Café Hakawati was a ground-breaking community theatre process and production in Auburn, developed with local Arab Australian communities during the first Gulf War in 1991. As a speaker at the company’s 25th anniversary celebration in 2006, I remember saying that my involvement in Café Hakawati was personally significant, as it brought together previously schizophrenically separated parts of myself … my creative self, my political self and my Arab self.

I remember being part of community consultations in 1990 about Death Defying Theatre moving from the Eastern to the Western suburbs. I worked with the company from 1991 to early 1995. During my years as an Artist / Facilitator, DDT (now UPT / Urban Theatre Projects) developed multilingual performance work with Western Sydney communities – conducting metropolitan, regional and inter-state schools tours, developing projects in community spaces and inside detention centres, and producing performances in theatres.

Poster, ‘Cafe Hakawati’, Death Defying Theatre, 1991

Programme, Cafe Hakawati, DDT, 1991

Programme, Cafe Hakawati, DDT, 1991