Monday, January 23, 2023

'Tread with Soft Padded Feet... I Have Spread My Dreams Under Your Feet' - Conference Workshop - Drama Victoria Nov 2022

 

“Tread with Soft Padded Feet... I Have Spread My Dreams Under Your Feet”

By Dr.  Mark Eckersley


(Presented at the Drama Victoria State Conference in November 2022 at the University of Melbourne)




 Acknowledgement of Country

I and Drama Victoria would like to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Kulin nation and pays its respect to all Elders past, present and emerging.

 We acknowledge that we are on the lands of the Wurundjeri people who have been custodians of this land for thousands of years, and acknowledge and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. We acknowledge that the sovereignty of these lands were never ceded.

We also acknowledge the lands of any of the First Nations people on which participants in this workshop are working and living and we pay respects to Elders on those lands past, present and emerging.

 

Warning:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that this presentation may contain references, images and the names of people who have passed away.

 

Introduction for differently-abled participants

My name is Dr. Mark Eckersley. For those of you who deaf or hard of hearing, most of the presentation is on the slides today in full form not note form.

For those of you who are blind or have low vision. I am a 50-60-year-old male of Anglo-Celtic cultural background who is of medium height. I do not have Australian First Nations heritage but I am and have been for many years, a staunch ally of all First Nations peoples. I have fairish skin, a round moon face, light brown hair and a receding hairline. I am wearing a blue shirt and today, some of the props I will use are black fabric and sand. I have over 26 years of experience working with Australian First Nations creatives at the First Australian Black Playwright’s Conference in 1986. 


Tread with Soft Padded Feet... I Have Spread My Dreams Under Your Feet”

The title of today’s workshop comes from two places. The first comes from a story that Aunty Maureen Watson used to often tell reminding us that all the creatures on this continent had soft padded feet before the arrival of the Europeans. The second part comes from W.B. Yeats’ 1899 poem ‘Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’. The first reminds non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians to tread on these lands gently, with soft padded feet noting the impact of each step. The second part reminds us of the land and what lies beneath our feet. It infers what is passed on from one generation to the next. The generosity and fragility of what Australian First nations peoples have left as a path: an inheritance.

A Sense of Place

We should not ever just copy First Nations designs and styles. It would be great to employ a local First Nations artist and knowledge holder to create spaces and sets for our work. Most of the time we can’t. Throughout today’s workshop, I would like you to create an ongoing sense of place

 

You can do this through creating a backdrop or a floor set. If you are doing a backdrop or backdrop design, I want you to grab a piece of paper and some drawing or painting tools. If you are doing a floor drop or floor set, I want you to grab some sand, stones and/or some organic objects.

Where is you place?

Is your place where you are, where you have come from and/or the map of your journey? Create a picture or sand picture of where you are.


Acknowledgement of where you come from

Where do you come from? Who are the traditional owners of the lands you were born on? What is there totem or the animal totem they must protect? Add to the picture or sand picture.

Find a way to draw or symbolize what you want from today’s workshop

Find a way to draw or symbolize what you know about Australian First Nations perspectives and peoples or your journey related to Australian First Nations perspectives, cultures, histories and/or peoples

 

Critical Questions

How do we use and teach using the work and knowledges of Australian First Nations’ playwrights and creators?

How can we better embrace Australian First Nations’ perspectives and models of knowing?

How can we truly embody and embrace what the Yolngu languages call Makarrata, the process of peacemaking and justice or the coming together after a struggle?

How can we use and reflect on the title of this workshop “Tread with Soft Padded Feet...I Have Spread My Dreams Under Your Feet”? What are the dreams that Australian First Nations 'peoples have spread at our feet and how do we tread with soft padded feet?

 

What is Makarrata?

Peace after a dispute.

Spear penetrating the thigh – punishment to someone so they don’t cause harm anymore – calm them down.

Align the spirit to move forward.

It has been used for over 10,000 years as a way to resolve disputes

Captain Arthur Philip was the first Colonizer to be speared in a makarrata style process in 1790.

1979 - National Aboriginal Conference (NAC) adopted as a treaty of commitment

What is the spear that pierces you that you can learn from?

Add a ‘Makarrata’ to your picture or sand picture. Punishment & Resolution.

