The curatorial experience of the six-month long Australia Fest presents a fascinating illustration of a well-designed statement of cultural diplomacy through a variety of cultural and creative experiences. The intention to bring Indians across the country to be familiar with Australia’s cultural heritage is intriguingly planned to incorporate dialogues and explore unique connections between the two countries. The presentation of the tour of Bangarra Dance Theatre Company is “Australia’s greatest cultural ambassador and the centrepiece of the Festival” said High Commissioner Harinder Sidhu. The almost 30-year-old Bangarra is a courageous effort to mainstream the ancient but almost lost culture of the First Nation people in the contemporary frame. The Company made of Indigenous artistes drawn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island backgrounds has reworked with communities to reclaim traditional knowledge, skills, linguistics and much more. The performative genre by the Company comprises storytelling, dance, sound, music, props, and scenery art. The touring group has 18 dancers and 12 technical production members.
The curtain raiser of the two-and-half week tour was in the lawns of the world heritage site of the Qutub Minar in Delhi. “The tour has three major shows in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore,” said Sidhu. The creative presentation was one where in some ways Time collapsed against a medieval heritage landscape as the audience journeyed through a contemporary creative expression into an ancient world.
The connecting link
The Australian government’s choice to strategise the display of its indigenous culture through the modality of dance aspires to reassert memories and links drawn from centuries-old geographical and cultural context when once Australia and India were connected. Scientific studies show that several Australian Indigenous communities can trace as much as 11% of their genomes to migrants who reached Australia around 4,000 years ago from India. And along with their genes, the migrants brought different tool-making techniques and even the ancestors of the canine species – Dingo.
The première performance in Delhi titled “Spirit 2018” had nine powerful stories choreographed by the artistic director Stephen Page. The production drew the audience into a dreamlike space created with a well-balanced technical production of scenography, sound, and light and superbly executed dance.
The stories were not only a perfect introduction to Australia’s First Peoples but were brilliantly performed by dancers who inherently had bodies that nurtured a specific cultural identity of body aesthetics of movement which were dramatically re-presented using contemporary display technology. Inscribed as an indigenous authorisation their dance was the performed script and was inseparable from the song and storytelling that defiantly communicated the world of rituals and celebrations through meditative movement patterns. The visual and aesthetic experience was rippling, it was defined by textured synthesis of movements, music, and design. Dancers were seen to adapt, using spiraling, undulating spine, circling flex-footed leg, slow-motion transitions, and huddled groupings in an ensemble. The spectacle was enhanced with costuming, make-up that generated a flow of energy bringing alive their world.
The audience never left the environment and context of where the dancers and their life came from. In the piece titled “Hunting and Gathering” the dancers performed in a dark blue light, as they crouched and executed realistic movements, using branches of trees in their hands where the experience of the forest was enhanced by an amazing soundscape. The theme of the dance piece brought out the debate which world over is associated with forest communities. While the primary issue is the survival of indigenous culture where activities related to both the resources and the exploitation of them are a part of cultural heritage, the present day laws and ‘development’ activities prevent such communities to pursue their traditional lifestyles leading to the loss of cultural knowledge. The performed text while arousing similaritiesrelated to the indigenous communities in India also provided hope. Recently, in Australia, certain lands have been demarcated to allow such communities to continue to exist in their traditional manner and in turn conserve traditional knowledge systems.
Texture of the insect
Another evocative piece titled “Moth” saw the duet dance of Tyel Dulvarie and Yolanda Lowatta recreate the texture of the insect, a composition titled Dingo brought home the link with India. An important part of the production was the intermittent use of local languages for storytelling. This brought out the effort to reassert and address the recovery of a large number of languages and conserve linguistic heritage.
The Bangarra production reflected processes of innovation, continuation, and mediation of indigenous but contemporary community identity through artistic activities. The traditional dance language was juxtaposed with the more contemporary one in the solo dance by Kaine-Sultan Babij. Titled “Cocoon”, the performance reflected the engineering of modern dance and ballet element and was an illustration of the negotiation of authentic Indigenous dance language with a gutsy urban aesthetic.
