Engaging With Change: Culture, Community And The Arts

ENGAGING WITH CHANGE: CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND THE ARTS A Cultural Impact Statement on the importance of the Preston Market, part of the Market Value project “Talking to Preston residents from the 1920s, 30s, 40s, one of the things they’ll always tell you is that they came to the Chinese market gardens on the creeks, and they’ll talk about the old Chinese gentlemen tending the fields, taking their produce to Victoria Market to sell. And you wonder what tales people will be telling in thirty years, forty years, about the Preston Market— particularly if it no longer functions, or functions differently. “ -Gary

Introduction Market Value is a theatre and multimedia arts project being developed by Trax Arts in collaboration with the Preston Market community. The intention of this Cultural Impact Statement is to provide an overview of the existing cultural and social environment of the Preston Market, and explore the potential impacts of the Market Value project upon it. In doing so, this document will provide a foundational basis for the creative development of the project, and the evolving engagement of the artists with the community in and around the Preston Market. This document has been prepared by Victoria Stead, a social researcher employed by Trax Arts, and the facilitator of the Market Value Community Reference Group. A number of research methods have been used to prepare it. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with three traders and four members of the Community Reference Group. The Community Reference Group (CRG) is a group of individuals drawn from the Preston Market community—including Market patrons and local residents. Its role is to act as an independent body to evaluate and give feedback on the creative development of the Market Value project, and facilitate communication between the artists involved in the project and the broader social context within which the project is sited. In addition to formal interviews, the research draws on informal conversations with many more traders and patrons, and in-depth conversations with the artists involved in Market Value. Observations of the Market were made during repeated visits over a period of four months. Finally, information has been gathered from a range of sources, including Council publications, media, Preston Market development plans, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and other research studies into the role and functioning of market spaces. A list of the people who have contributed to the Cultural Impact Statement is included at the end of the document. In seeking to engage with community to generate exciting artistic collaborations and outcomes, Trax is committed to an ongoing process of genuine dialogue and conversation with the Preston Market community. In this spirit, members of the community are warmly invited to respond to this Cultural Impact Statement, and to the Market Value project more broadly.

The Market Value project The Market Value project is a community-based arts project taking place at the Preston Markets throughout 2008, with a live performance and multimedia exhibition to happen in November 2008. Young people from the area have come together at weekly workshops to collaborate on creating audio, film and digital pieces for the multimedia exhibition, with local professional artists. As well, traders, patrons and local residents are collaborating with Trax to produce a live theatre show. The focus of the creative journey is to engage local, personal, historical and mythical stories, thus valuing the Preston Markets for what it is, not solely a site for economic transaction, but as a centre of a web of local social and cultural interactions. Trax feels that storytelling has a unique place in enabling often-silenced

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communities to own their own history (past, present and future) and that the creative process can allow for collaboration and evaluation in a unique way. It is Trax's hope that in engaging a social researcher and opening up these questions to a Community Reference Group, we can look closely at the context within which our artistic practice takes place, and the broader social and cultural questions arising out of that environment. In doing so, our aim is to actively take responsibility for the kind of community-based work that we do; work that finds itself hovering excitedly between action, creativity and history.