 

My Research Results

Some observations from my doctoral research and teachings:

-       Tendency for some non-Indigenous educators to aestheticize or objectify Australian First Nations cultures, relationships & representations through distancing or historicalisation

-       Non-Indigenous educators have a problem with cultural fusion and hybridization which creates heterotopias (Foucault 1986) dissipating First Nations content, interpersonal relationships, place and meaning. Foucault explains heterotopias as discursive or disturbing space, a place of othering. He sometimes represented this as looking into a sequence of mirrors trying to find the real image.

-       Teachers often did not engage in a process of consultation or engagement with First Nations knowledge holders. Foley (2003) advocates using Indigenous Standpoints

-       The reductionist nature of non-Indigenous pedagogy means that the holistic nature of ‘storymass’ (Casey 2012) is lost. This links story to land, communities and history

 

Yunkaporta’s (2009) 8 Stage Cultural Interface

 

Useful to help embrace more Australian First Nations ways of knowing is using Yunkaporta’s 8 Stage Cultural Interface. This pedagogy involves:

The Story

The Map

The Silence

The Signs

The Land

The Shape

Backtracking

The Homeworld

https://www.virtuallibrary.info/the-aboriginal-8-ways-of-learning-pedagogy.html

 

Axiology

Axiology are the principles and values behind something. First Nations Axiology is Relational. “It is not ‘I think therefore I am’ but rather ‘I am, therefore I belong, participate and share’ or ‘We are, therefore I am’”


Using Australian First Nations Plays to explore Australian First Nations Perspectives

Kevin Gilbert’s The Cherry Pickers (1968, 1971, 1988)

Kevin Gilbert started writing ‘The Cherry Pickers’ in 1968 while in jail. It premiered in 1971. In 1987, the play was workshopped at the First Australian Black Playwright’s Conference. Initially this speech was written for one actor/one character. At the conference, it was discussed how it should be done by multiple characters and show a group perspective. Get into groups and decide on a way to present this speech from a group or more relational perspective.

Kevin Gilbert ‘The Cherry Pickers’ 1988
(performed 1971)

BUNGAREE: (clown-like make-up, mimics the governor, speaks in a high theatrical voice)

In the words and manners of a time long gone

and have the pioneers each one confess

for each his part in the white founders’ lie

that bodies such as I did not exist…

the thought, the founding thought

sought out a ruse…

claiming this land was terra nullius

denying me my rightful sovereignty…

Words cloaked war and genocide. (Gilbert, 1988, p4)

 

Action: Act out the speech in groups, dividing up lines and words to give a sense of a relational or shared presentation.

Reflection: Which of the following was the strongest cultural interface element? The Story, The Map, The Silence, The Signs, The Land, The Shape, Backtracking and/or The Homeworld. Draw with sand or pen, the images and concepts that struck you most in this speech.

 

Non-First Nations Australians probably shouldn’t play First Nations Australians but they should represent them and the concepts represented

Robert J. Merritt ‘The Cake Man’ (First performed 1975) (Published 1978)

Look at the speech and decide how you can represent rather than simply play the character.

Epilogue

SWEET WILLIAM: (speaks directly to the audience)

… Forget all this shit about giving me back my culture… What I want, what I’m here for is… it’s something else again… You ever heard of the eurie-woman? Well listen, then, I’ll tell you what’s an eurie-woman, and what it is I want here. I was working at the Killara Station … (Wide-eyed) an’ all of a sudden I heerd this emu drumming somewhere close… It weren’t no emu, it was a woman… (Smiling sadly). Exac’ly what the eurie-woman was sayin’ to me… (Pause) Two realities. (Pause) An’ I lost one. (Pause) But I want it back … I need it back (Pause.) Not yours… mine.

Note: Originally this was done with Sweet William drunk with a bottle in hand. How does changing this help to undo stereotypes which surround Australian First Nations people? How could this speech be done to reinforce a positive modern representation of indigenous culture?

     Wesley Enoch & Deborah Mailman’s The Seven Stages of Grieving (1994)

Direct Address, Comic Theatre, Stand up Comedy

How to create The Silence & The Signs (Symbolism)?

Scene 12 Murri Gets a Dress

 (Delivered in the style of stand up comedy) Have you ever been black? You know when you wake up one morning and you’re black? Happened to me this morning. I was in the bathroom, looking in the mirror, “Hey, nice hair, beautiful black skin, white shiny teeth ... I’m BLACK!”

