Queensland Multicultural Centre, BEMAC, took off last month as the Kone Express left the station with two thirds of the audience on the dance floor, glowing and grinning in sheer delight at the exuberance of the performance.
Bassidi Kone is a young man from Mali, who travels the world but manages to maintain an Australian outfit that play as the Kone Express whenever he is in town. Right now they are touring the country to take this infectious musical hybrid into the regions in a combination of workshops and performances.
Kone Express is a fusion of Western and African music with a beautiful tension between the structured rhythm of a drums, bass, guitar, keyboards and horns combo and the jembe, Balaphon and variety of drums from the three Africans on stage.
The fusion goes all the way through the performance weaving variable African rhythms through and over the square framework of the Western music. That gave the audience plenty of opportunity to dance wildly and wonderfully. Well that’s the way I like to think I looked.
Don’t rely on the fact that I had a great time, check out Kone Express on YouTube and form your own opinion. Even better, watch out for the dates in June and July and get yourself along for a night on the tiles. Just make sure you have your dancing shoes on and are ready to bust your best moves.
You will get plenty of opportunity.
Bassidi Kone is leading rhythm workshops at Kurilpa Hall in West End on Saturday June 29th
<caption>Bassidi Kone is a colourful character who inspires a diverse band
The Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation (QYAC) will lodge a legal challenge in the High Court of Australia against the Newman Government’s amendment to the NSIPSA Act to extend mining without Quandamooka consent.
QYAC invites you to the lodgement that will occur 10:00 am tomorrow Friday 6 June at the High Court located at:
Venue: Tank St entrance
Harry Gibbs Commonwealth Law Courts Building
Cnr North Quay & Tank Street Brisbane
DETAILS: The traditional owners of North Stradbroke Island – the Quandamooka people – will challenge the Queensland Government’s controversial North Stradbroke Island Protection and Sustainability and Another Act Amendment Act 2013 (Qld) in the High Court. The writ will be delivered by Quandamooka elders to the High Court’s Brisbane registry office at 10.30 tomorrow morning (Friday, 6 June), following a traditional ceremony and blessing.
Tomorrow’s event will also mark the start of the Quandamooka people’s Don’t Undermine our Rights community campaign, which will include events around the G20 meeting in Brisbane and campaigning in key seats during the 2015 State election campaign.
Local lovers of Yoga – and there’s an awful lot of them wandering the streets of West End – will be heading over to Bowen Hills next month to take part in YogaFest, Australia’s largest Yoga Festival now in its 8th year.
YogaFest – Brisbane Yoga Festival
