Cambodian visitors full of hope

Students from Stuartholme School, Toowong, enjoy supper with the Cambodian dancers prior to a performance at the school

10 April 2008
Catholic Leader (Archdiocese of Brisbane, Australia)

FROM the tiny Ta Hen village of north-east Cambodia – a war-torn country recovering from years of domination and genocide, where more than a third of its population live below the poverty line – has come a group of young, inspiring dancers.

The hope-filled troupe recently performed at Catholic schools in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne on a national tour, Dance together for peace, co-sponsored by Jesuit Mission and Ignatian World Youth Day program organiser MAGiS08.

Accompanying them was Cambodia’s Battambang diocese Bishop Enrique (Kike) Figaredo, a Spanish Jesuit who formed the group in 2000 and has been working with them in the region since the late 1980s.

Initially comprised of 14 students, the class now has more than 150 dancers and musicians aged between four and 20, who practise each day in an effort to rebuild their ravaged culture.

“One of the worst consequences of so many years of conflict was the erosion of Cambodian self-understanding,” Bishop Kike said.

“Music and dance groups are helping reassert this national identity by recovering myths and stories of the life of the people.”

Proceeds from Dance together for peace will go to Jesuit Mission projects in Battambang, some of which provide scholarships for children to attend secondary school, buy land for those who have none and supply costumes for the dancers.

While in Brisbane, the dancers also performed at St Rita’s College and Marist College Ashgrove, and were guests at a reception hosted by Brisbane archdiocese’s World Youth Day Secretariat in the grounds of St Stephen’s Cathedral.

Manoora sojourn for Cambodian dancers

The Cambodian group uses the mystical language of dance to tell the story of their culture, traditions, life experiences and challenges.

09 April 200
Glenys Quick
Northern Argus (Clare, South Australia)

Thirty members of a Cambodian dance group visited Manoora on the weekend as house guests of Deirdre and John McInerney.

A garden lunch was arranged for the visitors to relax and meet the Manoora community before their performance at St Michael’s Hall, Clare, on Saturday night.

The group arrived in Australia in March from the village of Tahen in northeast Cambodia which has encountered many adversities.

They are touring Australia performing “Dance Together for Peace” using the mystical language of dance to tell the story of their culture, traditions, life experiences and challenges.

Aged from 14 to 22-years, most are high school students while a few attend university, travelling up to 20km by bicycle every day to attend school.

Accompanying the group was tour organiser Sacha Goldman SJ and Bishop Kike Figaredo SJ who is very well known in various parts of the world for his humanitarian work, particularly in Spain where he has just received a distinguished award (while on tour) presented to his mother in his absence by Prince Phillip of Spain.

The dancers have previously performed for the Queen of Spain when she visited Cambodia in 2004, and are now planning a five-week tour of that country in October.

The dancers were a happy and friendly group with plenty of enthusiasm and are willing to interact experience in new environments and activities and share their country’s culture.

The toupe performed in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide, and will wind up their 2008 Australian tour with two more performances in Melbourne this week before returning home.

The Kroma head dress, which is a symbol for Cambodia, has multiple roles such as a towel, in the Temples for prayer, carrying goods to and from market, protection when working in the rice fields, and a shirt to name a few.