Bangarra Dance Theatre:
Rethinking Indigeneity in Australia
A thesis by: Charlotte Schuitenmaker
10212795 rMA Art Studies
Supervisor: Dr. B. Titus Second reader: Prof. Dr. J.J.E. Kursell
University of Amsterdam 21/01/2019
CONTENT
INTRODUCTION……….. 3
1 – BANGARRA’S EXPRESSIONS…...………9
1.1 – Dance and Indigenous Australia………9
1.1.1 – Dance and music as modes of expression………...11
1.1.2 – Dance and music as systems of authority………...14
1.2 – Contemporary dancing………..15
1.2.1 – Contemporary dance: An Overview...15
1.2.2 – Bangarra’s dance……….20
1.3 – Presenting Indigeneity………...22
1.3.1 – Bangarra’s performances……….22
1.3.2 – Bangarra’s promotion………. 31
2 – REASSEMBLING BANGARRA: THE INSTITUTION AS AND WITHIN A NETWORK………. 34
2.1 – Bangarra’s establishment………...37
2.2 – A Page family business: choreographer, dancer and songman………. 39
2.3 – The theatre……… 45
2.4 – Audiences and tickets………....49
2.5 – Institutions and modernity...51
3 – MESSAGES: THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY AND STORIES…………54
3.1 – Indigeneity as identity………55
3.2 – Contemporary storytelling……….60
3.2.1 – Stories: past-present-future……….…....64
CONCLUSION……….……67
INTRODUCTION
The Bangarra Dance Theatre Company is a Sydney-based institution that produces contemporary dance theatre shows inspired by Indigenous cultures in Australia. Carole Johnson, a dancer of African-American heritage, established the company in 1989, with Stephen George Page as Artistic Director since 1991. Page’s Aboriginal heritage stems from both the Nunukul people and the Munaldjali, a clan of the Yugambeh tribe in the south east of Queensland. Since 1992 the company has produced new shows almost annually and the team tours across the country. Besides performing in well-known venues in cities, the company initiates ‘Return to Country’ performances, which are free shows for Indigenous Australian people whose culture is performed in the shows. By performing contemporary dance shows based on Indigenous Australian stories, Bangarra challenges notions of Indigeneity and modernity.
The Bangarra company claims its mission is “[to] create inspiring experiences that change society”1 and states:
Our dance technique is forged from over 40,000 years of culture, infused with contemporary movement. The company’s 16 dancers are professionally trained, dynamic artists who represent the pinnacle of Australian dance. Each has a proud Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander background, from various locations across the country. Our relationships with Indigenous communities are the heart of Bangarra, with our repertoire created on country and stories gathered from respected community Elders. It’s this inherent connection to our land and people that makes us unique and enjoyed by audiences from remote Australian regional centres to New York.2
Since Indigeneity in Australia is inseparable from politics, it is not hard to imagine what Bangarra’s mission to “change society” is based upon.
An example of the company’s performances is Dark Emu inspired by Bruce Pascoe’s book of the same name, which deals with the - according to Pascoe - wrongly appointed tag of hunter-gatherers for pre-colonial Aboriginal peoples. In 2017, the show Bennelong dealt with the life of Woollarawarre Bennelong; an iconic Aboriginal person who was a member of the Eora nation and is considered to be one
1 Bangarra, “Our Company,” accessed 08-01-2018, https://www.bangarra.com.au/about/company. 2 Ibid.
of the key figures for the salvation of his community’s culture.3 Another example is
the show Mathinna, performed in 2008, which presented the story of a young Aboriginal girl who was stolen from her parents and adopted into Eurogenic colonial society. In this performance, Mathinna represents the ‘Stolen Generation’ of Australian Aboriginal people and reflects on a time of extreme intolerance toward Indigenous peoples.
Indigenous Australians have endured many acts of violence, such as exile and genocide since the arrival of the British in 1788.4 While Indigenous inhabitants have
been living on the Australian continent for at least 40,000 years, Indigenous peoples only became legal citizens in 1948, taking another two decades before discriminatory laws against Indigenous populations were abolished.5 Protests and demonstrations for
Indigenous Australian rights still occur regularly today, as Indigenous populations are subject to the ways and manners of the dominant Eurogenic settler-society. The clash between the dominant settler-culture and Indigenous Australian cultures evokes tension, which manifests in high rates of unemployment and substance abuse amongst Indigenous communities.6 Therefore, media often depict Indigenous peoples with
negative connotations, resulting in an overall pessimistic attitude towards Indigenous cultures in Australia.
Moreover, academic, and in particular, ethnographic discourse has portrayed Indigenous Australians as ‘primitive’ peoples, in comparison with the ‘modern’ settlers.7 Art historian Okwui Enwezor explains:
I would argue that there never was a pure modernity to which some other non-modernity suddenly became exposed. Because modernity was always double-sided, the “others” were always there. The “non-modern” had to be there from the beginning in order for modernity to define itself. (…) Contact was, and remains, the manifestation of the dark side of modernity. It is the attempt to dominate, to subjugate, to replace the life-world of the “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non- “non-
3 The Eora people belong to the area now called Sydney.
4 Corn, Aaron. “Sound Exchanges: An Ethnomusicologist's Approach to Interdisciplinary Teaching
and Learning in Collaboration with a Remote Indigenous Australian Community.” The World of Music (2009): 22-23.
5 Chesterman, John. Civil Rights: How Indigenous Australians Won Formal Equality. St Lucia:
University of Queensland Press, 2005: ix.
6 Atkinson, Judy. “Violence in Aboriginal Australia: Colonisation and Gender.” Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal Vol. 14, no. 2 (1990): 5-21.
7 Fisher, Laura. “The Art/Ethnography Binary: Post-Colonial Tensions within the Field of Australian
modern” with the knowledge of the colonizer. This series of substitute experiences begins from the process of evacuation of – let’s call them “native knowledges.” Knowledges rendered as primitive, as underdeveloped, as relegated to the past, with no proximity to the future or the present.8
Here, Enwezor explains how modernity and what he terms as ‘native knowledges,’ are mutually exclusive. Bangarra, however, challenges this by establishing itself as a contemporary Indigenous company. This thesis will reflect upon the Bangarra Dance Theatre Company and the ways in which it advocates a rethinking of Indigeneity, a rethinking that includes modernity.
