Jul 20, 2026 · 44 min · 15 segments
In this episode, The Boite’s CEO Dale Packard and Director Therese Virtue share how the organisation has been using music as a powerful tool for cultural celebration, connection and community…
Therese VirtueGuest
Claudia NankervisHost
Dale PackardGuestI would like to start from the beginning, for those who haven't heard of the Boite before.
To begin in 1979, um, and still be going strong today as an arts organization is somewhat rare, you might say, in Australia.
But yes, could you, could you tell us how it all began f- nearly 40 years ago?
In 1979 was part of a time when there were, there was a lot of change, and there was a lot of, uh, movement philosophically and in education, and one of the things that happened was teachers noticed that they were getting these, uh, kids in their classes who didn't speak English, who had come respective- respectively from Chile and from Greece.
And in both cases, there had been conservative, uh, takeovers of government, uh, coups, and the children who came were children of refugees, political refugees from those countries.
And teachers and teachers' friends became very aware of this, and th- what they also became aware of was the fact that the resistance in both those countries was strongly associated with music.
And so in, in Chile, for instance, people like Victor Jara and Violeta Parra and, uh, bands like Intiman- Inti-Illimani and Illapu were very strongly associated with the resistance to the conservative government that was put in place after Salvador Allende was murdered.
And in Greece, Mikis Theodorakis would be the emblematic composer who, uh, encapsulated, I suppose, the sentiments of the left.
And those two bodies of music became very significant, and what some Australians became aware of was that some of the people who were coming here were professional musicians or semi-professional musicians, and they were still wanting to play that music, and there wasn't an automatic English-speaking audience that was [laughs] particularly interested to hear it.
And so they set about establishing, uh, a way, a, a context where those musicians could be heard, and that's really the origin of the Melbourne Boite.
He came down to Melbourne, and the two impulses were, uh, happening together for a while.
The Sydney Boite, unfortunately, just had its time, and the Boite in Melbourne has heroically [laughs] staggered on for 47 years.
Well, I think it always has been to give a voice, to provide an audience, to provide space for those musicians who come here and bring their own cultural music, in many cases, music that's never been played on these shores before, and they want-
I would like to start from the beginning, for those who haven't heard of the Boite before.
To begin in 1979, um, and still be going strong today as an arts organization is somewhat rare, you might say, in Australia.
But yes, could you, could you tell us how it all began f- nearly 40 years ago?
In 1979 was part of a time when there were, there was a lot of change, and there was a lot of, uh, movement philosophically and in education, and one of the things that happened was teachers noticed that they were getting these, uh, kids in their classes who didn't speak English, who had come respective- respectively from Chile and from Greece.
And in both cases, there had been conservative, uh, takeovers of government, uh, coups, and the children who came were children of refugees, political refugees from those countries.
And teachers and teachers' friends became very aware of this, and th- what they also became aware of was the fact that the resistance in both those countries was strongly associated with music.
And so in, in Chile, for instance, people like Victor Jara and Violeta Parra and, uh, bands like Intiman- Inti-Illimani and Illapu were very strongly associated with the resistance to the conservative government that was put in place after Salvador Allende was murdered.
And in Greece, Mikis Theodorakis would be the emblematic composer who, uh, encapsulated, I suppose, the sentiments of the left.
And those two bodies of music became very significant, and what some Australians became aware of was that some of the people who were coming here were professional musicians or semi-professional musicians, and they were still wanting to play that music, and there wasn't an automatic English-speaking audience that was [laughs] particularly interested to hear it.
And so they set about establishing, uh, a way, a, a context where those musicians could be heard, and that's really the origin of the Melbourne Boite.
He came down to Melbourne, and the two impulses were, uh, happening together for a while.
The Sydney Boite, unfortunately, just had its time, and the Boite in Melbourne has heroically [laughs] staggered on for 47 years.
Well, I think it always has been to give a voice, to provide an audience, to provide space for those musicians who come here and bring their own cultural music, in many cases, music that's never been played on these shores before, and they want-
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