Over the past few months KARI’s Lead with Culture and Community Programs teams have been able to adapt efficiently to the changes we are currently facing. Our Lead with Culture mentors often have face to face meetings with youth in order to connect. Our KARI Singers directors also rely on face to face interaction when communicating with the youth in their program.
Fortunately, both teams have been able to keep in contact with the youth in their programs thanks to online platforms such as Zoom and Facebook Live.
Recently our Lead with Culture team joined KARI Ambassador Beau Champion in facilitating a goal setting workshop via Facebook Live. Led by Beau, participants were taken through some important steps on setting goals and how to maintain focus once they’ve been set. After receiving positive feedback from participants, they were excited to join another session in the near future, where they could report back on their progress.
Our KARI Singers have had to cease performances and rehearsals, but isolation hasn’t stopped them from doing what they love. The KARI Singers meet weekly via Zoom to discuss new and exciting ways to continue learning and performing. They have found innovative ways to entertain the community with their isolation rendition of Yothu Yindi’s ‘Djapana’ This song is always highly requested of the singers and they were thrilled to share this with the community.
After the success of their Djapana video, the KARI Singers were able to collaborate with some special guests on an uplifting song, just in time for Reconciliation Week 2020.
KARI Singers directors Blake and Sarah were able to reach out to their musician friends to collaborate with the Singers on a special performance of “Don’t Dream It’s Over”, originally performed by Crowded House. The video features high profile Australian musicians such as Human Nature, John Foreman on piano, Victor Rounds on bass and Abraham Rounds on drums. Thanks to online technology, they were able to collaborate with these artists all over the world, Human Nature who are currently in Las Vegas, John Foreman in Melbourne and Abraham Rounds in Los Angeles.
“These videos have offered a great learning experience for our Singers in the form of recording from home and understanding how these videos are put together from a technical and performance aspect.” – Blake, KARI Singers Director
This experience has also taught us as directors of the program how to be adaptable and continue to support our Singers virtually. By making these isolation videos, it has taught us new skills that we will continue to use into the future” – Sarah, KARI Singers Director
