Armstrong Creek’s Fiona Luca was one of eight successful recipients of Geelong Arts Centre’s creative engine grants for Now: A Life Story, which looks to share stories by the region’s elderly. She spoke with Jena Carr about her inspiration and what the grant would mean for her creative project.
Since she heard about how her parents moved to Australia from Italy, Fiona Luca has liked to understand history through other people’s eyes.
The Armstrong Creek woman was inspired by her 91-year-old grandmother to help people share their stories by lending a listening ear.
“My Nona is in an aged care facility full time herself and she has quite severe dementia which has deteriorated significantly probably in the past three years,” she said.
“I went to visit her a few months ago, and I was sitting by her bed holding her hand. She was lifeless for most of it, and then it was like her soul would kick in, and she would get lucid.
“She can’t speak; she’s lost her words, but she would make sounds, give me this direct eye contact and want to tell me all these things. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, she still has so much to say’.
“She still has so many stories to tell, but it’s like her words have gone and we can’t hear these stories anymore.”
Fiona also instructs yoga and movement therapy classes at Cultura, an aged care facility, to encourage more older people in the region to move and connect with others.
“Every second week I go in, and I do some chair yoga with these incredibly beautiful people, and we move our bodies, sing and listen to music,” she said.
“I would get many of them coming up to me and just wanting to show me pictures of all their grandchildren and telling me stories about their life back when they were my age.
“As time progressed and we built a deeper connection, I would just learn so much about these people as they would just want to tell their stories and want me to hold space for their stories.
“They’re so potent and beautiful. There’s so much wisdom here that we can all learn from, and it really gives us perspective now in our kind of day and age of what our elders have walked.”
Fiona received $3000 and studio access for her project, ‘Now: A Life Story’, through Geelong Arts Centre’s creative engine grants and said she was grateful to be a successful recipient.
The creative project will use interviews with a culturally diverse range of Geelong’s elderly to create a captivating art piece that captures life’s essence.
“The grant is getting it off the ground and it was just impetus to turn this idea into a reality,” she said.
“It will help cement the idea and process which we need to undergo for it to become a project and visual resource that people can enjoy and watch.
“It gives me a week in residency in the beautiful Geelong Arts Centre’s studios and also, which I’m a very big advocate for, pays the artist during this process to explore, create and do what we do best.
“I’m really grateful to Geelong Arts Centre for recognising innovation, supporting local people to explore concepts, and doing it without any pressure, but rather embrace the explorative process.”
Fiona said she had a “beautiful cohort” of people who would be involved in the project and couldn’t wait to move with them into the centre’s space and hear their stories.
“I want people to walk around the space and be immersed in the story in a different artistic way,” she said.
“I’ve always been in the creative space, and dance has been my background since I was a little person, and I’ve created a big career out of it as a creator, developer, teacher and performer.
“The visualisation that I have, and I’m quite attached to, is for it (the project) not to be a traditional stage piece, but more of an integrative piece and interactive for the audience members.
“I’ve collaborated with a beautiful small group of creatives to come together and be inspired by this resource to create an integrative performance or work that our region’s public can hopefully enjoy.
“We’ll start with movement, singing, and song, and we’ll use music therapy-orientated music to stimulate memory, so there’s a bit of neuroscience in there as well, and from there, we’ll have conversations.
“We’ll amalgamate the footage that we’ve got and create something to watch where we chop, change and move through all the different interviewees and people that we’re working with.”
Fiona said everyone, not just older people, had a story to share, and she looked forward to creating a project people could learn from and share.
“Story sharing in and of itself is so valid, important and impactful in supporting people to learn, grow and access resources while feeling safe share their own,” she said.
“It evokes introspection and supports people in feeling safe to express their own truth and stories. The compounding effect is huge, so story-sharing is invaluable and a really big part of healing.
“All anybody wants to do is feel seen and heard. When somebody’s brave enough to share their story, the way that ricochets and impacts such a broader audience in many ways offers perspective.
“I’m definitely looking forward to sitting down and hearing the details of these stories on a piece that is directly correlated to and aligned with the region and how it’s evolved and changed.”
Geelong Arts Centre’s creative engine grants will continue to offer regular funding for emerging projects with fresh initiatives for artists in 2024.
Creative industries and programming senior producer Nicole La Bianca said Fiona’s project was one of many grant submissions that “showcased the region’s remarkable local talent”.
“It is a privilege to witness the depth of talent and vulnerability seeded throughout the dynamic catalogue of applications,” she said.
