Members of the Indigenous Hip Hop Projects are professional artists hailing from First Nations communities in urban, rural and remote corners of Australia.
At the recent Yalukit Wilum Ngargee festival the Indigenous Hip Hop Projects captivated the audience with a show of gravity defying acrobatics and artistic beauty.
Michael Farah is director of the Project. Asked about the time it took to put together such a breathtaking performance Michael Farah says "That one should not be fooled by the little time that it took them to put it together. Their performance is the result of years of enduring and persistent training “the acrobatic stuff that is what the dancers come with. They come with their own training. They are all professional dancers that have done a lot of extensive training; am talking years and years, hours and hours of practice every day to get to that point”.
Aged 46, Michael Farah combines his managerial role with performance and choreography mixing it up and keeping up in energy and skill with youngsters 30 years his juniors. “Am lining myself up next to these 18 year olds that are just flying through the air but I have to remind myself that we are both the same”.
Michael Farah also doubles as a mentor and role model for the young artists who can draw inspiration from his life experience. He started dancing with very little means and it is only through hard work and persistence that he got to the high level where his is. “I learned in front of a reflection at home on some carpet. I pushed the couches aside, put music on and I just danced; from the age of 8 because there was no real schools. My mum couldn’t even afford for me to go to a hip hop dance school or break-dance school. It wasn’t really acknowledged as an art form or dance form back then. I just trained at home”.
Michael Farah also shared a lesson learned Indigenous wisdom that age should never hold you back. “I am not going to be governed by age. I learned that about 6 or 7 years ago. But I wish I’d learned that much earlier because, you know, we are so attached to the birthday and the number and the age and the time frame and then you learn from Indigenous people of Australia that time just holds you back. Anytime at any point you can take up a hobby, a passion, physical or not physical. Nothing should stop you. Age shouldn’t stop you.”
The indigenous Hip Hop Projects' aim is about promoting a positive message of good health through dance and music.
“A lot of our stuff is around health. So… without really pointing the finger without preaching, we just use dance as a medium to just bring out some really important messages around health. Like you said physically and acknowledged it yourself, you’d have to be really fit to perform like this”
And how does Michael Farah keep his troupe focused and united? "When you are performing definitely show off. However, as a crew behind the scenes make sure you are available to each other. Make sure you are available to the wider community”.
And the positive results were there on display.