By Goya Dmytryshchak
A night of songs and spoken word about how the waterways of Melbourne’s west have changed will premiere in Newport this month.
Artists Marita Dyson and Stuart Flanagan, performing as The Orbweavers, will present a concert titled Newer Volcanics.
Dyson said waterways featured included the Birrarung, Maribyrnong River, Stony Creek, Skeleton Creek and Kororoit Creek.
“The beginning of this project was back in 2016,” she said.
“Stuart and I got a Creative Fellowship from the State Library of Victoria to research Melbourne waterways and to write a suite of songs about them, so this is the outcome of that research.
“We were able to look at early maps and early records for our winter waterways and listen to oral histories, and during that time we met a lot of other writers and researchers who also shared their knowledge with us. And then we spent a lot of time walking along those waterways.”
Dyson, who grew up in Yarraville, said it had been a labour of love.
“We really love the waterways of the west,” she said.
“They’re really important to the community and they’re important to the first peoples of Australia, and really we wanted to kind of sing love songs to those creeks and also to recognise that they’ve remained strong through time even though there have been lots of environmental impacts on the waterways.”
Newer Volcanics is on November 29 and 30 at 8pm at The Substation in Newport.
Bookings at www.thesubstation.org.au or 9391 1110.
