Cirrus@Austlit

'Anna Haebich’s book is a richly researched and beautifully written study of Nyungar cultural history with a focus on performance. From the first the book challenges colonial narratives about what is and is not Nyungar performance. Habitually following colonial narratives about so-called primitive cultures, only performances that can be categorised as ‘pre-contact’ are seen as owned in any way by Aboriginal people. Other performances have been described as a sign of cultural contamination or degradation illustrating a loss of culture. At best the performances are described as hybrid or fusion rather than as part of Aboriginal modernity. As the eminent Aboriginal playwright and musician Richard Walley says in the Foreword, the response even in the twentieth century was ‘Hang on this is not Aboriginal’ … ‘Stay in the glass jar over there that’s iconic Aboriginal’ (xii). Even more pertinently, Walley continues with the endless message he and others like him received from white audiences, producers and critics, ‘We don’t want you to do anything else’ (xii). Haebich’s book is enriched by extensive archival research, interviews, detailed examinations of paintings and photographs and her own observations which offer a different perspective. Haebich has also included a valuable collection of images in the book.'  (Introduction)

'In the context of Australian settler colonialism, as Aileen Moreton-Robinson has eloquently argued, possessive claims in relation to Indigenous people are central to the colonial project. Supporting these claims and benefiting from them are notions of belonging in the land. Who is the stranger and who the resident and therefore who has the right to claim the physical space? Across the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, Aboriginal performance practices for entertainment were used by both Aboriginal people and white settlers as a way of asserting claims of belonging to the land in the present moment.'  (Publication abstract)

'Bangarra Dance Theatre has been Australia’s premier Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance company for nearly thirty years. Although the company includes dancers from every language grouping, it collaborates with specific traditional owners, depending on the particular works they are creating. This attention to specificity is an important part of Bangarra’s recognition of the different groupings across the Australian mainland and islands, and the islands of the Torres Strait. Led by Artistic Director Stephen Page, Bangarra draws on techniques that include traditional Indigenous dance as well as contemporary world techniques. The company’s works include Praying Mantis Dreaming, Ochres, Skin, Corroboree, Unaipon, CLAN, Mathinna, and Bennelong.' (Introduction)

This essay is an exploration of the multiple cultural performances and performative Indigenous and non-Indigenous presences competing within events and erased by dominant narratives. The performance and performativity of race, class and culture for both black and white Australians in embodied performances and in accounts as a performative source of ideological meaning-making are critical factors within cross-cultural communications. The focus of this paper is on the dynamic between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous performances and presences within the enactment and documentation of two events separated by 100 years, a nineteenth century anecdote and a twentieth century 'historical' event.

(Source: Casey, M., 'Disturbing Performances of Race and Nation: King Bungaree, John Noble and Jimmy Clements' in International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2009, p. 25)