Academic literature addressing Indigenous Australian performance practices often focuses on pre-colonial practices. Indigenous studies, therefore, lack attention on contemporary Indigenous Australian performance expressions, such as Bangarra’s productions. Very few authors have shown interest in these expressions, such as Peter Dunbar-Hall, Chris Gibson and Stephanie Burridge.9 Dunbar-Hall and Gibson’s
book is a valuable resource for the purposes of this thesis. However, their publication provides an overview of different contemporary Aboriginal expressions, without providing in-depth analyses about how these contemporary expressions came into being and what processes underlie these contemporary developments.
Furthermore, art theories – and among those, dance theories – often neglect non-Eurogenic arts practices. André Lepecki claims dance to have become crucial for ‘thinking [about], making, and curating visual and performance-based art’10, yet, this
phenomenon is very ‘under-theorised’.11 Lepecki, however, has established himself as
an important author on the subject. Based on his notion of contemporary dance, this thesis will examine what contemporary dance means for the Bangarra Dance Theatre. While the idea of art may be of Eurogenic origin, contemporary art’s organisations, such as Bangarra, demonstrate this outmoded idea of arts. Art theories by Howard
8 Enwezor, Okwui and Terry Smith, “World Platforms, Exhibiting Adjacency, and the Surplus Value
of Art,” in Talking Contemporary Curating (Independent Curators International, 2015): 89-90.
9 See: Dunbar-Hall, Peter and Chris Gibson. Deadly Sounds, Deadly Places: Contemporary Aboriginal Music in Australia. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2004.; Burridge, Stephanie.
“Dreaming the Future: The Emergence of the Bangarra Dance Theatre,” Australasian Drama Studies 41 (2002): 77-89.
10 Lepecki, André, ed. “Introduction. Dance as a Practice of Contemporaneity.” Dance: Documents of Contemporary Art. London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2012: 14.
Becker and George Dickie are just as applicable to Bangarra’s practices, as other forms of art.
This thesis emphasises the inclusion of a non-Eurogenic art expression – Bangarra - into the realm of art with the assistance of the Actor-Network-Theory by Bruno Latour. I argue that Bangarra’s art is not established by the choice of dance styles solely, but also by a network that constitutes an art institution. Latour explains a method for anthropological research, which focuses on networks, rather than on geographical boundaries or on specific domains. He states:
“[A network] designates a series of associations revealed thanks to a trial – consisting in the surprises of the ethnographic investigation – that makes it possible to understand through what series of small discontinuities it is appropriate to pass in order to obtain a certain continuity of action.”12
In the case of Bangarra, the network consists of musicians, dancers, audiences, organisers, media, and more. The Actor-Network-Theory also allows for the inclusion of human actors. This is relevant to the Bangarra company, as non-human actors, such as dance and promotion material, play a significant role in conveying the company’s messages. Moreover, specific groups of people have been dehumanised due to the binaries between the human and the non-human. As professor of Indigenous education Linda Tuhiwai Smith describes:
One of the supposed characteristics of primitive peoples was that we could not use our minds or intellects. We could not invent things, we could not create institutions or history, we could not imagine, we could not produce anything of value, we did not know how to use land and other resources from the natural world, we did not practice the ‘arts’ of civilization. By lacking such virtues we disqualified ourselves, not just from civilization but from humanity itself. In other words we were not ‘fully human’; some of us were not even considered partially human.13
By moderating the binaries between the human and the non-human through adopting the Actor-Network-Theory, this thesis aims to demonstrate processes that underlie the workings of Bangarra.
12 Latour, Bruno. An Inquiry into Modes of Existence: An Anthropology of the Moderns, transl. by
Catherine Porter. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2013: 33.
13 Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. London and New
Chapter one delves into Bangarra’s expressions: dance and promotional material. Dance plays a key role in the company, therefore, the first part of the chapter focuses on the relationship between dance and the Indigenous cultures the Bangarra company claims to represent. The aim is not to generalise about dance and Indigenous populations, but to demonstrate that Bangarra represents and shapes cultures. To recognise the importance of dance in Bangarra’s shows, it is necessary to have an understanding of the constructed cultures it represents. This thesis will then focus on contemporary dance and how Bangarra describes its dance as such. This thesis will trace the history of contemporary dance and its origins in Eurogenic high art traditions. This is followed by analyses of Bangarra’s dance performances and advertisements to demonstrate the intricateness of expressing Indigeneity and contemporaneity through performance and promotion.
Bangarra expresses itself in terms of modernity. A defining characteristic of modernity, following Latour, is institutionalisation.14 Therefore, chapter two looks at
Bangarra as an institution, as its institutionalisation, in addition to its dance and legitimises its status as a performance art company. To do so, this chapter describes the workings of significant human and non-human actors and how these function as an institution and a network. Chapter one will firstly focus on the company’s establishment to show its initial aims and goals. The chapter will then include a description of the agency of Page family, with Stephen Page as Bangarra’s creative director. This section will also include the dancers and the music.
Furthermore, with the help of ANT, I will incorporate the workings of the theatres and how these enable Bangarra’s productions. I will then show how the audiences and tickets are part of Bangarra’s network and how these co-determine the company’s workings. The chapter will conclude this chapter by critiquing Latour’s notion of the ‘Moderns,’ which he describes as ‘Westerners,’ ‘Occidentals’ or ‘Europeans.’15 However, the institutionalisation of Indigenous dance is in itself
already a process that plays with concepts taken for granted, such as ‘Occidental,’ ‘Non-Western,’ and now, ‘Moderns.’ The case study of Bangarra indicates that Indigenous peoples can also be ‘Moderns.’
14 Latour, Bruno. An Inquiry into Modes of Existence: An Anthropology of the Moderns, transl. by
Catherine Porter. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2013: 13.
When having established the form of the performances and set out how and by which parties involved this form has taken shape, chapter three examines the role of the messages the company aims to convey. I will explore how Bangarra aims to reach its audiences, how the company affects the network of Sydney-based cultural institutions and where it positions its stories within political discussion. This chapter argues that contemporary Indigenous dance is an art form in which tradition, aesthetics and politics come together.
This research focuses on the Bangarra Dance Theatre Company as a whole, i.e. it does not take one specific production as a case study. This thesis will use the company as a focus point, as the shows all claim to have a very specific message: to emancipate and advocate for Indigenous Australian cultures. I will, however, refer to certain shows to analyse the music and dance as examples. The aim is to facilitate a more inclusive approach in academic discourse, by focusing on Indigenous modernity, as well as modern Indigeneity.
