B-Town Warriors - Burke,NSW

OUTLINE

B-Town Warriors evolved as an outcome of a series of DPM community projects in the remote Western NSW community of Bourke. Bourke township is situated on the banks of the Darling River and comprises approximately 2,000 people living in hot, isolated, dry and flat surroundings. The school’s student population is approximately 150, of whom 69% identify as being Aboriginal. The school is classified a low SES school. 

PROCESS

In 2016/17 - with support from The NSW Outback Division of General Practice, Bourke High School and a strong partnership with the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation – DPM delivered five collaborative storytelling projects with a group of young people and community members.  These projects and the relationships that developed from them - would go down in DPM folklore and begin a huge journey of growth and development for our organisation.

OUTCOMES

In 2016 – DPM delivered a one-week project with Bourke High School focusing on song writing and a music video.  Just like that, the B-Town Warriors were formed.  The outcome of this project – a song called ‘People of The Red Sunset’.  To our amazement and the delight of the community - the production quickly attracted huge support online, receiving over 350,000 views on the music video, and the song was added to spot rotation on Triple J and community radio around Australia.

Funding from VFFF enabled DPM to build on the momentum and the success of this project. This initiative enabled a series of four further collaborative song writing projects in Bourke NSW. The first production titled ‘Dreams’ was a conversation about leadership, role models and positive choices. The project engaged students from the initial B-Town Warriors group that featured in the song People of the Red Sunset (2016), but also engaged a group of ‘at risk’ young men from the ‘Yarrapi’ program and other younger Indigenous students. ‘Dreams’ was was premiered on Triple J’s Home & Hosed and community radio around the nation.

‘Thundercloud’ addressed the ongoing mental health crisis for young people in Western NSW. The focus was on resilience, healthy choices, connection to community and positivity. Journalists from Channel 10’s The Project came to Bourke during the process and produced a short segment about the B-Town Warriors, DPM and the local Indigenous community. The results were a stirring and inspirational piece about young people and their perspectives on positive social change, which was aired nationally on primetime TV. ‘Thundercloud’ was also premiered on Triple J, featured on the Triple J Unearthed website and aired on community radio around the country, and won a National Indigenous Music Award (NIMA) for ‘Community Clip of the Year’ in 2018.

‘Rewrite Your Story’ is both a celebration of the contemporary culture of the community, and also the availability for support and connection to help people deal with grief and trauma. The content was inspired by real events and experiences from participants. Engagement diversified in this project to feature an all-female group including original members of B-Town Warriors, past members that had ‘dropped off’ in project two, engaged siblings and broader community.

The final production ‘My Generation’ focused on cultural identity, connection and belonging. This song is an uplifting reggae anthem to connect young people to culture and country. The project engaged senior Wonkamurra elder, Uncle Clancy McKellar and featured a traditional Wonkamurra song as an introduction – a huge blessing and honour.

Evaluation of the projects showed that the delivery of successive projects and repeated and ongoing engagements in communities exponentially increases the positive social impacts when these projects are designed in response to specific issues identified and defined by the participants themselves.