 You get a lot of attention, special treatment when you’re black. I’m in this expensive shop and there’s this guy next to me, nice hair, nice tie, nice suit, waving a nice big pump-you-full-of-holes semi-automatic gun in the air and the shop assistants are all looking at me. “Keep an eye on the black one ... eye on the black one.”

 OK, so I went to try on a dress and the shop assistant escorts me to the ‘special’ dressing room, the one equipped with video cameras, warning to shop lifters, a security guard, fucken sniffer dog ... ‘Get out of it’. Just so I don’t put anything I shouldn’t on my nice dress, nice hair, beautiful black skin and white shiny teeth...”

 

Leah Purcell ‘The Drover’s Wife’(2016)
The Land & The Shape

Find a way to represent The Land and The Shapes shown in this scene.

SCENE 8

The DROVER’S WIFE sees YADAKA’S body offstage, hanging from a snow gum. Silence.

DROVER’S WIFE: (to the dead YADAKA) I love the snow gum. It’s a stout trunk, strong… beautiful coloured patterns appear when wet, a gift from God. The sturdy tree’s limbs waiting to take the weight of winter… the weight of you.

Oh, to see these snow gums after the autumn shower… its this rare beauty that reminds me why I stay… a vision of beauty no more.

All I’ll see now is you, pale face, neck broke… just an inch more and your toe to the ground.

Finding space and place – The Children Came Back (2015) & Our Home, Our Heartbeat

Story - Start with story sharing – who are your heroes, which heroes look different, which heroes look like you?

Map – Briggs is a Yorta Yorta man. Find where the Yorta Yorta nation is. Find where the nations of different people in the story are. Map the different places where your heritage comes from.

Silence – Think in silence about some of the people mentioned. Take up a pose or statue that represents one of the people in the story. This can be extended to a ‘Night at the Museum’ game where the statues come to life and tell their story that has been frozen or silenced.

The Signs – either in a picture on sand or painted, draw a sign or symbol that represents different ‘small’ or ‘big pictures’ from the story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-wMbFntrTo.




     Jane Harrison ‘The Visitors’ 2020

What is The Shape (the form) and The Backtracking (Reflecting) that we need to do to give privilege and power to Australian First Nations voices?

Look at the short video which combines different scenes and aspects of the play. Then read or act out the short extract from the play.

https://www.moogahlin.org/thevisitors


GARY: Okay, Okay. Let’s observe them for a few minutes.

JACOB: Why don’t we measure their heads while we’re at it. (They just stare out… After a time…)

ALBERT: What have we learnt?

JACOB: Lot of bark in those nowees.

GARY: They appear to be watching us.

JOSEPH: Maybe they’re waiting us to welcome them? Do they have any elders on board?

GORDON: They have no elders…

WALTER: There are at least two clan groups.

     The Homeworld – Andrea James ‘Sunshine Super Girl’(2021)

The Homeworld is the local community. How do we embrace local legends and local knowledge?

SCENE 23 WALKABOUT WITH STRING

(EVONNE looks intently at the strings of her racquet, framing her face as she talks)

EVONNE: String. (She checks the tautness of the strings of her racquet)

It’s a powerful force that binds us together. String. It holds and binds us together. (The PLAYERS enter the court and perform ‘the women’s string making dance’. EVONNE joins in.)

Stringy bark, animal fur, human hair, grass.

It holds and binds us together.

Twine these strands together…

Your Homeworld

We are going to create a final group piece exploring and using lines from Australian First Nation’s playwrights.

Look at the backdrop and the floordrop or floor set you have created.

Choose a line or two you remember from those we have explored in the workshop.



Enter the space with the soft padded feet of the animals and peoples who have roamed on this land for over 60,000 years. Look at the landscape. Know this is the landscape of the dreams of generations of Australian First Nation’s peoples.

Speak you line or lines when you feel it is needed.

For more material and ideas visit my updates blogsite at: https://australianindigenousdrama.blogspot.com/2014/09/useful-resources-for-teaching.html

Or purchase a copy of my new book: Australian First Nations’ Drama.

Remember “Tread with Soft Padded Feet... I Have Spread My Dreams Under Your Feet”

More research at:

<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mark-Eckersley-2">Mark Eckersley on ResearchGate</a>

 

 


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