In the unlikely location of The Cook Grocer supermarket, Canberra's own Timomatic dances in a new video which is part of a locally-created national mental health initiative to inspire hope and resilience.
The Unstoppable.org project, launched on Friday, is a collaboration between Lifeline Canberra CEO Carrie Leeson and Kulture Break founder Francis Owusu as a positive response to society's "growing anxiety".
With lockdowns and isolation a part of many Australians' daily lives, Unstoppable.org stands for empowering people to build on their own self-confidence and rise up in a shared movement.
Carrie and Francis approached former Canberra boy and one-time Kulture Break teacher Timomatic to pen an uplifting song - the result being Power - accompanied by a series of dance steps, which people all over the country could learn together, participate in and share as part of a national community.
Unstoppable.org asks people to learn or create their own "power" dance moves and share their experience on Instagram, responding to the sentence "I/we am/are Unstoppable because..." Using the #Unstoppableorg hashtag, these moments will then be shared as part of the initiative's community hub, encouraging others to feel inspired and take part.
"Unstoppable.org is a simple initiative that people can be a part of in order to feel connected and communicate with those around them. Whether young or old, it's important to unite everyone and voice a message of positivity and hope," Francis said.
Both Carrie and Francis also star in the video, which teaches the importance of finding the good in each day.
"With mental health an important topic around the world, we hope that Unstoppable.org can be a way to seize a moment of self-doubt and replace it with resilience even in the toughest times. This is really what this whole initiative is about, uplifting all Australians and making them realise they are Unstoppable," Carrie said.
Timomatic, 33, aka Tim Omaji was happy to return to Canberra, where he first arrived as a 10-month-old from Nigeria with his family. He is now preparing for a starring role as Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge! The Musical, which opens in Melbourne in August.
The former Narrabundah College student was one of the first teachers at Kulture Break, a dance and youth empowerment organisation. Timomatic considers Kulture Break founder Francis Owusu an older brother and was on board with the message of rising above and keeping on.
"I've been an ambassador for Kulture Break for quite a few years now and being one of the first teachers, from the beginning when we started in a dance studio at Lanyon High School, we've come a long way," Timomatic said.
"The last time I was in Canberra, we were able to visit some students at Lanyon High for the Unstoppable project. It's an almost two-decade-long relationship and it's just great to collaborate with someone you trust and look up to, to do something powerful for the community."
In the video, Timomatic plays a kind-hearted assistant at the grocery store who is a lifeforce in a red t-shirt and name badge.
"I think what we see in the video is almost an expression of the mindset that you can brighten someone's day by just giving them a smile and deciding when you get up in the morning, that you're going to keep going. And everything flows from that," he said.
"In this clip, I think we see that expressed through dance and the idea that 'I'm going to make this the best day possible, regardless of my situation'. The catches on. Everyone catches that flame of resilience, that flame of joy."
And it's social media that Timomatic believes is the biggest threat to the happiness of young people. So it was time to turn social media on its head and use it to spread some of that joy.
"I think in the world we live in today, in this Covid season, more and more people are isolated and forced to stay put and not go out, which can really mess with the mind, and people turn to social media," he said.
"We kind of represent it in the video, where one of the young boys is on social media and he's getting hate. For young people, that's their reality, which is why we're using that platform to promote this message, because it's tough out there and I think social media can make it tougher, if it's not managed correctly."
The filming of the video revealed some typically Canberra one-degree of separation. One of the owners of The Cook Grocer, Daniel Raad, also went to Narrabundah College.
And the flats that appear at the start of the video were close to the now-demolished Griffith flats where Tim and his family first lived when they came to Canberra.
Making he's own unstoppable way, Timomatic says being a performer is never a given. Even more so in the face of COVID. He is simply embracing every day.
"I put one foot forward every day and the decision to not stop has been a big thing for me," he said.
"Believe me, I struggle with that still. The are days that are really tough and you start to think, 'You know what? Maybe another profession might be a bit more stable'. But you keep going. You keep going."
To take part in Unstoppable.org, visit www.unstoppable.org