1 – BANGARRA’S EXPRESSIONS
This chapter explores the ways in which Bangarra expresses itself.16 Firstly, I focus on
ideas of ‘dance,’ as this is one of the central aspects of the Bangarra dance shows. An explanation of the dance traditions Bangarra’s dances are built upon enables analysis of Bangarra’s performances. The company’s contemporary Indigenous performances derive from dance traditions, therefore, their connoted meanings depend heavily upon these traditions.
Before moving on to the relationship between dance and Indigeneity in Australia, and Bangarra in particular, it is important to note that defining dance reflects a problem that is central throughout this thesis. For example, at the end of the nineteenth century, the European dance tradition established itself as an autonomous art by breaking its deep connections with music, symbolism, and narrative.17
However, there are many cases in which dance and music, for example, are inseparable.18 A universally accepted explanation of dance does not exist. This thesis,
therefore, refrains from inquiring into merely one explanation of dance.
In chapter one, section 1.1 explains dance according to the terms of several Indigenous peoples in Australia. Section 1.2 delves into European and U.S.A-dance developments to describe the emergence of the genre of contemporary dance. Finally, I will analyse how Bangarra presents itself through several performances and promotion materials in sections 1.3.1 and 1.3.2.
1.1 – Dance and Indigenous Australia
The Bangarra Dance Theatre Company depicts itself as an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisation. Indigeneity is the core theme of the company; the
16 I refer to the Bangarra Company as ‘it’ for grammatical reasons. I would like to stress that the stories
being told are the stories of many people and are not able to be reduced as if they derive from a one-person’s perspective.
17 Lepecki, André, ed. “Introduction. Dance as a Practice of Contemporaneity.” Dance: Documents of Contemporary Art. London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2012: 18.
18 Small, Christopher. “Musicking — the Meanings of Performing and Listening. A lecture” Music Education Research 1:1 (1999): 12.
content of the shows, such as the dances and music, is inspired by Indigenous cultures and stories. A particular story is never performed without consent. Bangarra dancer and co-choreographer Yolande Brown addresses ‘the protocol,’ which is Bangarra’s first step into a new production: to ask permission to perform a community’s story.19
At other times, it is a community approaching Bangarra requesting the company to perform its story. The ‘Return to Country’-shows are those shows for which the company ‘returns’ the story and performs it in the community. These shows are free to attend and usually take place outside, on a basketball court or example.20
Besides these performative aspects, the director and the dancers themselves are all of Indigenous Australian descent. Representing Indigenous cultures, and providing a platform for Indigenous cultures, is a central aspect of Bangarra. This brings up the question why the company aims to represent these cultures through dance. What made the company decide to tell its stories through the medium of dance? Therefore, section 1.1 reflects upon the role of dance in Indigenous Australian cultures.
Before delving into this question in further detail, it is important to discuss the problem of representing First Nations peoples in Australia. Often, when referring to Indigenous peoples, and amongst them Aboriginal peoples in particular, it may seem as if we can speak of one homogenous group of people. Torres Strait Islander people distinguish themselves from Aboriginal people as they do not originate from mainland Australia but, there are many different Torres Strait Islander peoples and hundreds of different Aboriginal communities. Aboriginal cultures differentiate by regional areas, specific languages, and various religions.21 Robert Tonkinson writes:
The generic label ‘Aborigines’ is a colonial imposition, and Aboriginal identities have been shaped in contexts created largely by members of the dominant [settler-] society[.] (…) It was not until the late 1960s that a rapid growth in Aboriginal political consciousness and activism led to concerted attempts to forge a pan-Aboriginal identity and a ‘common-culture’[.]22
Awareness of the impossibility to speak about one ‘Aboriginal culture’ is therefore important. However, the political struggles Indigenous Australians deal with are of a
19 Yolande Brown, guest lecture at University of New South Wales, Sydney, 12-09-2018. 20 Luke Currie-Richardson, interview, Melbourne Arts Centre, 08-09-2018.
21 Tonkinson, Robert. “The Pragmatics and Politics of Aboriginal Tradition and Identity in Australia.” Journal de la Société des Océanistes Vol. 109, No. 2 (1999): 135.
similar nature amongst different Indigenous communities. These shared problems and the shared histories create solidarity amongst different Indigenous cultures, which generates a common sense of ‘Aboriginality’ or ‘Indigeneity.’
The Bangarra Dance Theatre Company clearlyresponds to the development of commonality between the various Indigenous cultures, as Bangarra refers to Indigeneity in general. Bangarra’s choice for depicting itself as an ‘Indigenous Australian’ company is highly political, as chapter 3 will discuss in more detail. While reading this thesis, bear in mind that Indigeneity refers to groups of people in Australia dealing with common political struggles, without generalising about Indigenous cultures. As it is impossible to gather information about the role of dance of every community, I will elaborate on just a few as examples only.
1.1.1 – Dance and music as modes of expression
A recurrent theme when discussing dance in connection to Indigenous Australian cultures is ‘law.’ For the Yolngu people, in northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, the concept of law concerns a much broader range of ideas than the English concept of law. The Yolngu call the notion closest to the English word of law ‘rom.’ Besides law, the word ‘rom’ also epitomises the English ideas of ‘culture,’ ‘the way’ (in some form of a religious sense) and ‘correct practice.’23 The significance of rom
becomes apparent when dealing with (land) ownership, family, traditions and ancestry, just to name a few important aspects to the Yolngu.24 Australian
ethnomusicologist Aaron Corn describes:
[The aspects mentioned above] are as relevant for Yol[ng]u communities today, as they were prior to sustained contact with Anglo-Australians starting in the 1920s. In keeping with their traditional epistemology, the Yol[ng]u cite their direct lineages from the metaphysical wa[ng]arr “ancestors” who initially named, shaped, and populated the sacred homelands of northeast Arnhem
23 Corn, Aaron. “Sound Exchanges: An Ethnomusicologist's Approach to Interdisciplinary Teaching
and Learning in Collaboration with a Remote Indigenous Australian Community.” The World of Music (2009): 33.; Keen, Ian. Knowledge and Secrecy in an Aboriginal Religion. Oxford: Clarendon, 1994: 137.
24 Corn, Aaron. “Sound Exchanges: An Ethnomusicologist's Approach to Interdisciplinary Teaching
and Learning in Collaboration with a Remote Indigenous Australian Community.” The World of Music (2009): 33.
