Vulcana will partner with Milpera State High School, the refugee and migrant settlement school in Brisbane, to deliver circus and movement workshops to build self-confidence, increase wellbeing in vulnerable young people, building trust and understanding through physical interaction and creativity. The workshops will culminate in a showing for the school community and their families.

The school has students from more than 50 countries and even more cultural and linguistic groups. Approximately half the students come from refugee backgrounds, yearly depending upon economic factors, world events and immigration policy. Many of the students experience economic disadvantage and all experience cultural and linguistic dislocation. They come together in a school environment from communities with different cultures, languages, beliefs, and experiences of getting here. This includes students who have experienced trauma and who feel disconnected from everything they have known and makes them feel secure. They are under a lot of pressure to learn, not only a new language and learning systems, but also cultural expectations of being young people in a new country.

Using unique and creative strategies to support students to build confidence the project will use the non-verbal nature of circus to bridge language barriers and experience the benefits of shared group activity. The creative aspects of these activities overcome possible cultural barriers to find a new expression of young people’s ideas through this new experience.