Today We're Alive – Generating Performance in a Cross-Cultural

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Today We're Alive – Generating Performance in a Cross-Cultural Faculty of Education and Social Work The University of Sydney Today We’re Alive – generating performance in a cross-cultural context, an Australian experience. By Linden Wilkinson A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2014 Faculty of Education and Social Work Office of Doctoral Studies AUTHOR’S DECLARATION This is to certify that: l. this thesis comprises only my original work towards the Doctorate of Philosophy. ll. due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used. lll. the thesis does not exceed the word length for this degree. lV. no part of this work has been used for the award of another degree. V. this thesis meets the University of Sydney’s Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) requirements for the conduct of this research. Signature: Name: Linden Wilkinson Date: 17th September, 2014 Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge my supervisors, Associate Professor Dr Michael Anderson and Dr Paul Dwyer, for their support, rigour and encouragement in relation to this project. I would also like to thank my family for their patience. And I would like to express my profound gratitude to everyone, who shared their time, their wisdom and their memories so willingly to this undertaking. The Myall Creek story goes on… Finally to the actors – to Fred, Anna, Lily, Genevieve, Aunty Rhonda & Terry in 2011, to Bjorn, Rosie, Frankie & Russell in 2013 – thanks for your skill, your trust, your imagination and your humour. And thanks for saying, “Yes.” i Today We’re Alive generating performance in a cross-cultural context, an Australian experience Abstract Using a mixed methods approach this thesis explores the construction and dissemination of a cross-cultural play within the Australian context. The experience of developing and performing this play confirms, I believe, the valuable contribution performance could make to the contentious domain of competing epistemologies within decolonizing research methodology. Performance is able to interrogate the encrypted language buried within the emotionally complex terrain of decolonizing intent. By celebrating through story a shared humanity, performance can demonstrate both the on-going pain and shame of shared history and the possibility of moving beyond the negative towards a more positive collective future. Although this study did not find a reconciliation narrative, it did locate the beginning of one. Through an exploration of the Myall Creek massacre of 1838 and the Memorial erected to commemorate it 162 years after the event, this study found a narrative about the power of acknowledgement. This study also suggests that the cultural impediments to reconciliation lie within five persistent narratives intrinsic to the Australian colonization process. Predominantly reliant on performance ethnography as the principle research methodology, the play at the heart of this research endeavour, Today We’re Alive, is verbatim theatre, where only the words that were spoken in the field and extracts of documents in the public domain contribute to the performance text. The voices that tell this story include Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal members of the Myall Creek Memorial Committee, descendants of massacre survivors, descendants of the massacre perpetrators and informed others recommended to me in the field. ii The first draft of the play was taken back to the primary research field to a community hall near the massacre site over 600 kilometres from Sydney for a performed reading. The six actor/co-researchers, three Aboriginal and three non- Aboriginal performers, delivered a performance that exceeded all expectations. Several factors, I believe, influenced this outcome. Therefore this draft of the play is embedded in the body of this thesis, as the script and the performance of it are critical to the analysis of the research findings. