Australia: Music & Culture

MUSIC, ART, DANCE, THEATRE—INDIGENOUS AND IMPORTED

Sydney is one of the worlds’ great cities—vibrant, cosmopolitan, culturally rich, and incredibly diverse. More than half of the city’s residents were born overseas; 35% of the population speak a first language other than English. Sydney is also home to an indigenous population that maintains a millennia-old connection to land and heritage. This blend of ethnicities and cultural legacies creates a remarkable mosaic of global and indigenous traditions, in a social environment marked by forbearance, sharing, and mutual respect. Only in Sydney, for example, could you sample teriyaki barramundi and curried buffalo spring rolls while watching Aboriginal art projected onto the sails of the world-famous Opera House (designed by a Dane), then grab gelato afterwards on the way to a Latin fiesta. In this five-week SAGE program, centered in the Sydney metropolitan area, you’ll earn GE credit for Global and Cultural Awareness, Civ 2, and Arts by engaging with and learning from these cultures and communities through music, drama, dance, food, art, and other forms of cultural expression. Daytrips to the Blue Mountains, the South Coast, Central Coast, and Southern Highlands provide additional opportunities to experience in more rural settings the indigenous and diasporic dynamics that have formed the national character of Australian culture. In a longer excursion to Canberra, we’ll study how these dynamics are expressed in the nation’s purpose-built capital. Finally, to cap off the program, we travel to the iconic heart of the outback—Uluru—for an unforgettable, immersive adventure through the spiritual soul of Australia.

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