NDIS Mondays bring music and friendship to people living with disability
A grassroots musical gathering in South Grafton is growing in popularity among people living with disability. The event is open to everyone, and is an inclusive place for people to meet, make friends and enjoy music.
Transcript
00:00Welcome to NDIS Mondays.
00:04Well, I myself am an NDIS client with a diagnosis of schizophrenia,
00:09and late last year, under the encouragement of James Kenwin,
00:13who runs Grumpy's Rock Café,
00:15encouraged me to get up on stage and do some performing.
00:19The first two weeks I just was simply by myself,
00:23and then slowly around me a band formed.
00:31The word is getting out there amongst the different providers.
00:35We see new faces coming every week,
00:38and I just really love when the participants get up and have a sing.
00:42One woman the other week specifically asked for Mamma Mia,
00:46and she didn't want to leave the stage so much.
00:48She was actually crying.
00:51Did she get to sing her Mamma Mia?
00:53Yeah, she got to sing Mamma Mia.
00:55Everyone gets to sing what they like here at Grumpy's Rock Café.
00:58That's what we're all about.
01:04I suffer depression.
01:06I think people with depression, you've got to get them out
01:09and get them active in society and things like that.
01:12Well, he's become more outgoing.
01:15Before he'd just sit in his room a lot and be isolated,
01:19but it's really made him a different person
01:21because he's more outgoing now.
01:23Why do you come here?
01:25To give Mum a break.
01:30Be with friends.
01:32Spend some time with them.
01:34Yeah.
01:36It brings out all the emotions for them,
01:39especially being around the music, being happy,
01:42getting up and having them go at the instruments and singing
01:46and, yeah, just being able to put themselves out there.
01:51We can't be waiting for government.
01:53We can't be waiting for council.
01:55We can't be waiting for other people to look after each other.
01:58We have to do that on a day-to-day level, in a real way,
02:01not thumbs up on Facebook,
02:03when we can just come together and talk about it in real time.
02:06Enjoy some music and maybe just go home feeling a bit more connected
02:10and maybe tomorrow won't be so bad.