Land as the fundamental rationale for their continuing ownership in this part of Australia.25
Since a tradition of writing down knowledge, as known in Eurogenic traditions, is unacquainted practice to the Yolngu, generating and transmitting information occurs through media other than writing. This is where dance comes in. Based on Howard Morphy’s book Ancestral Connections: Art and an Aboriginal System of Knowledge,26
Corn summarises:
In the absence of a scribal tradition of recording knowledge, Yol[ng]u law is instead codified in interconnected esoteric series of yäku “names,” manikay “songs,” bu[ng]gul “dances,” and miny’tji “designs” that are passed as property from generation to generation along with each homeland. Together, they function as title deeds that prove a clan’s ownership over its homelands by virtue of continuous ancestry, and when performed in ceremony, they provide a general framework for due process under ancestral law[.]27
Thus, when it comes to communication, ceremonial performances are to the Yolngu that what the written word is to Eurogenic societies. Moreover, not only are the performances a form of communication in the most direct sense of the word, the performances enact how to live on a particular piece of land and whom it belongs to. Therefore, the performances are also a form of documentation of established rules.
This is also the case for the dance-song genre Junba, originating in the Kimberley region in the north of Western Australia. Junba is meant for public performances, during which the different cultural groups in the Kimberley come together. The different cultural groups distinguish themselves by means of different languages and cultural habits, therefore Junba “has been a primary mode of intercultural, interfamily and interpersonal communication since the genre was
25 Corn, Aaron. “Sound Exchanges: An Ethnomusicologist's Approach to Interdisciplinary Teaching
and Learning in Collaboration with a Remote Indigenous Australian Community.” The World of Music (2009): 33.
26 Morphy, Howard. Ancestral Connections: Art and an Aboriginal System of Knowledge. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1991.
27 Corn, Aaron. “Sound Exchanges: An Ethnomusicologist's Approach to Interdisciplinary Teaching
and Learning in Collaboration with a Remote Indigenous Australian Community.” The World of Music (2009): 34.
created by Wanjina ancestors in the Lalarn or Lalai[, which means] ‘Dreaming’ [in] Ungarinyin and Worrorra languages respectively(…).”28
Dreaming, or ‘dreamtime’, is an essential concept in many Indigenous Australian cultures.29 Dreamtime manifests through songs, in which the lyrics of these
songs refer to, or more concretely, explain, stories about Creation myths for example.30 The stories are always connected to a specific location, in which the event
the story refers to, took place. Therefore, each story has its particular song, which thus relates the song to a specific location and contains instructions on how to live in this area; information on where to find food for example. When songs ‘travel’ through several locations and language groups, the ‘songlines’ (tracks across the land) are long. For those longer songlines, specific handover points are set up, at which one group of land owners has to hand over the song to the next group of land owners, which is indicative of where the land boundaries between different Indigenous cultures are.31
Junba repertories, in particular, document and perform activities of spiritual ancestors, such as the Wanjina ancestors. These activities are often concerned with, as described above, matters of the land and Indigenous law systems. Besides ancestral stories, topics ‘captured’ in Junba vary from mundane daily events, like fishing trips, to more serious happenings like cyclones and Captain Cook’s settlement in Australia.32
Ethnomusicologist Sally Treloyn states:
Today, the practice of Junba (…) has great significance for the communities that own and maintain these songs and dance traditions, affecting social and
28 Treloyn, S. and R. G. Charles. “Repatriation and Innovation: the Impact of Legacy Recordings on
Endangered Dance-Song Traditions and Ethnomusicological Research.” Research, Records and
Responsibility. Sydney: University of Sydney Press, 2015: 188.
29 Gibson, Chris, and Peter Dunbar-Hall. “Nitmiluk: Place and Empowerment in Australian
Aboriginal Popular Music.” Ethnomusicology Vol. 44, No. 1 (2000): 51.
30 Moyle, R. M. in: Koch, Grace. “Music and Land Rights: Archival Recordings as Documentation for
Australian Aboriginal Land Claims.” Fontes Artis Musicae (2008): 158.
31 Koch, G. “Music and Land Rights: Archival Recordings as Documentation for Australian
Aboriginal Land Claims.” Fontes Artis Musicae (2008): 158-159.
32 Treloyn, S. and R. G. Charles. “Repatriation and Innovation: the Impact of Legacy Recordings on
Endangered Dance-Song Traditions and Ethnomusicological Research.” Research, Records and
Responsibility. Sydney: University of Sydney Press, 2015: 189.; Redmond, A. “Captain Cook Meets
General Macarthur in the Northern Kimberley: Humour and Ritual in an Indigenous Australian Life-World.” Anthropological Forum Vol. 18, No. 3 (2008): 256.
emotional wellbeing, and articulating identity in relation to place, family and history.33
1.1.2 – Dance and music as systems of authority
As described in section 1.1.1, the performance practices by the Yolngu and Junba are communication methods through which law systems and land management information are explained.34 However, in 1788 when the British Empire “settled” in
Australia, Indigenous people were not allowed to practice their cultural habits and languages anymore, including their music and dance practices. The new colonial government took over the country, and aimed at eliminating Indigenous cultures altogether.35 This caused many fights and protests, most often over land rights which
involved Indigenous protest against mining activities of sacred Indigenous land.36
Although many Indigenous communities requested to stop the mining activities on their land, the government perceived the Indigenous law systems, which included documentation on land management, as ill-fitting to the dominant Australian law. 37 However, the poignant unhappiness amongst Indigenous
communities over this decision forced a review of the policies by the Australian government. Now, around the 1960s and 1970s, Indigenous Australian land rights were allowed recognition and representation by newly established land councils. With this, Indigenous music and dance practices were now acceptable as evidence for their cases to reclaim land,38 as these practices are, themselves, documents of the regional
rules about land ownership and the connections with Indigenous communities to it.39
33 Treloyn, S. and R. G. Charles. “Repatriation and Innovation: the Impact of Legacy Recordings on
Endangered Dance-Song Traditions and Ethnomusicological Research.” Research, Records and
Responsibility. Sydney: University of Sydney Press, 2015: 189. 34 Ibid.
35 Corn, A. “Sound Exchanges: An Ethnomusicologist's Approach to Interdisciplinary Teaching and
Learning in Collaboration with a Remote Indigenous Australian Community.” The World of Music (2009): 23.
36 Koch, Grace. “Music and Land Rights: Archival Recordings as Documentation for Australian
Aboriginal Land Claims.” Fontes Artis Musicae (2008): 157.
