27 August 2021

Year 5 and 6 students from Sacred Heart School, Fitzroy, recently created two music videos celebrating their diverse cultures and both were finalists in the schools category of Victoria’s Multicultural Film Festival, with the music video Double Double Culture taking the gong.

The music videos were the product of a project funded by Creative Victoria called ‘I AM’ that brought together electro-beats master Monkey Marc, MC/hip-hop artist MANTRA, choreographer Dagogo Obogo, creative string musicians Zoë Barry and Esther Henderson, and community arts organisation and filmmakers Storyscape.

With the incredible staff at the school, they supported the students to make the two award-winning songs and music videos that celebrate diversity, culture and the essence of Sankofa.

The word ‘Sankofa’ comes from the Akan people of Ghana and literally means ‘to go back and get it’. It is symbolised by a mythical bird with feet facing forward and head turning back, with a seed in its mouth. It represents connecting with the past and identifying the knowledge or wisdom (in the seed) that we should take forward into the future.

Fitzroy’s Sacred Heart School is situated next to the Atherton Gardens Housing Estate and attended by a hugely multicultural cohort. The concept of Sankofa was the inspiration behind this project, which saw the school connect once again with Fitzroy-based Storyscape.

They assembled the team and together developed a project that encouraged students to explore, articulate and celebrate their identity using storytelling, visual art, songwriting, music production, photography, video, dance and movement.

The school is fortunate to have two visionary musicians (Zoë and Esther) as resident tutors, and students benefit from weekly creative sessions that see them exploring string instruments in all kinds of new and different ways. This, combined with incredibly committed teachers, created the environment for the project to flourish.

Storyscape has worked on similar projects with Monkey Marc and MANTRA over the past decade, but it was the first time the planets aligned through a school contact that brought them together with Nigerian-born dancer Dagogo. His incredible energy, creativity and readiness to let the kids lead made him the perfect person to bring their stories and lyrics to life through movement.

The two songs and music videos the students created, Double Double Culture and Let It Grow, will be featured in an all-school production later in the year, and their win at the Multicultural Film Festival last night has spurred on a whole-school celebration at the perfect time for a much-needed boost.

View the music videos at https://youtu.be/mxiC3tEcj0I.