Sunday Mail (Adelaide, Australia)

Nov 25, 2001

It's a date with our Heath. (TV Plus)

 

HEATH Ledger, David Wenham, Slim Dusty, Bryan Brown and Hugh Jackman are just five of our stars who will help celebrate the lives of Australia's unsung heroes at the spectacular Peoplescape Concert screening on Sunday.

 

In February this year, the National Council for the Centenary of Federation called on Australians to nominate someone whom they felt had significantly affected their lives, community or country.

 

Now, thousands of life-size figures of these heroes will form a massive outdoor art installation, the Peoplescape, on the expansive slopes of Parliament House, Canberra.

 

Figures of unknown Australians will stand alongside national icons.

 

The Peoplescape Concert celebrates the opening of the installation and will tell stories from the Peoplescape through spoken word, song, dance, music and performances in a 90-minute live national telecast on ABC-TV.

 

Also appearing in the concert are Killing Heidi, Michael Leunig, Invertigo, Mary Coustas (Effie), Kevin Harrington, Richard Tognetti, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Eric Bogle, Deborah Cheetham, Flying Fruit Fly Circus, Todd McKenney, Slava and Leonard Grigoryan, Hung Le, Dorinda Hafner, Maria Mercedes, Primary, Culture Connect and the Sensitive New Age Cow Persons.

 

Peoplescape creative director, Doug Tremlett, said:

 

``The Peoplescape Concert draws its inspiration, its power, emotion and its sense of joy and thanksgiving from the stories of the thousands of people represented in Peoplescape.

 

``That they are represented means they are deeply loved and admired, sometimes by a single person, perhaps by a whole community, on occasion by the nation.

 

``It's these people and the qualities they represent that we celebrate in the Peoplescape Concert.

 

``While the celebrations in 2001 are about our achievements as a nation over our first 100 years, at the end of the day, or indeed year, it is the people we cherish.

 

``It's the qualities these people exhibit that define us as a nation.''

 

* Peoplescape Concert screens live on ABC-TV on Sunday at 8.30pm.