37 Corn, A. “Sound Exchanges: An Ethnomusicologist's Approach to Interdisciplinary Teaching and
Learning in Collaboration with a Remote Indigenous Australian Community.” The World of Music (2009): 24-25.
38 Ibid.: 25.
39 Treloyn, S. “Flesh with Country: Juxtaposition and Minimal Contrast in the Construction and
As a result of the developments concerning mining activities and Indigenous protest against these activities, performance traditions have gained juridical value, in addition to its already established social and cultural values as described in section 1.1.1. As shown in the examples of Junba and the Yolngu traditions, this juridical aspect was always inherent to the dance traditions. However, since the establishment of the land councils around the 1960s the juridical values were acknowledged by the dominant settler-society too. Not only is the role of dance to Indigenous populations determined by the extent to which it explains Indigenous Australian ways, as referred to on pages 11-14, it now supports Indigenous Australian peoples in their aspiration to reclaim land that was once theirs.
1.2 – Contemporary dancing
Dance occupies an undeniably significant role for many Indigenous Australian cultures. As explained above, Yolngu and Junba traditions show the extensive part dance rituals play in peoples’ daily lives. However, the historically described dance forms do not cover the dances performed by the Bangarra Dance Theatre. The fact that the above-described traditions, as well as the shows by Bangarra, are Indigenous expressions does not mean that both forms of dances derive from similar traditions.
Besides a difference in traditions, there are also significant differences in the styles of the dances. This section will therefore research the notion of ‘contemporary’ and how Bangarra describes its dances as such. To understand contemporary dance as theatre dance genre, we will have to look into a few notable historical events that brought about contemporary dance, which finds its roots in Europe and the USA.
1.2.1 – Contemporary Dance: An Overview
The name of the genre contemporary dance inherently opposes the dance referred to as ‘traditional’ or ‘classical.’ The aversion to earlier dance genres is exactly what is at the base of the emergence of contemporary dance. I will therefore start with a short
history of classical ballet and modern dance in order to understand the development of contemporary dance. This section will start with the description of court dance practices, originated in the 17th century. Of course, ‘European’ dance consists of more
than merely court dances. However, in chapter three, the status of the ‘high’ arts is a significant aspect of what Bangarra wishes to identify with. This is why the beginning of this section predominantly focuses on dance practices with a politically, high-valued status.
In 17th century France, during King Louis XIV’s reign, classical ballet was
flourishing as a dance genre in the courts, also referred to as ballet de cour. While in France the dance style was particularly ‘upcoming’ because of the King’s passion for dancing, classical ballet performances also took place in other European countries like Italy, England and Sweden.40 The Académie Royal de la Danse was founded in 1661,
which was set up by a group of dancers wanting to install technical dance instructions in a systematic way. These instructions are still the core principles of classical ballet today.41
The Italian composer Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) incorporated classical ballet dances into his operas in Paris.42 Today, Lully’s music is still characterised by its
rhythmical aspects, functioning for the ballet scenes. The dances became profoundly popular: to the extent to which the music for the ballet scenes became independent suitesand by sharing ballet not only within the court, but for an audience in opera theatres as well.43
Ballet in, and outside of courts gained popularity, such as the ballets produced in the influential Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. In the late 19th century, famous ballets like La Bayadère, Sleeping Beauty
and Swan Lake were produced here. Typical stylistic traits and dance steps still immanent in today’s classical ballet, such as pas de deux, grand jetés (for men) and pirouettes (for women), derive from these works.44
40 Butterworth, Jo. Dance Studies: The Basics. London and New York: Routledge, 2012: 73. 41 Ibid.
42 Anthony, James R. Jean-Baptiste Lully and the Music of the French Baroque: Essays in Honor of James R. Anthony. John Hajdu Heyer ed. Cambridge University Press, 1989: xiii.
43 A suite consists of a series of musical compositions suitable for dancing.
44 Pas de Deux means dance step for two.; Grand jetés means big jumps.; Butterworth, Jo. Dance Studies: The Basics. London and New York: Routledge, 2012: 74-75.
Martha Graham (1894-1991) was a pioneer in establishing lasting techniques different from the classical ballet methods. Dance Studies professor Jo Butterworth describes Graham as having: “pioneered many of the teaching methods now considered the norm in modern dance education: the use of both parallel and turnout, contraction and release, floor work, spirals, fall and recovery.”45 Graham’s modern
dance methods differ from the classical ballet style in many ways, like expressiveness, the usage of gravity and dance clothing. While in classical ballet the dancer is not to show facial expressions, the modern dancer is encouraged to be expressive, in the face as much as in the rest of the body. Art critic Eric Bently refers to the newly-appreciated focus on the face as realism, as opposed to anti-realism or formalism as found in classical ballet.46
This realism is also apparent in the usage of gravity; where classical ballet dancers should appear to almost fly (consider point shoes and high jumps), floor work is one of the core aspects of modern dance. Influential modern dancer Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) explains her aversion to classical ballet by stating:
The school of the ballet today, vainly striving against the natural laws of gravitation or the natural will of the individual, and working in discord in its form and movement with the form and movement of nature, produces a sterile movement which gives no birth to future movements, but dies as it is made.47
According to Duncan, in order to find the beginning of dance, one has to go to nature to remove oneself from restrictions to be able to move in harmony.48 She then
explains:
So it has been with civilized man. The movements of the savage, who lived in freedom in constant touch with Nature, were unrestricted, natural and beautiful. Only the movements of the naked body can be perfectly natural. Man, arrived at the end of civilization, will have to return to nakedness, not to the unconscious nakedness of the savage, but to the conscious and
45 Butterworth, Jo. Dance Studies: The Basics. London and New York: Routledge, 2012: 87.
46 Bentley, Eric. “Martha Graham’s Journey.” in What is Dance?, eds: Roger Copeland and Marshall
Cohen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983: 200-201.
