I used to cart a data projector, a dvd player and five speakers including a subwoofer in a suitcase large enough for myself to fit into in foetal position. I would drag this cumbersome and awkward kit to church halls, school seminar rooms, people’s back yards and lounge rooms in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Tokyo, [...]
Candles and incense were lit and chochin lanterns decorated the Japanese Cemetery in Broome on the first full moon of August this year. On 2 August 2012, a historically significant Obon kuyo ceremony was held at the Japanese Cemetery in Broome. Conducting traditional hoyo was Reverend Shigenobu Watanabe from the Hongwanji Buddhist Mission of Australia [...]
Japanese on the Move is a project facilitated by Professor Ingrid Piller from Macquarie University and Dr Kimie Takahashi from Assumption University of Thailand, who have collected and collated personal stories and reflections on what it means to be on the move and at home and to belong to two (or more) countries. This is a project which hits the [...]
On the same day Tropical Cyclone Lua hit the north west coast of Western Australia, we held our fundraising event art, music & food for buddhism. It was tropical cyclones like Lua which killed many pearlers who had worked in Broome’s dangerous pearling industry since the late 1800‘s. The fundraising event successfully raised enough funds [...]
One cold night in Tokyo Yumi Umiumare performed at Yudo, an old Japanese house in Mejiro used as an art gallery and gig space. Yudo means well in old Tohoku dialect. Water from Koshu run slowly underground to Yudo where suijin, the water god is enshrined in its main tatami room. Mesmerised by her every movement, [...]