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements i Abstract ii Table of Contents iv Prologue 1 i.) A little white history 1 ii.) The lure of arts practice 1 iii.) In the cross-cultural classroom 2 iv.) Culture shock 4 1. The Road to Myall Creek 6 1. Introduction 6 1.1 Investigating decolonization through multiple perspectives 6 1.2 Research question 8 1.3 Research expectation 9 1.4 Purpose of this study 10 1.5 The research challenge 10 1.6 The research plan 12 1.6.1 Locating the content 13 1.6.2 Definitions of significant terms used 14 1.7 The ordinary world 16 iv 1.8 First steps 19 1.8.1 Parallel learning 20 1.8.2 Based in Redfern 20 1.8.3 Fate and funding intervene 21 1.9 The Memorial at Myall Creek 24 1.9.1 Not set in stone –deconstructing memorials 24 1.10 The research framework 27 1.11 Overview of this dissertation 29 1.12 Conclusion 30 2 CONFRONTING THE SAVAGE 32 - the colonial legacy in a changing state 2 Introduction 32 2.1 The colonial legacy 33 2.2 In the beginning… 35 2.2.1 Cook’s first great voyage 36 2.2.2 An enlightened mind 39 2.2.3 Settlement in era of Enlightenment 40 2.2.4 Real destruction begins 41 2.2.5 Genocide 44 2.2.6 Governor Gipps’ parting gift 45 2.2.7 The ‘savage’ at the end of the century 48 2.3 Protection and segregation 49 2.3.1 Five persistent narratives 51 2.4 The constraint to legitimacy 54 2.4.1 Conversations of the research frontier 56 v 2.5 From fixed to fluid worlds 57 2.5.1 Hybridity 57 2.5.2 Uncertainty 59 2.5.3 Performativity 60 2.6 A very useful model 60 2.6.1 The emergence of traditional knowledge 62 2.6.2 A sense of The Dreaming 63 2.7 Conclusion 65 3 A BRUTAL BUSINESS 66 - contests, memory and accommodations on the colonial frontier 3 Introduction 66 3.1 A colonial past? 67 3.1.1 Surviving first contact 69 3.1.2 The convict lot 71 3.2 A contested space 73 3.2.1 Beyond the Limits 75 3.2.2 Nunn’s campaign 77 3.3 A shaft of light 78 3.3.1 The outcome 81 3.3.2 The backlash 83 vi 3.4 Len Payne’s long shadow 85 3.4.1 Fifty years of Aboriginal activism 87 3.4.2 The first freedom ride 89 3.4.3 The 1967 referendum 90 3.5 Bringing on the understudy – convicts and national identity 91 3.5.1 Only holding the fort 94 3.6 Conclusion 95 4 LIVING IN HISTORY 96 4 Introduction 96 4.1 Gaining consensus 97 4.1.1 Wave Hill 97 4.1.2 Generational change 101 4.1.3 From sightless to seeing – understanding exclusion 102 4.2 The end of Assimilation 104 4.2.1 The tent embassy 106 4.3 Self-determination – the rhetoric and the reality 107 4.3.1 Reconciliation – symbols over substance 109 4.3.2 Balancing acts 111 4.3.3 A meagre estate 113 4.3.4 The History Wars 114 4.3.5 Sorry – reconciliation revisited 116 4.4 Closing the Gap 118 4.4.1 Unfinished business 119 vii 4.5 The Northern Territory Emergency response (NTER) 121 4.5.1 Sanctioning cultural violence 123 4.5.2 Power politics 124 4.6 Conclusion 127 5 METHODOLOGIES 128 - finding the first draft – quests and compromises in the play-making space 5. Introduction 128 5.1 Interpreting the nature of collaborative practice 128 5.2 Research theory 130 5.2.1 Narrative Inquiry 132 5.2.2 Positioning the larger landscape 134 5.2.3. Integrity and elasticity – the practice of script development 135 5.2.4. Interpreting personal narratives through performance 137 5.3 Performance ethnography 138 5.3.1 Audience participation 140 5.3.2 Performing rites 142 5.3.3 Devil in the detail 144 5.3.4 Verbatim theatre – an overview 146 5.3.5 A brief history of verbatim theatre 148 5.3.6 Verbatim theatre – emergent significance 150 5.3.7 Dominant voices 153 5.3.8 The problem with the word 155 viii 5.4 Doing decolonizing research, presenting drama outcomes 156 5.4.1 Limitations – of the draft 158 5.4.2 Limitations – of the verbatim technique 159 5.5 Validity, reliability and generalizability 160 5.6 Conclusion 162 6 TODAY WE’RE ALIVE Stories from the Memorial to the Myall Creek Massacre (first draft) 163 7 FEELING THE SPACE 195 - taking the show on the road 7 Introduction 195 7.1 The Redfern read 196 7.2 Damage control 199 7.2.1 A singular regret 200 7.3 On the road 202 7.3.1 At the Memorial 205 7.3.2 The breakfast read 207 7.3.3 At the memorial hall 210 7.3.4 The performed reading 211 7.3.5 Roger’s arrival 214 7.3.6 The feedback session 216 7.4 The road home 218 7.5 Conclusion 221 ix 8 MOVING ON 223 - reflections from the field 8. Introduction 223 8.1 But what did you get out of it? 225 8.1.1 Addressing the questions 228 8.2 Telling stories 228 8.2.1 Common threads 230 8.2 Conclusion 232 Epilogue 234 i.) A little black humour 234 REFERENCES 236 APPENDICES 258 Appendix i.) Map of research area 258 Appendix ii.) The Redfern Speech 259 Appendix iii.) Today We’re Alive – touring draft 263 Appendix iv.) Interview with David Williams and Dr Paul Dwyer 286 Appendix v.) Interview with Rosalyn Oades 289 Appendix vi.) Ethics approval, 2011 293 x 1 Today We’re Alive – generating performance in a cross-cultural context Today We’re Alive – generating performance in a cross-cultural context, an Australian experience Prologue i) A little white history Prior to this investigation I had no real interest in Australian history.
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