47 Duncan, Isadora “The Dance of the Future.” in What is Dance?, eds. Roger Copeland and Marshall
Cohen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983: 263.
acknowledged nakedness of the mature Man, whose body will be the harmonious expression of his spiritual being.49
Deriving from the quote above, modern dance was on a quest to reach the most ‘natural’ way to dance. There was a belief that the lives of ‘civilized’ people had become too artificial and that dance was a way to get into direct contact with life. Dance was, as it happens, thought to be more primitive than media like literature or opera.50
Modern dance’s longing to go ‘back to nature’ resulted in dance pieces based on exoticism. Examples are Graham’s pieces such as Two Primitive Canticles,
Primitive Mysteries, and Ceremonials. These dance pieces supposedly express “the need
to reaffirm rituals in human lives”51. Spirituality played an essential role for Martha
Graham to create dances. In her notebook she wrote: “That driving force of God that plunges through me, is what I live for.”52 Graham’s partner and pianist, Louis Horst,
introduced her to other modern artists who were also inspired by non-Eurogenic societies, such as Wassily Kandinsky. As a member of the artistic group Der Blaue
Reiter, Kandinsky was highly interested in art from New Caledonia and Malaysia for
example.53 When Graham saw these exoticist, modern paintings, she stated: “I almost
died from sheer excitement.”54
In the second half of the 20th century, a new dance approach emerged again in
the USA, in which dancer Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) played an essential role. Although Cunningham started dancing in Graham’s company, his style actually differed very much from the style of Graham’s methods. Instead of focussing on strength and gravity, Cunningham based his style on agility and speed. While working in Graham’s company, he took additional ballet lessons at Balanchine’s School of American Ballet. He then started to mix modern dance and classical
49 Duncan, Isadora “The Dance of the Future.” in What is Dance?, eds. Roger Copeland and Marshall
Cohen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983: 263.
50 Bentley, Eric. “Martha Graham’s Journey.” in What is Dance?, eds. Roger Copeland and Marshall
Cohen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983: 198.
51 Butterworth, Jo. Dance Studies: The Basics. London and New York: Routledge, 2012: 87. 52 Martha Graham, in: Martha Graham, videorecording, published 20-03-2014,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH5fjgrXlzs.
53 Van der Grijp, Paul. Art and Exoticism: An Anthropology of the Yearning for Authenticity. Vol. 5. LIT
Verlag Münster, 2009, 152.
54 Martha Graham, in: Martha Graham, videorecording, published 20-03-2014,
ballet.55 While this style is often appointed as contemporary dance, the lines between
the different dance genres deriving from Europe and the USA roughly during the 20th
century are blurred. To what extent should a style incorporate both classical and modern techniques to be considered contemporary?
The conceptualisation of contemporary dance is problematic, as there is no strict technique solely dedicated to contemporary dance. However, the second half of the 20th century did bring about striking new dance methods which are significantly
different from modern dance; instead of romanticising about ‘primitivism,’ as referred to in Graham and Duncan’s styles, contemporary dance styles often admit to incorporate dance aspects or (philosophical) ideas from non-Eurogenic cultures such as China.56 Improvisation and random-looking movements – movements that do not
align with the music – are also elements that characterise contemporary dance.57
Nevertheless, these elements are all examples of possible aspects of contemporary dance, though not essential aspects.
Moreover, finding an exact description of contemporary dance is complicated by the fact that contemporaneity is still occurring today. Therefore we may not be able to fully comprehend what is happening here as this style is still under development. In online Art platform Artsy, choreographer and dance theorist Moriah Evans is quoted to call the genre “a functional catchall” when one is working on dance in the current moment.58 This alludes to an ‘anything goes’ attitude, in which
contemporary dance is an assemblage of many different dance styles put together. Rather than an established set of techniques, contemporary dance may also be the term for an attitude towards dance. Though assembled by various techniques, as the above indicates its direct derivation from ‘European’ theatre dances, such as classical ballet and modern dance, indicates a link between contemporary dance and the ‘high’ arts. Established renowned avant-garde musicians and artists, such as John Cage – who worked with Cunningham, associate themselves with contemporary
55 Butterworth, Jo. Dance Studies: The Basics. London and New York: Routledge, 2012: 89-90. 56 Ibid.: 89.
57 Ibid.: 92.
58 Moriah Evans in: Natalie Cenci, “A Guide to Interpreting Contemporary Dance,” accessed
dance.59 The fact that contemporary dance performances often occur in prominent
theatres, means that its audiences mainly consist of people able to afford the expensive tickets imposed in theatres as such.
1.2.2 – Bangarra’s dance
Concluding from the above, it is clear why Bangarra describes its dance as contemporary style-wise. The performers dance barefoot while bending their knees, and explicitly use the torso as the main source of strength. At the same time, these modern dance aspects alternate with quick dance steps, using velocity and agility. The combination of using strength as well as lightness clearly alludes to a contemporary dance style. This style references steps not deriving from classical ballet or modern dance, but steps that are also present in particular dances aforementioned, by Yolngu populations for example. The 2011 production Belong shows a group of dancers simultaneously stamping one foot on the ground a few times. This same dance step is shown in dances in the Makarata event in Milingimbi, land of the Yolngu people. Clearly incorporating aspects from non-Eurogenic dances is, as mentioned in section 1.2.1, another indicator of the contemporary dance style.
But what does appointing the name of a genre mean for the Bangarra Company? First of all, the company promotes with its “professionally trained dancers.”60 The company’s ‘professionalism’ indicates modernity, related to Latour’s
notion of institutionalism and the ‘Moderns’ described in chapter two. Professionalism, therefore, is highly related to contemporary dance, as most Bangarra dancers have obtained contemporary dance skills in ‘professional’ dance institutions, such as QUT (Queensland University of Technology).61 Moreover, according to
dance theorist André Lepecki, contemporary dance has gained more and more attention from the art world since the second half of the 20th century.62 He claims,
59 Tomkins, Calvin. The Bride and the Bachelor: Five Masters of the Avant-Garde. London: Penguin
Books, 1968: 269.
60 Bangarra, “Our company,” accessed 13-01-2019, https://www.bangarra.com.au/about/company. 61 Luke Currie-Richardson, interview, Melbourne Arts Centre, 08-09-2018.
