BANGARRA DANCE THEATRE STUDY GUIDE FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY Bangarra Dance Theatre pays respect and acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet, create, and perform. We also wish to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples whose customs and cultures inspire our work. INDIGENOUS CULTURAL AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (ICIP) Bangarra acknowledges the industry standards and protocols set by the Australia Council for the Arts Protocols for Working with Indigenous Artists (2007). Those protocols have been widely adopted in the Australian arts to respect ICIP and to develop practices and processes for working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and cultural heritage. Bangarra incorporates ICIP into the very heart of our projects, from storytelling, to dance, to set design, language and music. © Bangarra Dance Theatre 2019 Last updated September 2019 WARNING Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this Study Guide contains images, names, and writings of deceased persons. Photo Credits Front Cover: Rika Hamaguchi and Tyrel Dulvarie, photo by Daniel Boud Back Cover: Rika Hamaguchi, photo by Daniel Boud 2 INTRODUCTION CONTENTS The purpose of this Study Guide is to provide information and contextual background about the works presented 03 in Bangarra Dance Theatre’s 30th anniversary season, Introduction/Contents Bangarra: 30 years of sixty five thousand. Reading the Guide, discussing the themes, and responding to the questions proposed, will assist teachers and students in thinking critically about the works, and form 04 Using this Study Guide personal responses. We encourage students and teachers to engage emotionally and imaginatively with the performance 05 Contemporary Indigenous Dance Theatre and to be curious about how these works were inspired and how they impact audiences. For full details about the performance, please visit bangarra.com.au. 09 Bangarra Dance Theatre 10 Unaipon 15 Stamping Ground 17 to make fire 19 Pre- and Post-Show Activities 3 USING THIS STUDY GUIDE Bangarra: 30 years of sixty five shifting and growing field of CROSS CURRICULUM thousand is Bangarra Dance cultural exchange, art, storytelling, PRIORITY Theatre’s landmark 30th anniversary and shared experiences. Bearing Aboriginal and Torres Strait season. This diverse program of witness to the physical expression Islander histories and cultures three contemporary works displays of traditional and contemporary the passionate storytelling, rich modes of storytelling can both GENERAL CAPABILITIES artistry and deep community challenge and unite us, but Critical and creative thinking connections that have made fundamentally these experiences Intercultural understanding Bangarra the premier Aboriginal illustrate the immutable importance Ethical understanding and Torres Strait Islander performing of identity, belonging and arts company in Australia. connectedness in all societies and LEARNING AREAS cultures. Learning by experiencing The Arts (Dance, Music, Frances Rings’ Unaipon is an either a live performance, or a video Visual Arts) absorbing portrait of the great recording of a live performance, Humanities and Social Science Aboriginal inventor, philosopher, and being free to offer personal (History, Civics and Citizenship) writer and storyteller, Ngarrindjeri responses, enables students to be Science (Physics) man David Unaipon, who features participants in the creative process on the Australian $50 note. as they engage with the work TOPICS/THEMES Stamping Ground was created by through discussions that encourage INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVES Czech choreographer Jiří Kylián both critical and creative thinking. Contemporary Dance as an homage to Aboriginal and Design Torres Strait Islander people and Students can and should feel free Literature their cultures. Curated by Artistic to explore different perspectives Music Director Stephen Page, to make fire through artistic and emotional Storytelling highlights the breadth, power and landscapes of movement, sound, Australian Cultures beauty of Bangarra’s creations light and shape. This freedom Australian Society over three decades. can inspire an appreciation of the History ongoing impact of historical events, Human Rights With roots in the world’s oldest as well as the role of the Arts in Religion continuing culture, Bangarra: shaping our understandings of Scientific Inquiry 30 years of sixty five thousand the world around us. carries the spirit of Bangarra into its fourth decade, promising many We urge our audiences, including more years of deeply moving and students and teachers, to be curious authentic Aboriginal and Torres about the works they see on stage, Strait Islander stories. and the creative processes that lie behind these performances. This Bangarra: 30 years of sixty five Study Guide provides detailed thousand offers teachers and background about all aspects students the opportunity to explore of the production Bangarra: a broad range of cross-curricula 30 years of sixty five thousand, topics and themes through a and the artists who collaborated live performance experience. We in its creation. strongly recommend that teachers familiarise their students with We invite everyone to feel free to the contextual background and express their thoughts about our historical relevance of the work, work and contribute to the ongoing using the information in this dialogue that continually questions Study Guide and the additional who we are and where we are going. references listed throughout. We hope you enjoy Bangarra: 30 The evolution of Indigenous years of sixty five thousand. contemporary dance can be explored as a continuum – a 4 CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS DANCE THEATRE form, and are able to celebrate the PERSPECTIVES, resilience of Australia’s First Nations people and their ancestors through VOICES AND the sharing of works that depict Indigenous stories, cultures and CULTURES perspectives. The concept of contemporary Indigenous dance theatre cannot It is important to consider the be understood as a categorised language we use when talking genre or a particular form because and writing about Indigenous it exists as part of a continuum that cultures in the context of art: responds to a diversity of culture when it is made, how it is made and and developing perspectives. Any where the source material comes contemporary Indigenous dance from. The general application production that incorporates and understandings of the terms music/sound, design and other ‘traditional’ and ‘contemporary’ conventions of the theatre will can be problematic when critiquing inevitably have a deep purpose Indigenous dance theatre. By fixing and an essential spirit that is, and the term ‘contemporary’ to the will always be, about Aboriginal form, it could be argued that we are and Torres Strait Islander cultures. implying ‘post-colonial’, ‘modern’ While drawing on traditional or ‘non-traditional’. Yet with many stories and cultural ways of new works sourcing their inspiration being, Indigenous dance theatre from the Indigenous cultures that provides an important platform for have existed since ancient times, Indigenous people. It gives voice to what is ‘traditional’ and what is the experience of living in a modern ‘new’ can exist simultaneously. world that experiences constant This is often expressed by saying change, where the threat to cultural Indigenous Australian cultures are identityis relentlessly present. the oldest living, and continuous cultures in the world. The growth in availability of technical resources, an increasing number of performance venues, FORM, and the proliferation of new arts festivals and digital platforms, has ACTIVATION greatly supported the development of new Indigenous dance theatre, AND PROCESS as well as the careers of the many One way of exploring the creative artists involved. As more development of Indigenous dance new work is created, support for theatre over the last three or four the infrastructure and training that decades is to trace the journeys of underpins these forms has also some of the artists who have been grown, resulting in a critical mass significant contributors to that of professional artists involved in development. It should be noted producing high quality productions that while many opportunities have that increase the demand we been opened up for Aboriginal and currently see from audiences in Torres Strait Islanders to develop Australia and internationally. One in their choreographic work and of the most important outcomes of their leadership roles, the true force these developments is the fact that behind this development has been more Aboriginal and Torres Strait the commitment and determination islander people are able to see their of the individual artists themselves. Tyrel Dulvarie, cultures reflected in this unique photo by Daniel Boud 5 Artists and leaders like Carole Y. consider themselves activists, and ownership and other interests in Johnson, Stephen Page, Frances there is no doubt that their work has land have been closely associated Rings, Raymond Blanco, Vicki van had a significant impact on the way with human rights, where groups Hout, Gary Lang, and Marilyn Miller, non-Indigenous people have learned can show a perpetual connection are some who have paved the way. about Indigenous cultures and the to the land in order to justify their More recently Elma Kris, Deborah ongoing political struggle of First right to occupy. Brown, Yolande Brown, Daniel Riley, Nations