Sweet freedom is a record label that strives to amplify the voices of marginalised people and communities and advance social inclusion.
Its origins are in Brisbane in Australia and it has evolved from a number of successful projects and partnerships between local city councils, Social agencies such as Lifeline Community Development and communities in need such as the refugee claimants centreand the Down Syndrome Association of Queensland. From these kinds of projects within communities an approach to using music and creative activity evolved into a series of successful projects and an approach to using these processes to assist in transformational change in the community or amplify the voices of the unheard. From these beginnings Sweetfreedom has widened its partnerships within communities to include empirical research partnerships with National and International agencies such as the International Society for Music Education Community Music Activities Commission and local universities interested in evaluating and seeking ethical ways of proceeding with using creative techniques for social change.
Sweetfreedom seeks to develop and model ways of working with creative activity in communities, advancing ethical approaches and evaluating the effects of these interactions in ways that capture the compelling nature of the experience but remain critical and democratic in the approach so that it represents all stakeholders.
Most importantly Sweetfreedom acts as a shopfront to both distribute creative materials and as a collection point for donations to each cause. Sweetfreedom is a Not For Profit Incorporated organisation and all funds collected are directed back to the organisation responsible for each project or to seed new projects.
Sweetfreedom Committee
Brian Procopis (Chair/Secretary- Projects)
Steve Dillon (Co Chair- Research)
Jacinta Finger (Media and Publicity)
Luke Monsour (Film and Video production)
Simon Monsour (Music projects)