8 – 16 April
Youth Week WA (formerly National Youth Week WA), is an annual statewide celebration of the positive contributions of young people to our community throughout Western Australia. More than 100 events take place across the State each year, many of which have received a Youth Week WA grant provided by the State Government of Western Australia through the Department of Communities.
Due to growing concerns about COVID-19 and the anticipated continued spread of Omicron across our communities in Boorloo (Perth) and Western Australia, the Propel team has decided to pivot towards digital and hybrid formats for the delivery of the Youth Week WA KickstART Festival this April.
Nonetheless, this year’s Youth Week WA KickstART Festival is still going ahead. We are committed to spotlighting and working with the wonderful young artists that have been part of the process so far, and we can’t wait to share a reimagined version of KickstART with all of you!
Theme for 2022
“Courage to Change – Booraka Korangan-ak is a call to action, to boldly and with care imagine a future grounded in regenerative solutions and mutual healing, to take those difficult first steps together. Once. And then again and again. ”
– KickstART 2022 Creative Coordinator, Noemie Huttner-Koros
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Courage to Change is about empowering young people to shape decision-making, enact change and imagine the futures we wish to inhabit.
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Courage to Change was decided in consultation amongst Creative Coordinator Noemie Huttner-Koros, the Youth Week WA Planning Committee, and Noongar translation by Kadjin Project Officer Kobi Arthur Morrison.
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Over many months, we talk:
about fungal networks & the communities that make us,
about feeling seen & feeling scared,
what courage even means & how to change the status quo,
to sit with difficult questions & the patterns of nature,
the worlds we inhabit and ultimately, the worlds we dream of.
KickstART Festival 2022, Courage to Change, Booraka Korangan-ak, is the culmination of thousands of conversations, encounters, stories, cups of tea and endless snacks. Through it all, I have been deeply humbled by the breadth of work, creativity and activism that young people and those who support us, are doing across Boorloo and Western Australia.
As the months ticked by, and we rolled from Birak bushfires in WA, to floods over east, to rising Covid cases, to the turmoil of global and national politics, I often asked myself: what is the role of this small but mighty festival? How can young people access it? How can it be a creature responsive to our ever-changing world and needs?
Amidst all this uncertainty, we turn to storytelling; to play, dance, paint, sing and share together. We seek collective experiences of exchange, generosity, and healing that allow us to imagine new possibilities, new ways of being in the world. I feel that it is our responsibility, through KickstART Festival, to offer transformative experiences that centre and nurture young people’s agency, voices, and growth.
Through all of this, we also ground ourselves, to the boodja we live and make art on, the skies, the waterways, and all the communities and creatures who call this place home.
I hope you enjoy this offering of art, culture and connection from Whadjuk Noongar boodja.
– Noémie Huttner-Koros, KickstART Creative Coordinator
