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AUSTRALIAN HIGH COMMISSION
OTTAWA
MEDIA RELEASE
MAJOR AUSTRALIAN PRESENCE AT THE VANCOUVER GAMES
10 February 2010
The Opening Ceremony for the XXI Winter Olympics, choreographed by Australia’s David Atkins, will be one several ways Australians will showcase their country to Canada and Canadians throughout the Vancouver Games.
Indigenous performance
For the first time in the Games history, the 2010 Olympics Cultural Program is focusing on Aboriginal programming, featuring many high profile Indigenous artists from around the world. The Black Arm Band troupe of indigenous performers will represent Australia.
The Black Arm Band will perform their work Hidden Republic at the Four Host First Nations, Aboriginal Pavilion at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver on 11 February. The performance will feature Mark Atkins, Emma Donovan, Kutcha Edwards, Leah Flanagan, Djolpa McKenzie, Shellie Morris, Stephen Pigram, Bevan Gapanbulu Yunupingu, Ursula Yovich and Genevieve Lacey alongside an 8 piece Australian/Canadian jazz section and other musicians.
In this prestigious and high profile international environment, Hidden Republic showcases, celebrates and shares the contribution of music to Indigenous cultural and political life and deliver positive social messages from contemporary Australia to the international community.
Developed and Produced by Arts House, a City of Melbourne contemporary arts initiative, this tour has been supported by the Australian Government through the Australia International Cultural Council, an initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria.
Business Club Australia
The Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) will be hosting a Business Club Australia (BCA) event in Vancouver on 24 February. The event will create business matching opportunities for Australian and Canadian companies wishing to expand trade and investment linkages.
The BCA event is being supported by key Australian corporations in Canada, Macquarie Capital, RitoTinto Alcan and Worley Parsons and will be hosted by the Australian High Commissioner to Canada, Justin Brown and the British Columbia’s Minister for the Games, the Honourable Mary McNeil.
The BCA will showcase Australia as a country that has recorded 19 years of uninterrupted economic growth - one of the few developed countries to avoid a recession – that has strong and extensive trade, investment, political and education links to Asia, and that offers leading edge research and technology in goods and services and as an attractive place to invest.
Australia is already the second largest destination for Canadian investment in Asia and two-way investment flows have recorded good levels of growth in recent years. Other areas of growth potential in the economic relationship include education services, clean technology, water management, and mining technology and services. And of course Australian wine continues to enjoy a prominent place among Canadian wine devotees.
Over the past few years there has been an increase in Australian companies establishing offices in Canada, most notably in Vancouver, but also in Calgary and Toronto.
For further comment contact:
Melissa Fransen
First Secretary
613 236 4376