Preston Market and the Darebin area The suburb of Preston is located in Melbourne’s inner north, and is part of the Darebin Council, which covers an area of 53 square kilometres extending from Northcote and Fairfield out to the middle ring suburbs of Reservoir and Bundoora. Darebin is one of the most ethnically-diverse areas in metropolitan Melbourne, with over one third of its residents born in countries other than Australia. The main countries of origin are Italy, Greece, the United Kingdom, China and Vietnam, but there are also increasing numbers of migrants from Sri Lanka, India, Egypt, the Philippines and the Middle East. Historically, Darebin has been one of lower socio-economic areas in Melbourne, and it remains so today. Working class families make up a large proportion of its demographic, although there are increasing numbers of middle-class and young professional singles, couples and families, particularly in the more inner northern suburbs of Northcote and Fairfield. Overall, levels of poverty in the area are disproportionately high, with the percentage of households earning less than $15,000 per annum five times the Melbourne average. Likewise, there is much higher rate of unemployment, and Darebin residents are much more likely to have a criminal record, or have been incarcerated within the prison system. Median house prices in the area are below those of the Melbourne metropolitan area as a whole, but have been rising at a disproportionately faster rate. Again, this has occurred unevenly across the council area, with house prices, like incomes, generally lower in the outer north than in the inner north. Looking solely at statistics and economic indicators, a picture could easily be painted of the area as one marked by poverty, disadvantage and marginalisation. But while all of this is accurate, and important, a true representation of the area also needs to include what is strong and vibrant about it, including its rich and varied cultural traditions and practices, and the sense of local community and belonging felt by many people, particularly those who have lived in the area for decades. These things are less easy to quantify, perhaps, but are nonetheless central to the place. Within this social setting, the Preston Market has been a key feature of local community life for 38 years. Envisioned as a European style market, its construction was proposed shortly after the Myer corporation built and opened Northland, a large shopping centre with over 80 specialist stores and its own signature department store. In many ways, Northland continues to stand as counter-point to the Preston Market, in terms of its culture, style, orientation and demographic. In proposing a market, the designers of the Preston Market were drawing on long-standing traditions in the local area, beginning with market gardens in south Preston in the 1860s, and the Chinese market gardens scattered along the Merri creek in the early 1900s. They were also drawing directly on the cultural heritage and traditions of the large and growing population of European migrants in the area at that time. The more recent history of the Preston Market has been marked by uncertainty, competing interests, and contested calls for its redevelopment. Ownership of the Market has changed hands several times since it opened, and it is currently owned by Preston Market Developments, a corporate partnership between Salta and Medich Property Group. A planned $80 million redevelopment of the site was announced several years ago but plans stalled and floundered amid rumours of difficulties between the partners, and confusion around planning controls which were shifted from the Darebin Council to the State Government as part of the Melbourne 2030 metropolitan planning policy. In September of this year Salta and Medich finally announced the redevelopment, and construction is due to start in 2009. Under the new redevelopment plans, the Preston Market will be substantially rebuilt as a multi-level site. High density accommodation is to be built on top of the site, the existing market stalls will now be located alongside retail outlets. Traders have recently been informed of the plans, and meetings between individual stall holders and Market management are due to commence soon, to negotiate leases for stalls in the new premises. Traders will be required to carry the costs of fitting out their new stalls in accordance with management directives, costs which will run into the tens of thousands for many, and possibly more for stalls which require expensive equipment such as the fish and meat outlets. Unsurprisingly, rumours abound as to

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what the new Market will look like. Many expect the inclusion of large retailers alongside the smaller ones, such as factory outlets or a department store. Some traders believe that the “market feel” will be retained, while others feel that the new Market will more closely resemble a shopping centre, at least in large part. It is in this context of impending redevelopment that the Market Value project is seeking to communicate what we believe to be so important and valuable about the Preston Market for our local community. Given that many of the finer details of the redevelopment are still to be disclosed, our focus is on the prospect of redevelopment as a whole. Too often, discussions about development are focussed on economics, profit margins and business opportunities. But development should be about more than this—it should be about how communities can grow to become stronger, more vibrant, enriching and inclusive for all of us. The economic—particularly as it relates to economic equality—is an important dimension of development, but so too are the cultural and the social.

