Crossing the River: Revealing Indigenous Australian Life Stories and Perspectives Through Drama

Crossing the River: Revealing Indigenous Australian Life Stories and Perspectives Through Drama
Workshop 

Presented by Dr Mark Eckersley
Reveal - Drama Victoria Conference
November 2024

Presenter

Dr Mark Eckersley (B.A., M.Ed., Ed. D) is an educator and performing arts practitioner with over 40 years’ experience teaching drama in Australia, South-East Asia and the Middle East. He has worked as an actor and a director with the Queensland Theatre Company and the Melbourne Theatre Company. He is the author of many books on First Nations drama.

Workshop Description

This workshop seeks to provide ways for teachers to cross the rocky river of cultural understanding through story, drama and understanding. It uses Australian First Nations life stories as revealed in books such as 'Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia' to provide teachers with ways to work with real life stories and cross-subject texts to develop critical thinking and playmaking skills in students. Teachers will be shown how to explore with students how stories, identities and cultures have been, and are, a source of strength and resilience for Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples against the historic and contemporary impacts of colonization. The workshop uses Verbatim, Documentary and Reader's Theatre techniques to promote understanding, inclusion and diversity.

Acknowledgement of Country

I would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people and the peoples of the Kulin Nation who are the Traditional Custodians of the land I gather on today. I would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present of the Kulin Nation and extend that respect to other Indigenous Australians peoples present.
Five Language Groups of the KulinNations:
Woiwurrung (Woy-wur-rung) -The Wurundjeri People
Boonerwrung (Bun-er-rong) -The BoonerwrungPeople
Wathaurong (Wath-er-rong) -The WathaurongPeople
Taungerong (Tung-ger-rong) -The TaungerongPeople
DjaDjaWrung (Jar-Jar wrung) -The JaaraPeople

Using Yunkaporta’s Eight stage cultural interface model (2009)

The ‘8 Aboriginal ways of learning’ framework involves eight interconnected pedagogies:
The Story
The Map
The Silence
The Signs
The Land
The Shape
Backtracking
The Homeworld

If you have Australian First Nations students in your class or are using an Indigenous Languages program as part of your curriculum, the following is a useful guide to effective approaches and strategies.

https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/p_10/snr_atsi_languages_11_strategies.pdf

Using Reader's Theatre to reveal Indigenous Australian Stories

‘Reader’s Theatre’ also known as ‘Chamber’s Theatre’ or ‘Interpretative Theatre’ is:

• A style of theatre or presentation where ‘readers’ read from a ‘script’ where the parts are divided among the ‘readers’
• A dramatic or moved reading
• The ‘lines’ are not learnt by the reader/performers
• Scripts are held during the presentation
• Sometimes Choral reading or group reading is evident

Strengths

• easy and quick to rehearse
• reader/performers use the expression in their voices and faces(along with simple gestures)
• no elaborate costumes, lighting or set
• can be done with students from Primary to Upper Secondary

Step 1

With a little adaptation, Readers Theater can be performed with many kinds of literature: picture books, short stories, parts of novels, poetry, songs, Dreamtime stories, folktales, works of nonfiction, and newspaper or magazine articles. For today's workshop we will use song lyrics and a picture book. For more information on Reader's Theatre you can visit my blog on this approach to Drama at:

https://theatrestyles.blogspot.com/2016/09/readers-theatre.html

Step 2

Listen to Archie Roach's song 'Took the Children Away'. You may want to listen and watch the videoclip of the song first. The song is about the traumatic effects of forced removal of Indigenous Australian children from their families. The practice and the children and families affected are now known as the the Stolen Generation. 

Archie Roach - 'Took the Children Away' Videoclip

Step 3

Look at the lyrics to the song. Talk to students about what they know about the Stolen Generation. Either have students read the lyrics silently and then model expressive reading or model expressive reading then have students read the lyrics silently or in groups. If you read it to the students, start by reading it several times while students follow along. Ideally, you should make copies for each student and project the play with an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use your readings to model how expression, pace and inflection help communicate meaning. For example, take a line from the lyrics and read it slowly and then quickly. Read it quietly and then loudly and then with specific emotion. Ask students: How does the way we read a line affect it’s meaning? Then, invite students to read aloud with you. Here are the full lyrics:

This story's right, this story's true 

I would not tell lies to you 

Like the promises they did not keep 

And how they fenced us in like sheep. 

