It has been my pleasure to attend your Bukjeh performance which I found modern, interesting, emotional and confronting in certain moments. It took me into a journey of the life of different people who share a similar past! It reminded me how we are all humans and how we all can get through tough times with the support of those other humans around us. Your beautiful voice filled the tent with love and warmth and made me teary. The team was amazing and their enthusiasm came through all the way so please pass my congratulations to every single one of the team members.

Bukjeh’ is a unique work of participatory art, creating a space for reflection and empathy, with the audience/participants allowed and encouraged to experience a sense of the shared humanity of all people, whether refugees or fortunate Westerners. ‘Bukjeh’ is a work of extraordinary generosity, offering both a glimpse of the diversity of human experience and an opportunity for understanding. The glimpse is a gift; the opportunity for understanding is a blessing.

Aseel began to sing and our audience held their breath; it was such a resonant and moving song. She is a vital and passionate artist whose approach to her art, with its message of building bridges between new and established communities, is inspiring and never more important than in Australia today.

Bukjeh is a special project, not just an installation and performance, but an event focused on the community it’s being presented in. The teams approach to host workshops in the community before presenting the tent begins an authentic relationship with the local people, the beginning of a richer discussion to continue after each performance. Most importantly the Bukjeh team are working with some of our most vulnerable people, the silenced voices in our community, stories that are not being told, and with gentle generosity they support these local people to tell their stories in the beautiful space they’ve created. The world needs projects like this to bring us all together.

A’amar! Congratulations Aseel and your beautiful team for this show. Such a generous sharing of food, culture, memories and emotion. I can only imagine the enormous difficulty in telling these stories at this moment in time, but they were powerful … reminders of family, community, joy and hope… there is so much at stake.

So proud and excited to see my friend Aseel Tayah’s show as part of Sydney Festival. I’ve just had a look at the program which I find so exciting and intriguing and full of so many diverse perspectives and lived experiences. New Australian works. International treats. New artists to Australia.

Thank you Aseel Tayah for inviting me to your absolutely incredible show today - your heart, your voice, your singing, your storytelling, your truth-telling and your cooking are out of this world - unforgettable. 🙏 ‘A’amar’ was so powerful, warm, full of radical love, healing, nurturing, so moving - so grateful for the work you continue to do, even when there is endless heartbreak and devastation in your homeland Gaza. You have a big courageous heart. ❤️ thank you

A very special evening of theatre, music, stories and sharing of a wonderful meal this evening at Riverside Theatres. Thank you Aseel Tayah for A’amar .. and for sharing your world, your homeland’s struggle and your Mum’s amazing recipes and food - what a joyful, at times sad, yet uplifting sharing of a culture and people we know too little about … and which is sadly at times judged too quickly. It was our honour to share a meal with you in our house 🙏❤️‍🩹🤞🙂

This beautiful, heart wrenching project was a highlight of my time at Sydney Festival. Aseel Tayah has urgent, powerful stories to tell of what has happened and is happening in Palestine. It was an honour to be deeply immersed in the sounds, songs, smells, stories, images and most generously, the divine tastes of her mamas recipes. Passed on, passed down and now shared with audiences here.