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A teenager kicks around town trying to stay out of trouble in the poorest electorate in the country's poorest state.
Two decades later, a kid does the same thing 3,000 kilometres away in a town that gained notoriety because of the death in police custody of an Aboriginal teenager.
One is in north-west Tasmania, the other in the remote north-west of Australia.
But Burnie and Roebourne share common ground, a thread pulling together the 25-year history of the Big hART social change arts group.
Big hART was co-founded in Burnie by Scott Rankin who has steered the company from small beginnings to become the largest social change arts and media company in the country.
Since 1992, an estimated 8,000 people have been through the organisation's process of generating performances and art which have ongoing benefits.
"Over our 25 years, we've raised $50 million cash to deliver projects with disadvantaged communities across the country," Mr Rankin said.
His approach is more than just staging a play or creating art — it's more like embedding in a community, sometimes for years.
The aim is to leave a lasting and tangible contribution — helping others help themselves.
The heart of Big hART
Creating art in marginalised communities to help change lives has been at the heart of Big hART.
Mr Rankin had an unconventional start to life growing up on Sydney Harbour, literally, by way of the family junk they had moored in Lane Cove.
A taste for the unconventional has permeated the rest of his life, setting a theme for how the company has tackled social issues and helped those caught in society's margins.
The early years in Tasmania set the tone for later work around the country, including in Roebourne where digital and performance projects help kids connect with their culture.
Big hART's formation was cast against the backdrop of the town's mainstay employer, the APPM pulp mill, starting to downsize after providing jobs for generations of families.
Times were tough for kids in the town who were facing an uncertain future, and social problems were rife.
Girl, his first theatre work with Burnie youth, helped reduce juvenile offending rates.
Darren Simpson was one of the wayward teenagers involved in Girl.
Mr Simpson could have fallen through the cracks created by the pulp mill turmoil but, ironically, he would eventually master paper making — a creative skill he has turned into a career.
"When someone says how well I've done in my job, I always say I owe that to Scott because he got me started by doing some of those small things that turned into big things for me," he said.
The business of art
This year, Big hART was named Tasmanian Business of the Year, just one of the myriad of awards the company has notched up.
Accepting the award in Hobart, Mr Rankin said the not-for-profit sector deserved recognition.
"There are 50,000 charities, most of them working incredibly hard, and their turnover is high and the cost is low. At that level alone, they are driving the economy," he said.
"When you are a charity, you have double responsibilities.
"You are not just trying to buy a holiday home; you are trying to change the community and advocate for the community you are working with."
Big hART has picked up more than 40 awards, both national and international, has worked with 300 artists and reached an audience of 2.5 million all "proudly exporting its IP out through Wynyard Airport where there is no security and the parking is free," Mr Rankin quipped.
From Burnie to Buckingham Palace
In its 25th year, Big hART is also celebrating one of its biggest wins.
Eight years ago, the company began working with the family of famed Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira in a project shining a light on the fact that they did not own the copyright to his paintings.
A stage play toured nationally and was taken to London, resulting in an invitation to Buckingham Palace.
An accompanying documentary about the fight to regain the rights to his work saw intervention by businessman Dick Smith who helped to negotiate their return.
"Art can seem like an ephemeral thing but it also can make a big impact and bring action and that's what's happened here," Mr Rankin said after the breakthrough.
"It's a generous moment, not an adversarial one and we are pleased to be part of it.
"Fifty-thousand people saw the theatre show, we ran 1,700 workshops, we made CDs and webcasts, we built a watercolour painting app, we held 23 exhibitions including in Burnie where people could come and paint with the Namatjiras, we took it to 28 conferences and there were 990 Indigenous participants, we got the doco script on the HSC list.
"Then as the documentary broke, suddenly we were bodysurfing a wave and it was to do with Australians taking an interest."
Big hART specialises in society's hidden stories, with the catchcry that it is harder to hurt someone when you know their story.
That the company is not a household name is of no concern for Mr Rankin.
"Under the radar in this kind of work is sometimes a good place to be," he said.
"When working with communities, you want to profile them and not make a big fanfare about yourself.
"The big difference for us is that, unlike most organisations, we are not a single-issue charity, we tackle any issue, anywhere, anytime — as long as it is a hidden issue that the public needs to know about — so as to bring about change.
"As a campaigning arts company, that can be hard for the public to get a read on."
He admits that for funding reasons sometimes "it would be good to be better known".
While the company's profile is increasing, funding remains a constant pressure.
"The problem is governments are pushing us more and more towards philanthropy to reduce public deficit, but philanthropy is still pretty small in this country," he said.
"So if you work way out in the contested zones, at the grassroots, where the need is greatest and the most hidden, you will be getting squeezed between philanthropy and government."
Through Big hART's diverse portfolio, light has been shed on the plight of maritime workers - "650,000 slaves working every night at sea to bring our white goods to us" - Aboriginal incarceration "51 per cent of the young people we lock up are Aboriginal" - digital inclusion and domestic violence.
In 2004, a project began in a notorious Sydney high-rise called Northcott Estates which had been dubbed "suicide towers".
A show developed for the 2006 Sydney Festival called StickyBricks brought "isolated" residents out of their flats and transformed attitudes inside and outside the community.
A year later, the phenomenon of autocide among young rural men in north-west Tasmania was tackled in a project called Drive.
North-west Tasmania is also the focus for one of the organisation's latest initiatives - a project tackling the effects of domestic violence.
Project O, which is now going national with the involvement of anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty, is a leadership program helping young women become change makers - teaching them entrepreneurial and advocacy skills.
Wynyard High School student Angel Clark has been involved in several Project O events.
"Project O it as safe space for everyone, so everyone can follow what they want to do," she said.
"Without it I would still be that quiet kid at the back of the class who doesn't put their hand up for anything."
Staying away from bushy beards and kale
Despite the company's success and continually growing reputation, Mr Rankin sees no reason to leave his corner of Tasmania.
"It is simple, and simply wonderful, in a global and digital economy to keep a base on the north-west coast," he said.
"There is a good atmosphere in the quiet, and a chance to keep the eyes off what you are creating for a while.
"In other words, it has an atmosphere for original thinking, whereas in the inner city of Melbourne or Hobart, everything tends to come out with a bushy beard, a boutique beer and the packaging the colour of kale."
"Our legacy, hopefully, will be in the brains and hearts that have picked up some skills, in the lives of people going through the issues we tackle, in some shifts in policy, oh, and in the seminal works of performance, theatre, art and film that seem to roll out of the Big hART factory year after year."
The company's next major work SKATE aims to go global and be self-funding "designed to gross a billion dollars in 10 years" with profits reinvested in disadvantaged communities.
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, charities-and-community-organisations, film-movies, theatre, burnie-7320, roebourne-6718, australia
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