62 Lepecki, André, ed. “Introduction. Dance as a Practice of Contemporaneity.” Dance: Documents of Contemporary Art. London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2012: 14.
that this has something to do with the idea that contemporary dance is a re-affirmation of itself. Lepecki explains:
We could even venture, somewhat ironically (citing the title of a piece by the German/British artist Tino Sehgal, whose relationship to dance and choreography is quite direct), that the inclusion of dance in an artistic project today (whether an object, exhibition or performance) is that necessary gesture which allows it to affirm about itself: This is so contemporary!63
Bangarra’s eagerness to express itself through contemporary style makes sense when bearing the quote above in mind. Bangarra being an Indigenous company, it may be expected to perceive its productions in terms of Indigeneity, by having stereotyped and romanticised ideas about Indigenous peoples. As described in the introduction, generalising about Indigenous peoples is misguiding and excludes people living according to lifestyles deviant from stereotypical expectations. Contemporary dance however, pretends to be ‘no one’s’ dance style, or better, claims to be ‘everyone’s’ dance style, as explained in section 1.2.1. This style moves the focus from Indigeneity solely, towards modernity. This allows Bangarra to make the shows accessible to a global audience, and in particular, an audience that feels attracted to a Euro/North-American dance style, as chapter three reflects on more intensively.64
Moreover, the choice for this dance style may be perceived as a way of re-appropriating the genre, as it is not necessarily associated with Indigenous cultures. Modern dance distinguishes itself from classical ballet by a shift from formalism to realism by creating a style inspired by non-Eurogenic peoples. Contemporary Dance is a direct derivation of these styles and is therefore highly exoticist. This brings the question to the surface: “To what extent is contemporary dance a ‘Western’ cultural expression?” Bangarra’s formula of contemporary Indigenous dance shows that it is not necessarily ‘Western’ either; by ‘taking back’ a genre that is supposedly based upon ‘non-civilized’ peoples.
63 Lepecki, André, ed. “Introduction. Dance as a Practice of Contemporaneity.” Dance: Documents of Contemporary Art. London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2012: 15.
64 Corn, A. “Sound Exchanges: An Ethnomusicologist's Approach to Interdisciplinary Teaching and
Learning in Collaboration with a Remote Indigenous Australian Community.” The World of Music (2009): 29.
1.3 – Representing Indigeneity
Bangarra’s productions use the genre of contemporary dance to express themselves. This means that contemporary dance is used in order to perform certain stories, certain events and certain identities. The usage of contemporary dancing makes this phenomenon particularly interesting, because it breaks with the general conception of Indigeneity by performing in a style that has not been associated with Indigenous cultures per se.
However, while on the one hand performing Indigeneity through contemporary dance is a form of de-romanticising, it demands stereotyping on the other so the audience can understand what is represented. Not only is this the case for Bangarra’s dance, but for its promotion material as well. This section delves into the concept of performativity and explains its implications; first with reference to three different scenes from several shows produced by the Bangarra company and furthermore, by analysing promotion material. These scenes and the promotion materials will serve as case studies.
1.3.1 Bangarra’s performances
Bangarra’s shows alternate between various stories of various Indigenous communities. Some shows, such as Corroboree, premiered in 2001, are based on narratives deriving from pre-colonial times. Other shows, such as Belong, premiered in 2011, are based on stories deriving from today’s Australian neo-colonial time. Though some shows are based on pre-colonial narratives, the contemporary dancing avoids the appropriation of an ‘authentic’ way of performing. On the other hand, as the below-described analyses will indicate, both pre-colonial and neo-colonial inspired shows may induce mystification of Indigenous Australian cultures. Summaries of shows use descriptions like “mood of the winds”65 which indicates ‘mysterious’ and elusive
phenomena. These phenomena are also performed through dance. The analyses that
65 Bangarra, “Belong,” accessed 13-01-2019,
follow will indicate such tensions and problems by performing Indigeneity using contemporary dance.
Performing does not just cover the art of dance. To speak about performance, I will include various (artistic) notions. Musicologist Christopher Small speaks about performing as a way of enacting a ritual. Aspects of this enactment include: “the
making, the wearing, the exhibiting, the dancing, [and] the musicking.”66 These are the
aspects I will focus on in the following analysis of the three scenes.
Before delving into the analyses, a few remarks apply to all three scenes: The music in the scenes is electronically composed, using synthesisers and digital samples. Bangarra’s shows do, predominantly, exclude live music. The information described on the following pages is through personal observations of video recordings. My choice for analysing video recordings instead of live performances is based on the idea that video recordings could be analysed more accurately as there is the option of watching the videos several times. Moreover, footnotes include the links of the online videos, therefore, the reader may watch the videos too. The analyses illustrate an idea of what Bangarra performances entail and indicate the implications that come along with those. These descriptions illustrate examples of productions that both function as actors, and in which other actors, described in chapter two, take part.
Brolga – Corroboree (2001)
The first scene I focus on is a part of the 2001 production Corroboree. Corroboree is inspired by stories of the earlier mentioned Yolngu people of Arnhem Land. The Bangarra website explains: “Corroboree explores the transformation of the human spirit, the relationship between Aboriginal people, creatures and the land, and what it is that unifies us as human beings.”67 Corroboree consists of three sections: Brolga (a
bird living on the swamps of Arnhem Land), Roo (short for kangaroo), and Turtle. Brolga bases its story on an Indigenous system in which everybody receives a designated totem, depending on the specific clan a person belongs to. The Brolga is one of the many Indigenous totems around. The scene in this particular dance shows
66 Small, Christopher. “Musicking — the Meanings of Performing and Listening. A lecture” Music Education Research Vol. 1, No. 1 (1999): 16.
67 Bangarra, “Telling the Stories: Corroboree (2001),” accessed 08-04-2018,
“the concepts of ceremony, connection and transformation between a human spirit and the spirit of a creature.”68
In this scene, one female dancer enters the stage. She dances to ambient music played by predominantly electronic strings. This is accompanied by samples of bird- and wind sounds. The electronic quality of the music alludes to modernity, which, therefore, is very much aligned with the contemporary dance style of the dancer. Meanwhile, an echoing female voice sings in Yolngu Matha.69 The Yolngu Matha is
an apparent sign of Indigeneity in the performance. A pulsing clapping sound repeats itself throughout the scene. The imitation of acoustically-produced sounds alludes to traditionality., as opposed to ‘electronic-ness.’
The scene clearly refers to a remote landscape - far from urban areas - induced by the echoing sounds of the voice, the sounds of the wind and the emptiness of the stage. This setting could be expected from an Indigenous story given the stereotypical concept of a strong bind between Indigenous peoples and the land. After approximately a minute-and-a-half, didjeridus begin playing, whilst at the same time five more female dancers appear on the stage. Whilst the first dancer is dancing upright, appearing to ‘walk around,’ the other five dancers are holding both arms behind their backs, pretending to have wings. After a while the first dancer begins to mimic the ‘birds’ by dancing the same steps. Meanwhile an image of one of the dancers is projected behind the performers on stage. Again, the inclusion of technology illustrates modernity.
