Harmony Week at ADA: Storytelling as an Act of Inclusion

Harmony Week invites us to recognise Australia’s cultural diversity as a collective strength. This year it is grounded in a simple message: Everyone Belongs.

Australia is one of the most culturally diverse nations in the world. Nearly half of Australians were either born overseas or have at least one parent who was, and more than 300 ancestries and hundreds of languages are represented across the country. Each year, Harmony Week reminds us that this diversity enriches our society socially, culturally, and economically.

At the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture, Harmony Week resonates with our deep commitment to creativity, collaboration and inclusion as drivers of impact. Our learning, research and community engagement are strengthened by cross-disciplinary exchange, global perspectives and the lived experience each member of our community brings.

This year, that commitment comes to life through The Jelma Fable. On 21 March, the ADA community will gather at the Esme Timbery Creative Practice Lab for this Indonesian music theatre work, presented as part of our Harmony Week program and aligned with the national theme, Everyone Belongs.

The Story of Jelma

Jelma — an Indonesian word meaning transformation or becoming — asks: what happens when someone is misread, cast out and made to carry a stigma that was never theirs?

The fable follows a princess who is cursed and banished into the forest. Scarred and exiled through misunderstanding, she journeys into nature where transformation unfolds. Dance and song intensify her journey of exile and return, while two narrators guide the story in the spirit of a dalang, the traditional Indonesian master storyteller and puppeteer who shapes narrative, rhythm and meaning, inviting reflection through voice and interpretation.

The performance features 16 Gamelan musicians, Indonesian dancers and guest artists including John Derum, Ronnie Saifudin and Lanny Saifudin. Gamelan is a traditional ensemble music from Indonesia; most closely associated with the islands of Bali and Java. Instruments include metallophones, gongs, and drums.

The instruments are tuned and built as a set, making the performance inherently collective; as no single instrument dominates. In this way, the music mirrors the message: belonging is built together.

The story invites reflection on:

• How quickly misunderstanding becomes exclusion
• How stigma can be imposed without cause
• How collective care can reshape a narrative
• How transformation becomes possible through shared listening.

Presented by Suwitra Jaya Gamelan, the UNSW-based ensemble led by Dr Manolete Mora and co-developed with Satoe Productions, the performance embodies intercultural collaboration. Since 2014, members have travelled to Bali to study traditional and contemporary gamelan, bringing those experiences back to Australia and performing locally and internationally.

We look forward to welcoming representatives from the Indonesian Consulate and the NSW Department of Education to our Kensington campus for this special evening.

At UNSW, the work of belonging continues in our studios, rehearsal rooms, lecture theatres and research collaborations. We encourage our community to continue engaging in intercultural dialogue, participate in creative exchange, and contribute to conversations that strengthen inclusion across campus.

Belonging is a shared responsibility and collective practice. As Dr Manolete Mora reflects:

“Jelma asks us to consider how we respond when someone is misread or excluded. Through collective music-making, we explore how listening — deeply and together — can transform stigma into understanding.”