Published: 30 March 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
AN A-LIST of Australian music talent will perform at the Uprising: Songs of Resistance concert in Melbourne on April 8, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The array of artists includes Paul Kelly, Julia Stone, Deborah Conway, Djirri Djirri Dance Group, Harry James Angus, Kee’ahn, Paul Grabowsky & Sophia Brous, Emily Lubitz, Shane Howard & Ernie Gruner, Jess Hitchcock, cultural historian Maria Tumarkin and author Arnold Zable.
Uprising invites artists and audiences to remember the Holocaust and celebrate continued resistance to hate and race crimes. Presented by the Festival of Jewish Arts and Music (FOJAM), formerly Shir Madness Melbourne, this concert is its first event for 2021.
The sold-out concert, an initiative of the Museum of Inherited Memories, will be streamed live.
We will come together to connect and share music and stories, reminding us of the things we are willing to fight for, and those that bring us together - FOJAM Artistic Director, Lior Albeck-Ripka.
“Through Uprising we will come together to connect and share music, stories and poetry, reminding us of the things that we are willing to fight for, and those that bring us together,” said FOJAM Artistic Director, Lior Albeck-Ripka.
Uprising is believed to be the first concert of this type to be organised by an Australian Jewish community. The idea was initiated by Sian Darling, co-founder of The Museum of Inherited Memories, a project which launched last year on Holocaust Remembrance and Heroism Day.
Known as Yom HaShoah, this day marks the anniversary of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising, when Ghetto prisoners held off Nazi troops for almost a month, saving thousands of lives before they were overpowered.
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Darling, a descendant of Holocaust survivors, believes story and song are ideal tools to document as well as celebrate survival and resistance to racism, fascism and antisemitism.
The Museum of Inherited Memories approached FOJAM to collaborate on this project. Both organisations wanted to do something around Yom HaShoah, but to approach it together through a different perspective: “Last year we started talking about doing something together,” Albeck-Ripka told The Jewish Independent.
“Sian’s work is very much connected to being a third-generation Holocaust survivor, which I also am; we focused on how we can connect … commemorate the Holocaust and bring in second and third generation Jews … and create new ways of accessing these stories.
“It’s also important to Sian and myself that we presented something to the wider community because we both feel strongly about rising anti-Semitism,” Albeck-Ripka said.
To try to further combat racism through music, they are also bringing in First Nations artists and other cultures in an attempt to “hear each other”.
Originally, we decided to be safe and do it as livestream; then we started talking about filming it; then we thought: ‘It’s crazy that we can’t have even some people in the room to experience that!.
“At FOJAM we always try to have different voices on our line-ups, as a way to really build meaningful connections to other culturally diverse communities, and particularly honouring the First Nations artists and communities on whose land we’re on.”
On this note, artists appearing include indigenous singer/songwriter Kee’ahn, award-winning opera singer and songwriter Jess Hitchcock – who has family origins in the Torres Straits and Papua New Guinea, and Wurundjeri female dance group Djirri Djirri [meaning Willy Wagtail].
Uprising will be held in Melbourne’s renowned Memo Music Hall, which Albeck-Ripka described as a hidden gem.
“Originally, we decided to be safe and just do it as livestream; then we started talking about how we were going to film the artists performing. Then we thought: ‘It’s crazy that we can’t have even some people in the room to experience that!’”
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During 2020 FOJAM organised online events but this is its first live show – and the 200 tickets on offer sold out in hours. Though the venue cap is usually 400, Covid restrictions halved the availability.
“And we love Memo – it’s a beautiful space and in St Kilda, which is accessible for the community, as well as to wider audiences. It’s really important for us that this is a way for Jewish community members as well as people who are Jewish outside the community to connect to their culture and their history,” Albeck-Ripka said.
“We at FOJAM committed to always having a diverse line-up, if possible. Part of what we’re trying to do is create a Jewish cultural music festival but, in doing that, we have to acknowledge where we are and whose land we are on.
“Our own culture and community knows how quickly you can be thrown out of a country – so, it’s so important that as people, we recognise what it is to be in someone else’s home and to be welcomed into that home.”
The livestream event will be available for 72 hours – from 8pm on Thursday, April 8, until Sunday, April 11, at midnight.
International as well as national viewers benefit from that 72-hour availability as it allows for time differences, so audience members can view the concert whenever it suits them during those three days.
TICKETS
Booking in advance for digital tickets is recommended. Tickets are $18 each and $30 for a group. Tickets will be available at the digital door until the concert starts at 8pm on April 8.
Main photo: Clockwise from top left, Paul Kelly, Julia Stone, Harry James Angus and Deborah Conway
