Hát Xe Buýt (Singing Bus) is a curated bus ride in 2022 that took guests between the House of Mother Tongue, House of Other Tongue exhibitions at Footscray Community Arts and West Space, Collingwood. Each ride is hosted by artists, poets and community leaders who explore the role of language and place in the contemporary colonial context.
It was made to commemorate the loss of Footscray Primary School’s Vietnamese Bilingual Program which occurred in 2020; as well as remind the audience of the power language has in connecting us with community and place.
Photos by Alan Weedon
Listen to some of the bus rides here:
https://www.liminalmag.com/shifting-subjects/all-aboard
Learn more about the language campaign:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/04/melbourne-parents-fight-to-keep-bilingual-vietnamese-program-at-footscray-primary-school
https://westspace.org.au/offsite/work/speaking-two-things-at-once
https://vietspeak.net