City of Darwin Sister Cities: Parallel Hearts Launched

City of Darwin's Parallel Hearts project, a Sister Cities audio collaboration between the Indigenous people of Anchorage and Darwin, will be launched by Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis and Chairman of Larrakia Nation Elder at Larrakia Nation in The Mall at 10am Saturday 14 November.

The project captures the voices of First Nations people from Darwin and Anchorage - the Larrakia and Dena’ina people - and is designed to increase understanding, knowledge and appreciation of Indigenous culture.

“I’m delighted to be launching this very special project during NAIDOC week,” said Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis.

“The Larrakia people are the traditional owners of the land on which City of Darwin operates and we believe this project will help deepen the understanding and respect between our community and Indigenous people.”

Seven podcasts have captured the themes of maintaining culture, this is our land, caring for country, seasons, history and Sister Cities.

“Projects like this help create a more connected community and build pride in our cultural identity,” concluded Lord Mayor Vatskalis.

ABC radio Darwin will broadcast each episode 3 times a week over a 6 week period, commencing Sunday 15 November.

City of Darwin will have each episode available through their website at the beginning of each week for 6 weeks, commencing Tuesday 17 November.

City of Darwin commissioned local audio maker Gaia Osborne to undertake the Parallel Hearts project.

City of Darwin has 6 Sister Cities around the world, including Anchorage, Ambon, Dili, Haikou, Kalymnos and Milikapiti.  Through the Sister Cities program City of Darwin seeks to promote education, arts and cultural exchanges with the aim of growing cross cultural understanding.

For more information and to link to the latest Parallel Hearts episode go to: https://www.darwin.nt.gov.au/sister-cities