During a long hot summer, 40 girls and gender diverse youth aged 11 to 17 converge in Brunswick for the inaugural week-long GIRLS ROCK! MELBOURNE Camp. Greeting them are local female rock legends, punked up teachers, students and youth workers, all keen to empower each of the participants through rock n roll. Over the course of the week, and months after camp, we follow three participants as they struggle to find their sense of belonging and identity through music.
Born out of frustration in Portland, USA, in 2001, the GIRLS ROCK! ALLIANCE has become something of a DIY legend. Fed up with experiencing inequality in the music industry, local female musicians sought to establish a grassroots program to facilitate the empowerment of the next generation of female and gender non-conforming musicians. From this seed grew a global movement.
The formula is simple: over the course of week-long nonresidential camp, each participant learns an instrument of their choice, is assigned a band, collaborates, writes a song and performs it in front of family and friends at a rock n roll showcase that baulks at conventions and challenges normalised ideas about what it is to be young and female. In addition, they are taught self-defense, how to plug in their own instruments, how to let loose in screaming workshops and are mentored by some of the industry’s punk-assed best.
Melbourne’s first GIRLS ROCK! Camp has all the right ingredients for a week of creativity, empowerment and general sticking it to the man-ness. Surrounding the girls and providing invaluable mentorship are musicians COURTNEY BARNETT and CAMP COPE, local punk legends CABLE TIES, Australian-Sikh Slam Poet SUKJHIT KHALSA, Indigenous rapper and street poet LADY LASH, traditional Japanese guitarist NORIKO and a host of dedicated volunteers.