One wondered that despite the continued interactions with the White World, and contact with Global cultures in what way the dancers preserved the distinct identity of their dance vocabulary. Dancer Beau Dean Smith said, “We enter Bangarra at different points, with different levels of training, experiences, and background. Our Artistic Director Stephen Page who himself is one of us constantly reminds us of our roots in a variety of ways. For example, we are allowed to dance with our totems, mine is a Grey Kangaroo.” Elma Kriswho, one of the senior most dancers in the Company said, “I am from the Torres Strait, and Dugong or the sea cow is my totem. The totems form a part of our spirituality and are the core of our identity. These natural objects, plants or animals are inherited as emblems by members of a clan or family. They define peoples' roles and responsibilities, and their relationships with each other and creation. The Bangarra is a process to recover our lost languages, culture and identity formation”
Community engagement
Artistes with High Commissioner Harinder Sidhu
“The strategy to enhance the impact of the cultural exchange by bringing in the dance theatre company,” said Sidhu, “was not merely about performances but we have incorporated community engagement opportunities with indigenous groups in Aizwal – Mizoram, Purulia – West Bengal and Baiga community in Bhopal, and finally, there will be workshops with contemporary dancers in Mumbai and Bengaluru.” For a week, three groups of six dancers interacted with the Indian indigenous communities . The interchange generated mutual growth through performances, teaching, and discussions. For example, while the Mizos taught their Bamboo dance, in turn, the Australians taught them the Brolga Crane bird dance from the Arnhem Land. The touring company is looking forward to the workshops with the Contemporary dance studio Attakalari in Bengaluru and in the Mumbai which will balance the aesthetic journey of the ancient with the modern.
Bangarra addresses not only the complex political and cultural dimensions of Australia’s First Peoples, but also solutions to conserve their traditional knowledge systems and cultural heritage. Their presences in the Australia Fest illustrates a practical, far-sighted and well-structured cultural diplomacy one which yields to and provides space for greater and sustained dialogues between the two countries, strengthens discourses on the geopolitical issues associated with the cultures along the Indian Ocean. Yes, for India there is a lesson in the example of the Bangarra. Amidst challenges of impending ecological crises, human displacement, and conflict the Dance theatre company provided a sense of hope, and an inspiration for India to address its indigenous communities and not stop at one time events of North East festivals, tribal museums, and tribal tourism.
Philippe-Magid
Breaking stereotypes
Philippe Magid on how Bangarra aspires to present the resilience of the Australian culture and the respect that needs to be given to the indigenous cultures and communities
With rising concern related to the environment, population growth, limited natural resources a major concern remains the displacement of indigenous communities who have coexisted with nature through centuries in a balanced manner. The presence of the Bangarra Dance theatre in the Australia Fest is a major lived illustration of an effort to mainstream indigenous communities, identities, traditional knowledge and conserve within modern parameters the rich diversity of cultural heritage they represent.
An interaction with Phillipe Magid, Executive director, leading the tour of the Bangarra Dance Theatre Company revealed the manner the organisation has developed modalities to not only bring the wealth of the indigenous knowledge systems to the world, but “we also aim to recover aspects of their culture which have been lost for the aggressive policy by the White Man. It is only as late as 1967 that these communities got their right to vote. For example, children were taken away, they were compelled to marry outside their communities. The aggression meant loss of cultural memories languages, traditional knowledge systems. Impact of mining led to conflicts related to the rights of land.”
Bangarra aspires to present the resilience of the Australian culture but even more important is the respect that needs to be given to the indigenous cultures and communities.
“Our primary objective is breaking stereotype surrounding the perception of these communities first in their own minds and then among others. Words such as Tribe, or Anthropology as an academic tool are means to subvert. They are neither uncivilised nor are these communities from another planet where they are seen to be aliens or exotic. With time, these complex vocabularies to define or study them led to stereotype perceptions about the people and their culture as something which is low and the ‘other’.” As an example, Phillippe referred to an amazing production the Dark Emu – the story is about the dark spaces between the stars in the Milky Way, referred to issues of land management and lifestyles that synergised with natural surroundings.
The Bangarra has systematised the manner they bring the revival of cultural heritage in a manner that it is relevant in the present. “We have what is known as a creation cycle. Bangarra first goes into a community and builds communication with their cultural leaders. The next step is a workshop which engages with cultural expressions such as their stories, songs, performance. A cultural license is sought from the community or an individual who may own a song, or a dance. The production can be seen as a distinct genre in which the dance is the larger eco-system within which is 50% music, soundscapes, scenery art, props among other things. These communities have a range of languages, unfortunately, over a thousand dialects are lost, and hence Bangarra hopes to bring them, back. Many of our cultural leaders are happy to live in the dual worlds of tradition and modern. When the production is launched several of our dancers and community cultural leaders take the production back to their communities.”