When Oscar-winning music composer A R Rahman, of Slumdog Millionaire fame, invited UQ PhD student Hana Alhadad to work alongside him in India’s impoverished slums, she accepted instantly.
Ms Alhadad, who dons the hat of artist, mentor, writer and producer, and who was recently awarded a University of Queensland Endowment Fund (UQef) scholarship, was earlier this year chosen to work as a consultant in the A R Rahman Arts Foundation in Chennai to help kick start its Music and Dance Educational program.
“It was a surreal experience working with a musical genius, especially watching him patiently mentor a group of children from the slums who have never before had any form of education in music or the arts,” she said.
“The opportunity that he has opened up to the disadvantaged children of Chennai is immense and has certainly and quite literally brought smiles, song and dance to the streets.
“It was my first time in Chennai and I did not even need an address to Mr Rahman’s Arts Foundation. Literally everyone in Chennai will know not only Mr Rahman’s Arts Foundation building, but also his music studio, music conservatory and even Mr Rahman’s home!”
Over the past eight years, Ms Alhadad has gathered many stamps on her passport, travelling the world promoting youth theatre and the use of performance in building peace.
Her artistic prowess and love for humanity has seen her work with youths in Thailand, Cambodia, Mali and Peru as well as on the award-winning Children of the Sea and Finding Marina projects in Sri Lanka, which concentrated on the issues of the Boxing Day Tsunami and civil and ethnic conflict.
Ms Alhadad’s interest in the arts also recently took her to Brazil to work on the UNESCO-supported Capoeira Knights – a Brazilian martial art – on the issues of violence, drugs and gangs.
Capoeira Knights received critical acclaim at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival while Children of the Sea received the Spirit of the Fringe first prize award at the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Finding Marina – a production that tackles the civil conflict in Sri Lanka – won the Amnesty International Award for theatre that changes people’s lives in 2006.
“Traditionally, education in arts and performance has ironically been a closed group available to those who can afford it,” Ms Alhadad said.
“Since 2004, I have endeavoured to open this group, take performance training to the streets and provide free education in refugee camps.
“That was the spark that led myself alongside internationally acclaimed director Toby Gough and close partners to create the Children of the Sea project and The World Festival bringing together theatre, music and dance projects in communities and encouraging and empowering others to create opportunities to transform their own lives through performance.”
As Ms Alhadad embarks on a PhD in UQ’s School of Social Work and Human Services and the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, her interests in the creative arts move closer to home.
With the help of a UQef scholarship (University of Queensland Endowment Fund), Ms Alhadad aims to examine the process of performance in the transformation of conflict.
The UQef was established in 2007 and supports academic initiatives such as scholarships, named professorial chairs and specific research programs in areas of defined need.
The initial philanthropic support from the fund includes scholarships totalling $500,000 for PhD and Honours level research in cultural history, new media studies, peace studies, conflict resolution and social aspects of natural resource management and sustainability.
“UQef for me is much more than a scholarship. It has strengthened the gift of giving and has inspired me to give back when I can,” Ms Alhadad said.
“Hopefully, a spirit of giving will also be born within such scholars, and they might one day do the same for other needy people, and thereby over a period of generations, a flood of good will start.”
One of Ms Alhadad’s research goals is to build a creative art for peace project where professionals train youths in the performing arts, culminating in a multicultural Indigenous-themed theatrical production.
“Working with Kooemba Jdarra Performing Arts Company for my research, one of the overarching objectives is to build capacity and boost capabilities to enable the involvement and participation of young people in our project in the creative arts,” she said.
“At UQ, I wish to unpack the issues of marginalisation and social exclusion faced by the Indigenous and minority urban youth in Brisbane within their own communities and externally.”
UQef scholarship recipients attended a special morning tea with benefactors on May 5 at The Sir Llew Edwards Building, St Lucia Campus.
Media: Ms Alhadad (hana.hadad@gmail.com) or Eliza Plant at UQ Communications (07 3365 2619)
