ON FRIDAY, The Rotary Club of Canberra and Reconciliation Australia staged an unusual fundraising event at the Austrian Embassy.

Aimed at raising $10,000 to fund Rotary’s Youth Leader Award and Program of Enrichment, this time with a special focus on indigenous youth, the evening of Australian art and music, followed by a supper hosted by local Rotarian Hannes Porias, the Austrian ambassador to Australia, proved a fine example of Reconciliation Australia’s aim to develop relationships between Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders and other Australians.

In a room to one side of the central hall in the embassy, was an exhibition and sale of works donated by the Papunya Tula art movement, James Baban, Kerstin Styche, Lyndy Delian, Janet Fieldhouse, Carol Byrne and Manuel Pfeiffer, ranging across the art media, from glass and textiles to paintings.

Once seated, the audience was treated to several jokes about Australia and Austria from host Ross Solly of 666 ABC Canberra. These were followed by a rollicking set of numbers, including “The Pub With No Beer” and “Home Among The Gum Trees” from the Ryebuck Bushband, Tim Baxter, Cath Christensen, Gordon Fyfe and Liz Fyfe, Cate Green and Trevor Smallwood.

Curiously, it turned out that the ambassador had met them before, in Austria. This added to the amusing confusion about the names Australia and Austria to which Solly had alluded.

The central part of the evening was a star turn. The organiser of the event, Gillian McFeat, had dared to write to the soul and pop diva Christine Anu, asking if she’d like to donate her time to the event and to everybody’s surprise, she said yes, combining a weekend visit to Canberra with a round of media interviews and a singing appearance at the Raiders’ match on Sunday, April 29.

Anu entertained the crowd with numbers ranging from “You Make Me Feel (Like A Natural Woman)” and her ARIA award winning number “My Island Home”.

The entertainment was rounded off with a good old Aussie sing-along – “Click Go the Shears,” “Botany Bay” and “We are one, but we are many”.