BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
For flautist Joshua Batty, one of the most distressing impacts of this summer’s bushfire season has been “the feeling of mutual helplessness”.
The nation can relate. Our collective memories are filled with toxic smoke, the death toll of our native animals, and vast losses of land, life and home.
For this reason, Joshua – who is also the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s principal flute – has called on fellow performing artists to donate their time and skills for a series of bushfire fundraiser events.
It’s hosted in partnership with The Chamber Project — the brainchild of Evan Streater.
“We wanted this series to be as inclusive as possible, where anyone could come together in solidarity and contribute in whichever way they saw fit,” Joshua says.
On January 27, they performed one relief event in Soultrap Bar, Surry Hills; and another in St Stephen’s Uniting Church, Sydney. The collaborative series has already raised an impressive $21,000 for their initiative of choice, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.
“We really can’t thank people enough who generously supported our first fundraiser,” Joshua says.
“The fires are now contained, thanks to the fire services and some healthy rain falls, but there is so much regeneration and protection to still be done: mental health support of the victims and firefighters, water aid for areas in drought, support for the wounded animals by these fires, and so on.”
So this month, the artists are shifting their focus to support the many other species in need. They’ll be donating to WIRES in light of the estimated 1 billion animals that have perished along with the country’s wilderness.
Australian composers Andrew Howes and Harry Sdraulig have been commissioned to create new music for the fundraiser. Joshua describes each of these composers as having “enormous compassion for people, animals, and the environment”.
“As musicians, we feel that our role is to give people a space to come together in solidarity, and experience their personal scope of emotions, which I guess is an integral power of the arts.”
Harry’s composition Unearth is a flute and oboe duet. The composer tells us his music is about “displacement, uprooting, and the almost alien, unsettled feeling of encountering some place that has weathered the forces of nature and will never be the same again”.
Fellow composer Andrew wrote Winangara, which he explains takes its name from the Wailwan word for ‘listen’. He aims to draw attention to the Wailwan country’s Macquarie Marshes, which have suffered amidst fire and drought.
“This piece is in tribute to the wonderful, resilient people of that region; and expresses my belief that we must wholly begin again to listen to country, and the wisdom of its true elders, past, present, and emerging,” Andrew says.
Though the works may be specific to our most recent climate disaster, they will be archived in the minds of those who listen. It’s crucial for artists to respond to natural disasters, because – as we’ve seen through the outstanding initiative of many relief events nation-wide – music can bring us together when we’re most in need.
When asked about the importance of artists’ contributions, Joshua says “everybody has something to offer, and some way of putting positivity and support out amongst desperately negative situations”.
“This is our humble part in the much bigger picture. These two new compositions are important as snapshots in time for people not to forget; to remember upon future performances just how we were affected by the events as time moves on – and how we can change our ways going forward to avoid a repeat of these tragedies.”
You can attend the upcoming fundraisers at Soultrap Bar, Surry Hills on February 23 and 24. Visit the booking page for full details and artist line-up.
Images supplied. Featured image of koalas by Ninian Reid, CC BY 2.0 via Flickr.
