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Clement Wetnhiak and Angelo Duot have been playing music together since they were kids.
Key points:
- Melbourne's Artful Dodgers Studios is celebrating its 20th birthday
- The organisation helps 200 disadvantaged young people each year, helping them to pursue their creative ambitions
- Prominent Australian musicians, including Paul Kelly and Clare Bowditch, have worked at or run projects at the centre
They bought their first guitars together, learnt their first chords together, and dreamt about being successful musicians.
The cousins were born to South Sudanese parents in a Kenyan refugee camp, and came to Australia as children.
Now, aged in their early 20s, they have formed a band, Travellers, with help from Collingwood's Artful Dodgers Studios — a music and art drop-in centre for at-risk and refugee youth.
Wetnhiak says his first encounter with Artful Dodgers Studios was through meeting Australian music legend Paulie Stewart, who now works as a mentor there.
"The first time I came across the studio, we were busking at Melbourne Central Station and Paulie came up to us and said, 'Oh, I love your voices,' and we thought, 'Who is this guy?' he said.
"Then he invited us into the studio and we recorded our first song. Paulie's been taking care of us ever since, introducing us to gigs and giving us an opportunity to share our voices."
Stewart, who's also the front man of popular 80s rock band Painters and Dockers, remembers meeting Clement and Angelo.
"They were busking and I walked past them — a big couple of Sudanese fellas. You don't usually hear the Sudanese guys doing acoustic music — it's usually the hip hop at the moment," he said.
"So, I said, 'Oh, you guys are great. You should come into the studio'. They looked at me like, 'This guy is suss as'.
"They didn't want a bar of me. But I finally managed to talk them into it, and they walked in and saw a few of their Sudanese mates in here and they came on board."
'There's no pressure, competition here'
From its beginnings in 1997, Artful Dodger Studios now helps at least 200 disadvantaged young people a year.
Most are battling problems, including ice addiction and other substance abuse, homelessness or mental illness. Some are refugees, some have just been released from prison.
Run by the Jesuit Social Services, the space supports kids to pursue their creative ambitions while also connecting them with broader support services.
It runs talks in Australian schools, and provides opportunities for participants to record albums, perform gigs and have art exhibitions.
Well-known musicians like Paul Kelly, Jesse Hooper, Clare Bowditch and Angie Hart have all worked at or run projects at the centre.
"A lot of young people with formal education, they fall through the cracks a bit," Stewart said.
"They don't like the nature of school, so they come here and they're usually disengaged from the education system when they come to us and we just give them a chance.
"We've got a music studio here, and art facilities, and we sort of get them to express themselves. It's amazing how once they get access to those sort of things that their stories emerge.
"Learning music and art also helps with their formal education because they learn to count and read and that sort of thing."
Most importantly, according to Stewart, the place gives marginalised young people a sense of community and belonging.
"There's no pressure here. You don't have to pass, there's no competition," he said.
"And what is really beautiful is the young people all start supporting each other and they turn into a bit of a family to keep an eye out for each other, and support each other at their exhibitions and gigs.
"It gives them a family and something really practical and creative to do."
'Not everyone is into violence'
This week, Artful Dodgers Studios is celebrating its 20th birthday.
Jesuit Social Services is hoping to use the occasion to attract new funding to cover the Studio's $300,000-a-year operating costs.
"It's a little bit like Artful Dodgers Studios has been on life support for 20 years," Andrew Yule, the director of strategic communications at Jesuit Social Services, said.
"It's a really vital service for a lot of people, but we find that it doesn't fit neatly into any of the funding niches.
"We are fortunate enough to have some government funding but that only covers about half the costs of running Artful Dodgers Studios, so we're quite reliant on the broader community to prop up some of those services, and deliver the funding we need to keep it open.
"So that young people can have a service that they can rely on, that they know they can turn up at any time when they need to be reaching out and connecting with people and addressing some of the issues in their lives."
Wetnhiak, who also works full-time as a security guard, says the studio has given his band practical support like booking gigs, access to recording studios, funding to record, and assistance with transport.
He highlights a recent gig at the Melbourne Town Hall, and says Artful Dodgers has even helped with equipment needs like replacing broken guitar strings.
But most importantly for Wetnhiak , the studio has given his band a platform to connect with the broader community through music.
"[We like to sing about how] life was different back home and how life is here in Australia," he said.
"We talk about the changes and the opportunities given to us by Australia and the people around us.
"If you're given this platform to be a musician, you can talk about some of the issues. Like the way the media views some of the Africans, and the way they view people of different colours.
"So, it gives us a way to show that not everyone is into violence and not everyone is into doing bad things.
"We're into music, it's what we do with our spare time, so it gives us an opportunity to show ourselves."
Topics: music, arts-and-entertainment, activism-and-lobbying, immigration, community-and-society, melbourne-3000
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