Sister Cities: Parallel Hearts
Parallel Hearts is a 7-part podcast series about Darwin and Anchorage as part of the City of Darwin Sister Cities program. Sitting on opposite sides of the globe these two cities have a surprising amount in common, and this project aims to explore their similarities through the eyes of the traditional owners Larrakia and Dena’ina.
The series kicks off with an introduction where both groups of storytellers talk about their country and give listeners the chance to imagine these vastly different places. Each Sunday a new episode will be played on ABC Radio Darwin from 10am, and available as a link through the City of Darwin website.
Larrakia input chosen by Larrakia Nation
Larrakia man and Outreach Liaison Officer for Larrakia Nation, David Kurnoth has been the cultural liaison for the project and helped to pull together a range of ages and genders of Larrakia people to contribute. The stars of the project are:
- Kay Vilaflor
- Nicole Brown
- Jeanneen Mclennan
- Dorothea Fejo
- Lynette Fejo
- David Kurnoth
- Patricia Kurnoth
- Joe Raymond
“My cultural liaison for the project was David Kurnoth who through his role in the Hosts program has been a wonderful help in choosing who would be the right people for this project” explains Gaia Osborne the series producer.
Similar themes, challenges and successes
“We had a set of questions that were asked to both groups that covered our main themes, but there wasn’t any scripting. There was a co-producer in Anchorage who asked the same questions, and then we put it all together”.
The themes are:
- Introduction
- Maintaining culture
- This is our land
- Caring for country
- Seasons
- History
- Sister cities
Gaia said that all the way through the project similarities in the issues facing the two groups been amazing. “If one person was reading this out you would have no idea that these were the words of people from two different nations”.
Gaia explained there was real honesty of the challenges faced by the two groups and also the gains made around the changing culture within the two cities in the acknowledge the traditional land ownership and what that means for non-Indigenous people who live in Darwin and Anchorage.
We will share a new series each week
The series will be available to download in January but each week you can hear a new episode on ABC Radio Darwin on Sunday morning and on the City of Darwin website. We will also share a link to ABC online on our Facebook page each week.
Check out the first episode here: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/darwin/programs/sundays/parallel-hearts-introduction/12885640