The Cultural and Social Environment of the Preston Market The cultural and social environment of the Preston Market is rich and multi-dimensional, and the Market serves many important functions for the people who shop and work in it. A key point of commonality which emerged from the members of the Community Reference Group, was the sense that there are fundamental differences between the Market and supermarkets or shopping centres. The large shopping centre in Preston, Northland, was repeatedly raised in comparison to what is considered unique and special about the Preston Market. Likewise, the Market is something which makes Preston itself special and unique. “This big area, you can make into a mall, but I think we have enough. We already have Northland close, and Epping.” - Linda “When you think of Preston Market, people come a long way to come to the Market. People don’t travel from suburb to suburb to go to a supermarket. But people will travel from Epping or Thomastown to come here…if you take the Market out of Preston, how is that different to anywhere else? How is that different to Thomastown, from Northcote, from any one of a zillion suburbs around here? … The Market’s what brings people from outside Preston to Preston, and if you replace it with a housing development, or a supermarket, or boutique shops, discount shops or whatever, it loses something.” - Gary Faced with the now imminent prospect of the Market’s redevelopment, the fear is that it will become “another Northland”. But what is it that makes the cultural and social environment of the Preston Market, as it currently exists, different to that of Northland? Or, more generally, what is it that makes market culture qualitatively different to the culture of supermarkets or shopping centres? Affordability and economic justice One of the most important and valuable things about the Market is its affordability. The Market allows people living in the northern suburbs of Melbourne to have access to a relatively cheap source of household goods, clothes and food. And its proximity to public transport means that it is physically accessible for people without cars, and those who can’t afford the price of petrol. Many of the people who use the space are people on low incomes, unemployed, under-employed or living on the pension. They shop at the Market because they can afford to. For many, the Market allows them to purchase and consume fresh produce—fruit and vegetables —that they simply cannot afford to purchase at supermarkets. More than economics, this is about social inclusion, the health and quality of life available to people within a community: “I think the qualities of a community’s wellness are also about access to justice, and economic justice as well as having access to spaces that are not conditional. If that’s taken away…it will impact economically—all the prices will go up, some of the traders won’t be able to sustain their business. Those people who need to shop here won’t be able to shop here, and that’s an economic and a social injustice that could be prevented.” - Charandev

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Markets as social spaces More than simply a place for economic exchange and consumption, though, the Preston Market is a space for social interaction. In contrast to supermarkets—where you enter through sliding doors, progress up and down aisles in an orderly fashion before exiting again via the checkouts—markets are spaces for looking, wandering, sitting, talking, and browsing. Access to and interactions within the space are not conditional on purchase. And even during economic transactions—the exchange of money for goods—social interactions within the Preston Market have a quality that is not replicated in supermarkets. People come to the Market to shop, but they also come to spend time with friends and family, or because there’s a good chance they’ll run into people they know. Particularly in the mornings, the Market comes alive as a meeting place for local people. “You find a lot of different nationalities, and they all get together, and have a bit of a chat. It normally happens in the morning—so they come and have their coffees, and a bit of a gossip, catch up on all the local news…It’s a meeting place for everyone in the area.” - Manuel, trader Another important dimension to the sociality of the Market is the relationships between customers and traders. Customers talk about their relationships with traders as being something they value: “Well in a supermarket the only inter-personal relationships you have may have, would be if you keep going to the same supermarket and see the cashier. And you’d be like, ‘Hi Beryl, how’s things?’, but you’re not talking about what you’re buying. She doesn’t know the fruit or veg, or the pack of cornflakes or toilet paper any more than you do. It’s a lot more superficial.” - Gary The traders in the Preston Market know their goods; they are much more intimately connected to their stalls and their businesses than a supermarket employee working for a corporate boss for the minimum wage. Walk into the meat section and talk to one of the butchers about what you’re having for dinner—they’ll tell you which cuts are best, give you recipes for a marinade and advice on what vegies to cook with it. Go back a few times and chances are you’ll be on a first name basis with them, asking about their kids and their plans for Christmas. For traders, as well, the social interactions with their customers, and with each other, are key aspects of their experience of the Market. Many of them have worked at their stalls for years, even decades, and have built up multiple and varied relationships in that time. Josie, who works in the variety section selling linen and embroidered fabrics, has been at the Preston Market for 26 years. Many of her customers are regulars, some of them for nearly as long as her stall has been open: “The ones I’ve known from twenty years ago, they were working parents then and now they’re retired, and they still like to come through and have their chit chat. For them, they feel at home here.” - Josie, trader Open space and opportunities to linger The social interactions which are so central to the culture of the Preston Market are enabled in many ways by the physicality of the space. The layout of the Market is such that people can move organically in many directions, from section to section, and stall to stall. Unlike the Queen Victoria Markets, which have been redesigned so that stalls are arranged in long lines, and customers walk up and down passageways in between them, stalls in the Preston Market are arranged in such a way that it allows for an organic flow of people criss-crossing and mingling. There are spaces for stopping, chatting and sitting; traders call out to customers across the open spaces, and snatches of conversations can be heard from every direction. I think it’s more personal. It’s a very fluid sort of place, like there’s no place in Preston Markets that you could say is the centre. The centre is where you happen to be standing at the time. - Gary “Here you can just move around, you can move across. These are very open spaces, so you can be in and out, no problems.” - Charandev

