International Women's Day 2011

Soroptimist International (SI) Toowoomba celebrated International Women's Day 2011 with Monica Tiit and Helen Sesay who participated in "One Decade On - African Settlement on the Downs". Although the project formally ceased in November there have been subsequent events with the Zonta Club of Toowoomba Garden City and and now the women from the local branch of SI.

The photographs shows the members of SI Toowoomba wearing the head dresses of Sudan and Sierra Leone.

The Exhibition is Open!

What a fantastic opening. There was standing room only and we were sorry that some people were not able to squeeze in. We will have more photos of the opening to follow but in the meantime, this is what the exhibition looks like. In addition to the banners there are 25 framed images on the walls and a book. It is open until the end of October at the Kath Dickson Community Artspace at 359 Ruthven Street Toowoomba. We hope you are able to see it before it closes.

Choosing Pictures for the Exhibition

The exhibition opening is approaching. These images show project participants and project facilitators working together to choose images for display.

Photovoice at Gatton

On Monday we held our third session in Gatton where we now have 5 community photographers. During the next 3 sessions we will be photographing at the homes of some of the participants and taking a closer look at cooking and food preparation, gathering recipes and photographing men in traditional clothing. We are grateful to the Lockyer Regional Council for sponsoring our venue hire in Gatton.

"One Decade on - African Settlement on the Downs"

The joint initiative (which has been funded by an RAF grant) between QPASTT, PhotoVoice Australia and members of the various African communities in Toowoomba commenced on 10th April. We had expected 10 participants for Toowoomba but were surprised and delighted to have 17 people. This of course put a strain on our allocation of cameras but we hope to be able to work around that. The people who came spoke strongly about the need for such a project and how important it is to provide information to the wider community about the life and culture of the different groups of people who have arrived from the African continent.

We will meet every fortnight for 4 hours to practise photography skills and talk about photographs and aspects of culture which are important. Everyone is looking forward to the next meeting which will be on location at a Sudanese wedding.