Issue Details: First known date: 2018... 2018 Engaging with Local First Nations Communities through the Performing Arts
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A major consideration in touring a First Nations performing arts production is how to engage with local indigenous communities on whose country someone else’s story is being told. Engagement strategies have often failed due to a systemic lack of direct consultation with and participation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the development of community engagement programmes and activities.

'Through a case study of the Indigenous Community Engagement initiative implemented by Performing Lines, an Australian producing and touring organisation, the concept of community engagement for touring on country is reimagined as one based on a responsive rather than a prescriptive approach, and on self-determined and Indigenous-led frameworks. The case study highlights the cultural responsibilities and challenges of presenting First Nations performance on country, the key considerations around connecting and engaging with local Indigenous communities, and the need to build awareness, protocols and culturally safe spaces with performing arts centres.

'The only one of its kind in the performing arts in Australia, this initiative showcases the potential to revolutionise the way in which engagement with Indigenous communities is delivered across the performing arts sector as a whole.'  (Publication abstract)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australasian Drama Studies no. 73 October 2018 15506967 2018 periodical issue

    'The opening image of this Special Issue of the Australasian Drama Studies journal comes from The Vultures, a contemporary Indigenous satire written and directed by Tawata Productions’ Mīria George (Te Arawa; Ngati Awa; Rarotonga and Atiu, Cook Islands), and staged at Wellington’s BATS theatre as part of the Kia Mau Festival in 2017. The Vultures plays around with the politics of place; of native ecologies versus the National Economy; of the negotiation of Indigenous identities between town and country; of the rejection of the passive ‘Ecological Indigene’ trope; and of the literal ways we trace our whakapapa (lineage) to the landscapes of our ancestors. It envisions an Indigenous Aristocracy, dominated by an internally conflicted whānau (family) of exceptional Māori wāhine (women), engaged in power struggles for wealth and control of a new Empire. The central conflict in this narrative conflates the whakataukī (proverb) about the causes of war: He wāhine, he whenua, ka ngaro te tangata – often translated as ‘For women and land, men perish’ – where the battle over a contested territory is fought by resistant Indigenous women, on their own behalf. This image speaks to an intrinsic premise behind this long-awaited Special Issue: that Indigenous voices are diverse, rich and complex. There is no such thing as a typical Indigenous play.' (Hyland, Nicola; Syron, Liza-Mare and Casey, Maryrose. 'Turangawaewae': A place to stand in contemporary indigenous performance in Australasia and beyond 1-16)

    2018
    pg. 69-100
Last amended 5 Feb 2019 08:47:03
69-100 Engaging with Local First Nations Communities through the Performing Artssmall AustLit logo Australasian Drama Studies
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