Unique program gives Northern Rivers students strength and skills to deal with disasters

The Future Feast in Schools, from Northern Rivers Performing Arts (NORPA), embeds disaster awareness through storytelling, fostering curiosity, connection and creativity.

The learning experience is underpinned by four key regional preparedness steps:

• know your river and your risk
• know the warnings
• have a plan
• look after each other.
  

NORPA is leading the Future Feasts in Schools workshops at Broadwater Public School, Empire Vale Public School, Stoker's Siding Public School, Main Arm Public School and Palmers Island Public School from October 15 to November 12.

Guided by professional artists in Drama, Dance, and Visual & Video Arts, students engage in handson workshops that explore themes of disaster, resilience, and renewal. Through movement, storytelling, and collaborative performance-making, they draw on their lived experiences and hopes for the future.

The students' artistic responses will also contribute to a broader regional project, a NORPA major creative work, Dinner Party at the End of the World, a multi-artform work inspired by local responses to natural hazards.

Teachers are also supported throughout with curriculum-aligned resources and opportunities for professional learning alongside experienced artists.

Future Feasts received funding from the Australian and NSW Government through the Northern Rivers Recovery and Resilience Program, administered by the NSW Reconstruction Authority. It is
also presented in partnership with the Diocese of Lismore Catholic Schools Office.

This program is an example of how the Minns Labor NSW Government is empowering young people to build the skills and traits they need to stay strong, resilient, and ready to face future disasters.

Minister for Recovery Janelle Saffin said:
"We recognise, more than ever, the need to harness the skills and voices of young people to be better prepared for disasters.

"This creative learning experience does just that, by empowering students to know the risks, to have a plan and look out for each other as we prepare for future disasters.

"This program shows our young people they have the power to create a more resilient Northern Rivers and build the kind of community they want to live in.

"I thank NORPA for their creative approach to ensuring young people's voices are heard and for supporting them to be ready for disasters today and in the future."

NORPA Artistic Director Julian Louis said:
"Future Feasts is a chance for students to unleash their imagination on a difficult subject for many people in their community.

"The idea of climate change is often abstract and hard to understand, but this gives young people the chance to express themselves among friends and peers in a creative endeavour and learning environment about very real events and issues that directly affected them and their school."

Reconstruction Authority Executive Director Reconstruction Graham Kennett said:
"Dealing with natural hazards is a fact of everyday life in the Northern Rivers, where knowledge of the region and clear and calm thinking are essentials for navigating these turbulent events.

"Future Feasts helps young people to absorb these tools of local life and puts into practice how community can come together to wield them."