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The open spaces, and seating and tables scattered amongst the stalls, provide opportunities to linger. Open, shared seating in the Market enhances the capacity for social interaction. Patrons are able to utilise the seats and tables to consume food or drinks purchased at any of the outlets in the Market, but use of the facilities is not contingent upon purchase. In this sense, the shared sitting areas are accessible because of their integration with the commercial elements of the Market, their informality, and the lack of expense required for their use. The layout of the Market creates spaces, both physically and temporally, for forms of social interaction which are central to the way that people experience it. Social inclusion and a space for diversity Moving through the Preston Market, the cultural and ethnic diversity of the Darebin area is reflected in the people who use and work in the place. This diversity is one of the most immediate and striking features of the Market, and frequently invoked as one its greatest strengths. In contrast to the all-in-one nature of supermarkets, which tends towards homogenisation, the decentralised diversity of small businesses within the Market allows it to cater to the needs and desires of people coming from varied cultural, ethnic, religious and national backgrounds. For many people who shop at the Preston Market, this is a strong point of appeal, and it invokes a sense of familiarity, of comfortableness. This sense extends beyond the availability of particular food or clothes, however—the familiarity comes from the presence of the cultural expressions, languages being spoken, practices, and the company of others with whom one identifies. For Nurten, a Turkish woman who has lived in the area for 15 years, it is this familiarity which she considers to be the key factor in making the Market socially accessible for local people: “I guess being a multi-cultural place, people almost look at a mirror of themselves, in saying, this is a place where us types, or us people go.” - Nurten Linda, who is also from a migrant background, described feeling “safe and comfortable” at the Market, and emphasised the importance of the “traditional” nature of the space. What is important for her, as for others, is the visibility and celebration of the diverse cultures within the area. In an area with a high percentage of migrants, particularly from non-English speaking backgrounds, markets are an important part of the cultural traditions of many Darebin families. As George, a butcher at the Market described it, “the people who come here are market people.” For many migrants, the familiarity of the Market, the opportunity to speak your own language and give expression to your own cultural practices, becomes even more important when seen in the context of the pervasive marginalisation and alienation often experienced by people from migrant and non-English speaking backgrounds in Australia. Here, as well, the social interactions facilitated by the Market become acutely valuable. Charandev, whose background is Indian, located his experience of the Market in the context of the racism around the rise of Pauline Hanson in the late 1990s, the Tampa refugee crisis, and the post-9/11 climate. For him, the Market became a safer, more inclusive space, a “refuge” at that time: “And then 1998 was a really critical time, because it was around the time of the rise of One Nation, and I felt that every second of every day. In the Market it was really interesting, because the Market was a real buffer against the predatory race politics of One Nation, and the Government and the Opposition. So it was a bit of a refuge, a space that was talking back to those politics …You know August 2000 was when the first people were released from Woomera and Curtin [refugee detention centres], and a lot of the Iraqi mob came here [to Darebin]. There was a meeting every Saturday morning—an informal meeting. So the first people to come out of Woomera and Curtin—babies, families, everyone—just landed around here. Because, you know the Mosque is not far. And then 2001 was Tampa, and then the bombings happened. So this place—that’s the history of this place, how I see the space of the Market speaking back to all these events.” - Charandev Preston Market, and markets more generally, play an important function as sites of social inclusion, where difference within communities can be given expression, and made visible to others. The decentralised nature of the commerce within markets, the diversity of stalls and the large numbers of traders, makes them much better suited to this expression of difference, as opposed to the centralisation of a supermarket where different types of goods are provided by one, usually corporate-owned outlet. Having space to experience and articulate difference is a crucial dimension in the wellbeing and cohesion of local communities.

