Speech at the We Don’t Dance for No Reason reception as part of the Australia Week 2008 celebrations
13 March 2008; Moresby Arts Theatre, Port Moresby
Australian High Commissioner to PNG, His Excellency Mr Chris Moraitis
Welcome everybody to tonight’s performance of We Don’t Dance for No Reason for Australia Week 2008.
Tonight’s event has been made possible by funding from the Australian Government, through both the Australia International Cultural Council and the Australian High Commission. It is proudly supported by Casella Wines, who have got the evening off to a great start by offering us samples of their wonderful product. Thank you also to Airlines PNG, who have helped fly members of the We Don’t’ Dance for No Reason team up to Port Moresby.
We’ve already had a number of fantastic events as part of this year’s Australia Week. Some of you might have seen the Australian film and television star Ernie Dingo speaking at various functions around Port Moresby over the past few days.
And yesterday another familiar face, Sean Dorney, was in town giving a lecture that some of you might have been lucky enough to hear.
Tonight we’re here to experience a wonderful example of what can happen when Australians and Papua New Guineans work together.
We Don’t Dance for No Reason, or ‘Ai Na Asi A Mavaru Kavamu’ in the Motuan language, is a collaboration between one of Australia’s most talented young jazz musicians, Aaron Choulai, a magnificent 16-voice choir from Tatana Village here in Port Moresby, and the Australian jazz ensemble, VADA.
I understand that Aaron grew up in Port Moresby and still calls the city home. He trained in my home town Melbourne and New York, and now divides his time between those two cities, Tokyo and Port Moresby.
I’ve had the We Don’t Dance for No Reason CD on my stereo at home, and I can assure you that you are in for some sublime music tonight.
The show combines the tradition of ‘Peroveta Anedia’, or ‘Prophet Songs’, and modern jazz, played against a backdrop of beautiful images showing various aspects of life in Papua New Guinea. Last year it sold out theatres and received rave reviews at the Queensland Music Festival and the Melbourne International Arts Festival.
And tonight, in a way, the music is coming home. It’s an enormous honour for me and I’m sure all of you in the audience tonight to be hearing these beautiful songs in the place of their birth. And I’m enormously proud, as the Australian High Commissioner in PNG, to present a living example of the great things we can achieve when Australians and Papua New Guineans work together.
I am sure you will enjoy the show.
Thank you.