Then another eight dancers enter the stage. Seven of them also have the appearance of a Brolga, while the eighth performer looks distinctively different. The Brolgas wear long, white dresses with feather ornaments, while eighth dancer wears a long, dark brown dress, her long hair down and she is wearing a dress. Instead of moving bird-like, she walks around as humans do. She is clearly performing as an Indigenous woman who watches over the birds.
68 Bangarra, “Brolga (an excerpt from Corroboree),” accessed 08-04-2018,
https://www.bangarra.com.au/youth-outreach/education/resources/brolga/excerpt.
Nursery – Mathinna (2008)
Mathinna is a story about an Aboriginal girl from the southwest of Tasmania, born in
1835. She was taken away from her family and brought into the home of a European upper class family. When the family had to go back to England, Mathinna was sent to an Orphan School in Hobart, only to be sent back to her ‘original’ culture a few years later. Here, she was not accepted because of her ‘white’ manners. Mathinna became lonely and died at the age of 21.70
Xylophone sounds construct the melody at the start of the scene Nursery. The ambiance reflects stereotypical aspects of ‘white people’s civilization,’ such as a furnished home and the sounds of a piano. Two female dancers are on the stage: one in a red dress, the other dancer in a green one. The skin colours of the dancers differ in an obvious way, which makes a clear distinction between who is performing the role of the Aboriginal girl (the dancer in the red dress) and who is performing the role of the European settler, which is played by dancer in the green dress who twirls around the dancer in red, handing her socks and shoes and dressing her. This clearly shows the power-relation between the adult female settler and the young Aboriginal girl.
Around the two dancers, there are several attributes on stage, such as a dresser, a cradle and a piano. When the girl wears the shoes, she walks around uncomfortably looking at her feet, while the female settler begins ‘playing’ the piano. After this, the girl is seated and the female settler hands her a book. When they begin looking through it, a narrating voice appears in the music:
Dear Father
I am good little girl. I do love my father. I have got a doll and shift and a petticoat. I read books not birds. My father I thank thee for sleep. Come her to se mee my father. I thank thee for food. I have got sore feet and shoes and stockings and I am very glad….71
After the ‘reading’ the female settler gives Mathinna a doll and directs her to go to bed. The scene ends when the girl steps into the cradle.
70 Bangarra, “Telling the Story: Mathinna (2008),” accessed 10-04-2018,
https://www.bangarra.com.au/youth-outreach/education/resources/mathinna/telling-story.
71 This is a section from a letter in a fictional book by Richard Flanagan, based on Mathinna’s story.;
While the female settler seems to feel perfectly comfortable at home – playing the piano and moving gracefully – the Indigenous girl walks around looking at her shoes, clearly not being in the ‘flow’ of the dance anymore. This disruption of the flow of the dance is important to reflect upon, as Lepecki claims the dance’s identity to be a state of ‘being-in-flow.’ A disruption of this flow performs a “betrayal of the bind between dance and movement.”72 However, as Butterworth describes in section 1.2.1,
contemporary dance practices often thrive on such disruptions; The inclusion of such stilling movements in “contemporary choreography threatens dance’s own futurity”73,
according to Lepecki. Apparently, such stilling movements are necessary in order to tell a story that, according to Bangarra, needs to be told. A dancer stilling a flowing movement alerts the audience to an uncomfortable situation; in this case the situation of an Aboriginal girl trying to position herself in an upper class English family.
Clothing is another aspect that takes part in performing certain identities. As alluded above, the clothes play an important role in the establishment of who plays the European – performing an apparent ease – and who plays the Aboriginal girl – by performing displacement.
About – Belong (2011)
About is a work that focuses on cultural practices by the Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The traditional ways of life on the Torres Strait Islands are still present; such as fishing, sailing and star navigation, along with new economic and the technical developments European settlement introduced.74 This is also the case for dance.
Bangarra dancer and co-choreographer Yolande Brown explains how in the Torres Strait Islands, representation of what is seen, and sharing that, is a common practice. Torres Strait Islander peoples have a very ‘strict’ way of dancing, which most likely derives from the army. Dances often begin steps with the left foot for example, just like in the army.75 Bangarra describes:
72 Lepecki, André. Exhausting Dance: Performance and the Politics of Movement. New York and London:
Routledge, 2006: 1.
73 Ibid.
74 Dudgeon, Pat, et al. "The Social, Cultural and Historical Context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Australians." Working Together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and
Wellbeing Principles and Practice (2010): 27-29.
About expresses the choreographer’s personal cultural connection and
continuing curiosity about the four winds (Gub) of the Torres Strait Islands. While the conventional western calendar of seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) are broadly determined by dates, the rise and fall of temperature and the noticeable changes to the landscape, it is the winds of the Torres Strait that are the seasonal forecasters for the people who live in this region. The behaviours of these winds guide the people in their daily lives, and the spirits of these winds inform the essential elements of their cultural life.76
The scene I discuss here is called Sager, which is also the name of the most turbulent wind of the four winds. At the start of this scene, orchestral strings play long, high-pitched tones, which transform into a slowly changing chord progression, insinuating ‘Western classical music.’ There is no beat or pulse. The music has, once more, an ambient quality – as a result of the absence of a beat and the long sustained string strikes – referring to modernity. At the same time, the orchestral texture strongly refers to ‘Whiteness,’ as the chord progression played by the strings refer to ‘Western classical music.’ Simultaneously, a deep, female voice in the background sighs deeply and echoes throughout the music. It sounds like a ‘voice from above,’ or an all-knowing voice, and may therefore illustrate the voice of an Elder, which highly alludes to Indigeneity. A male and a female dancer enter the stage, walking across it very slowly, as if something ominous may occur. White smoke appears and the male dancer leaves the stage. The slow movements and the white smoke refer to before-mentioned ‘mysteriousness’ about Indigeneity. This may result in mystification of Indigenous cultures in Australia.
Eleven other dancers arrive on stage, doing jetés and pirouettes in two lines, while the first female dancer is not actively involved in the dance steps and keeps standing in the middle of the platform, in between the two lines of dancers. One part of the group of dancers runs off and on the stage, holding their arms in a diagonal line, which is reminiscent of a spear. The other dancers hold their knees bent together while making digging movements with their arms. In these few seconds of dancing, allusions to Indigeneity, through digging movements, and contemporaneity, through jetés, appear simultaneously.
76 Bangarra, “Exploring About (2011),” accessed 09-04-2018,