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Celebrating difference, and facilitating social interactions across difference, can be a powerful tool for strengthening respect, understanding and dialogue. Public space or private? In a recent study of different markets in Britain, it was argued that, in many cases, “markets act as focal point for the locality, and as a hub of connection, interconnections and social interaction.”1 For the authors of that study, markets are important public spaces within a community. What is peculiar about the Preston Market is that it is, in fact, not public space. Owned and operated by a corporate management, rather than by the Darebin Council, it is in fact entirely private space. But while the Market cannot rightly be called a public space, it clearly contains elements that are traditionally associated with such spaces. Perhaps, then, one way to understand the social and cultural environment of the Market, is to see it as a civic space, one which is shaped and transformed by the community who use it. It is this community—traders, customers, local residents—who make it a site for social interaction, for the celebration of difference, and for the strengthening of shared identity and belonging. In the case of the Preston Market, a major concern about the prospective redevelopment is that this aspect will be lost. If stall rents rise, there is a strong probability that independent small stall-holdings will be squeezed out, or else replaced by supermarkets, department stores and retail outlets. The loss in such an event would be more than the loss of individual businesses; it would be the loss of a vibrant space of inclusiveness and diversity within the Darebin community. If, as has too often been the case in urban redevelopments, the newly “revamped” Market is oriented towards a more middle-class patronage, then the effect will also be to further marginalise low-income people who currently rely on it. “People would stay away for the reason that, if it’s too much out of their social reach or even their economic reach, they won’t come…So there’ll be a big transition as far as the population who utilise it. It won’t not be used, but it’ll certainly change in the way it feels. It’s just going to change the dynamics of who comes here…The people of a lower economic background—it’s not going to be an environment that they can feel comfortable in, which is almost like a semi-alienation of social groups.” - Nurten Engaging with change: fears and hopes Already, the impending redevelopment of the Preston Market has affected the social and cultural fabric of the place. For years now, the Market has been slated for redevelopment, but until recently there has been little clarity on its future, with disagreements between Council and the corporate owners contributing to the stalled starts and failed attempts to move ahead with plans. During this period there has been a lack of community consultation, and communication with traders has been woefully inadequate. The result has been high levels of nervousness, anxiety, unease and even suspicion amongst traders. Most traders in the Market have been on month-to-month leases for prolonged periods of time, putting them and their livelihoods in positions of extreme precariousness. As rents have gone up, a number have had no choice but to close down their stalls. The lack of a traders group, or other organised mechanism for collective organisation, has exacerbated the tendency towards the isolation and fragmentation of the traders. In painting a picture of the social and cultural environment of the Preston Market, it is important then to recognise that the positive aspects experienced by much of the community around the Market, have often co-existed with experiences of stress and difficulty, particularly for traders. Amongst the traders, the recent announcement of the Market owners’ redevelopment plans has prompted a range of reactions. All of the traders who were interviewed or spoken to by members of the Trax team agreed that the Market needed an injection of resources. In this light, the proposed redevelopment has been welcomed by many traders as a way of revamping and re-energising the place that they rely on for their livelihoods. “I’m quite excited about it, because it’s something for the future. The Market’s reached its age now, and it’s time to move on. And for this Market to keep on going in the future, it has to be updated.” - Manuel, trader, poultry 1

Watson and Studdert, p. 3

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“They’re talking about spending 200 million bucks…We should be fortunate that someone’s willing to take that sort of risk. At the end of the day they’re doing it for their own pocket, but they could pick another place to do it. And Preston Market would have progressively gone downhill.” - George, butcher The responses of traders to the redevelopment also highlight the varying ways in which the Market is valued. While many traders point to and recognise the social and cultural importance of the Market, ultimately it is the place where they work, and economic concerns accordingly take priority. In this regard, many of the traders expressed hopes that the redevelopment will offer opportunities for increased revenue and patronage. “Short term [it will mean] a lot of disruption. Long term—who knows? It could be a goldmine, for everyone.” - George, butcher “We don’t have the amount of retail outlets now [that are being proposed], but that’s not to say that they won’t help towards the Market’s future, to bring in people that maybe would be coming to buy something from a retail outlet, who might come and buy something from us too.” - Manuel, trader, poultry section At the same time, however, there are anxieties amongst the Market’s traders. The prospect of major retails or a department store being built in the new premises is a real concern for many, particularly those running stalls in the variety sections. As Josie put it, small stalls selling clothing, footwear or home wares would be unable to compete with a large retailer able to absorb the cost of temporarily slashing prices. “That’s the only draw-back. I feel like, we’ve been here so many years, and then the big fish come in, and you know, eat the little fish. You might as well close the door. So that’s another thing, is it worthwhile investing, doing the shop up?” - Josie, trader, variety section She recognised that the prospect of a department store or large retailers would effectively mean the end of her business and, moreover, she considered such the introduction of those type of stores to be inevitable. Yet at the same time Josie, and other traders around her, were voicing support for the redevelopment. Such seemingly contradictory sentiments can perhaps be attributed to the general climate of anxiety and uncertainty which remains attached to the Market’s redevelopment. There is a sense of relief that something is finally happening, but questions remain about exactly what the new Market will look like, and what the implications will be for the existing traders. Many are adamant that prices will not go up, but also recognise that re-fitting their shops will require large outlays of funds. Ultimately, as George described it, most traders are reluctant to talk the market down because it is the source of their livelihood. But other traders like Josie conceded that there was also widespread concern about the costs which would be incurred in the redevelopment, and the possibility that new retailers would drive out existing stalls. It is possible that while the economics of the Market weigh heavily on the traders’ minds, patrons and local residents may ascribe more value to other aspects of the Market, particularly it’s social and cultural functions. And whereas the economic importance of the Market for traders centres on the ability of stalls to generate financial return for the people who run them, the economic considerations of patrons are more likely to be focussed on the affordability of the goods available. The Market, then, fulfils different functions for different people, and the nature of a person’s relationship to the Market will likely impact on the ways in which they both value the place and respond to the prospect of it changing. Valuing what we’ve got, and thinking about what we want The desire to hold onto what is valuable and strong about the Preston Market should not be misconstrued as a blanket resistance to change. Indeed, the history of the Preston Market and the Darebin area is a dynamic one, of a landscape evolving over time in response to new ideas, people and cultures. Migration, for example has brought new influences, exposure to new cultural practices, demands for new types of products and produce. The Market has grown and developed in response to these developments, reflecting the complexity and richness of the local community. And in that sense, the Market should continue to be a site for change and dynamism.

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Our desire, then, is not to hold onto a fixed, immutable idea of what the Market should be, but rather to engage with the possibility of change in a way that is critical, thoughtful and creative. Talking to Josie in the stall that she has run for 26 years, she echoed the feelings of many traders in saying “you have to move on with the times.” True, but many of the trends which we can see occurring around us at the moment— gentrification, the privatisation of civic space, the increased marginalisation of migrant and working class people—are having negative effects on communities across the Darebin area, and the city at large. We want to think about ways in which the Preston Market can move with the times, without simply replicating these processes. Development that focuses on cultural and social, as well as economic dimensions, has the capacity to enhance and improve the Market while building on what is already valuable about it. While it is already an inclusive and very accepting space, efforts could be made to make it more so. For instance, existing food voucher systems and school breakfast programs could be modified so that vouchers can be used at the Market, rather than only being redeemable at more expensive supermarkets. Entertainment programs and youth-oriented services could be integrated into the physical space of the Market, which is already an important site for social interaction and congregation. Meaningful engagement with the Indigenous history of the area, and the current Indigenous peoples, could be made a priority. If there is to be residential development on the site, it could be done so that there is a real mix of private properties, public housing and affordable rental options. For decades, Preston Market and the Darebin area have been shaped by dynamics of change. The rich and varied influences of successive waves of migration are testament to that. But as members of the community, our desire is for development which keeps intact the essence of the Market, which allows it to evolve rather than fundamentally altering it, which rejuvenates it without destroying its strengths, and which ensures that it continues to be a vibrant, accessible, culturally-rich hub of local community life.

The Market Value Project and the Preston Market Community In seeking to engage the Preston Market community in collaborative, creative processes of theatre and multimedia production, Trax and the Market Value project are entering into a space that is dynamic and complex. The Market is a place that is strong, vibrant, and important, but one which is also facing difficult challenges. The creative development of the project should, as much as possible, aim to be genuinely collaborative and enabling. Because while art can be inclusive and empowering, it can also be divisive and elitist, particularly when “professional” artists claim to speak on behalf of other people. “The way that you go about doing it should be to do it with integrity for the people involved. If you take away their voices rather than add to their voices, it might be seen as a negative thing, but if you add to their voice without taking their integrity, then it’s a good thing…By involving other people in your art, at some point, you are not saying that this is a specialised thing that we do that you can’t do. Because every person has a creative streak, no matter what it is.” - Nurten “You see a lot of different mobs here, and I just think, there’s a lot of talent here in terms of art and creativity. But it’s not that high art stuff, it’s just raw talent. It’d be great to see spaces here for young people to demonstrate that. It’d be really good to have young people do dancing or beat boxing. It’d be amazing, because it always draws a crowd. It’s so dynamic, and people really appreciate it.” - Charandev The hope of the Community Reference Group is that Market Value can act to strengthen what is already good within the cultural and social environment of the Preston Market, while empowering people within the community to engage with the challenges and changes facing them. Specifically, there are a number of important ways in which we hope the project will be able to impact the cultural and social fabric of the Market:  Market Value can act to highlight and articulate some of the many and varied stories which exist within and about the Preston Market. Particularly, we hope that it can act to give expression to voices which are not always listened to: those of working class people, the unemployed and those within the welfare system, people of colour and immigrants, and other socially and economically marginalised people. In relation to the redevelopment of the Market, we hope that the project can play a role in giving expression to the thoughts, concerns and hopes of the traders, some of whom feel unable to speak up, and many of whom feel as if they have been ignored and sidelined.

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 In valuing the importance of personal stories, Market Value can be a ‘witnessing’ project. In this way, the project can be placed within the broader history of social and political movements which have recognised the power of witnessing what is happening in the world, and transforming personal stories into tools for justice and change.  The use of narrative and personal story-telling can also act as a counter-point to the current dominance of administrative and bureaucratic language within discussions about the Market and its future. Stories are powerful, and they carry their own truth which can stand up against the impersonal weight of statistics, facts and figures.  Market Value can make a unique contribution to a broader project of recording and documenting the history of the Preston Market and the Darebin area.  The creative processes through which the Market Value theatre and multimedia components are being generated can, and should, tap into the existing artistic talents within the Preston Market community. Particularly, we hope that the project can engage young people from the community, in ways which give them opportunities for self-expression and value their skills and experiences.  Participation in creative and artistic processes creates valuable avenues for self-expression, and has the capacity to enhance well-being, enjoyment and social connectedness. In this sense, Market Value can make a positive contribution to individual and collective well-being within the community.  The project offers an opportunity to challenge a strictly economic, business-led understanding of what development should be, through focussing on the importance of community, culture, social life and wellbeing. The Preston Market is a vibrant, rich and colourful part of the Darebin community. Its story, and the stories of the people who are connected to it, should have a special place in Melbourne’s history, and in its future. In drawing on these stories through collaborative artistic practice, our hope is that the Market Value project can be a way of drawing attention to the culture of the Preston Market, affirming it as something which is important, valuable, worth celebrating and defending. “if people become self-aware about the culture of the Market then they’ll fight harder to protect it. Ultimately the Council, government and developers will make their decision about where it’s going to go, but if they want to take it into development, into housing estates, direct factory outlets and so on, it’ll have to be the community who stand up and say no. And to do that they have to be self-aware of what the Market offers and what they need from it.”

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Contributors to this Cultural Impact Statement Many people contributed in various ways to this document. These include the members of the Market Value Community Reference Group, Charandev Singh, Nurten Ates, and Gary Edge. Three traders, Josie, Manuel and George, generously gave their time to be interviewed, and conversations with many more traders, patrons and locals provided valuable insights into the Market and the local area. The people behind Trax Arts are Tara Prowse (Managing Director), Brian Cohen (Creative Director), Emanuela Savini (Company Manager) , Stu Liddell (sound design and filmmaker) and Tintin Wulia (filmmaker). Finally, the Market Value project involves a large team of artists and organisers all contributing towards the realisation of the project’s creative goals.

Contact Details for Market Value and Community Reference Group If you’d like more information about the Market Value project, if you’d like to be part of the theatre performance or the multimedia installation, or if you’d like to be part of the Community Reference Group which gives feedback and guidance to the artists, please get in touch. Victoria Stead Facilitator, Community Reference Group E: [email protected] M: 0402 259 370 Brian Cohen Creative Director, Trax Arts E: [email protected] You can also come and visit us at our office at the Preston Market. We are in the Cramer St Market, which is located on Cramer St, just next to the main Market building, and underneath the Bingo Hall. The glass doors of the office face onto the car park.

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