Said to us come take our hand 

Set us up on mission land. 

Taught us to read, to write and pray 

Then they took the children away, 

Took the children away, 

The children away. 

Snatched from their mother's breast 

Said this is for the best Took them away. 

The welfare man, the policeman 

Said you've got to understand 

We'll give them what you can't give 

Teach them how to really live. 

Teach them how to live they said 

Humiliated them instead 

Taught them that and taught them this 

And others taught them prejudice. 

You took the children away 

The children away 

Breaking their mother’s heart 

Tearing us all apart 

Took them away.

One dark day on Framlingham 

Came and didn't give a damn 

My mother cried, ‘Go get their dad’ 

He came running, fighting mad 

Mother's tears were falling down 

Dad shaped up and stood his ground. 

He said 'You touch my kids and you fight me' 

And they took us from our family. 

Took us away They took us away 

Snatched from our mother's breast 

Said this was for the best Took us away.

Told us what to do and say 

Told us all the white man’s ways 

Then they split us up again 

And gave us gifts to ease the pain 

Sent us off to foster homes 

As we grew up we felt alone 

Cause we were acting white 

Yet feeling black 

One sweet day all the children came back 

The children came back 

The children came back 

Back where their hearts grow strong 

Back where they all belong 

The children came back 

Said the children came back 

The children came back 

Back where they understand 

Back to their mother’s land 

The children came back

Back to their mother 

Back to their father 

Back to their sister 

Back to their brother 

Back to their people 

Back to their land 

All the children came back 

The children came back 

The children came back 

Yes I came back.

Before you start on Reader's Theatre activities, you may want to use song of the activities and resources on the song from the following websites:

Walk the Talk - Took the Children Away

ABC Education - Took the Children Away Resources

Step 4

Either designate different reading parts to different students or designated groups to read different lines, verses, choruses and sections. You can have section of the group read and the others do still images or actions to show or represent what each line, verse or chorus is showing. You can also add other reading techniques.  Choral and echo reading are great techniques for giving your students the confidence and practice they need before they read aloud on their own. It also helps to build fluency. To do choral reading, you and your students read together as a group. That way all your students read at the same pace and with the same phrasing and intonation as the rest of the group. In echo reading, you read a line and students then repeat it, echoing your expression, tone and pacing.

Step 5

After you have delegated parts or sections for reading and performing, then work out a way to show or perform your reading. Encourage group members to work together and decide how they want to perform the play. Together, they can experiment and explore the characters. What voices will they use? Will they make simple props? The different performances of the same song lyrics will give students extra opportunities to observe and take in the meaning and authentic perspectives and voice of Archie Roach in this song.

Brigg's - 'The Children Came Back' (song) and 'Our Home, Our Heritage' (Picture Book by Briggs, Moon & Sarra)

The Adam Briggs song  'The Children Came Back' and the picture book  'Our Home, Our Heritage' (Briggs, Moon & Sarra) are direct responses by the Indigenous Australian rapper Adam Briggs. Briggs has said the song is a sequel to Archie Roach's They Took the Children Away, produced 25 years ago for his Charcoal Lane album that pays homage to the generation of Indigenous children who were removed from their families. Briggs' song originally featured in Triple J’s 'Like Version' segment, which invites musicians to play a song of their own and one that they love by another musician. The song is one of hope and pride and highlights Indigenous Australian heroes emphasizing the pride that comes from the 'children' or heroes who came back to culture. 

Below is a link to a video of the song.

'The Children Came Back' - Triple J - Like a Version

Below is also a link to an interview that Briggs did for the Wheeler Centre discussing how and why he wrote the song and developed the picture book 'Our Home, Our Heritage'.

Wheeler Centre Interview with Briggs about 'Our Home, Our Heartbeat'

Below is a NITV article which gives a bit of information on the song.

NITV Article - 'The Children Came Back'

Using Reader's Theatre techniques, either use the song lyrics or the picture book 'Our Home, Our Heartbeat' to create a Reader's Theatre piece based on the song or the book. You may start with reading the lyrics or the picture book to students or having them encounter it themselves and develop a way to do a performed reading using still images, tableaux or moving images with readings from the text/s. To use the book, purchase a copy or copies using the listing in the references. Otherwise, here are the lyrics from the song 'The Children Came Back' by Briggs.

The Children Came Back lyrics

I'm Fitzroy where the stars be

I'm Wanganeen in '93

I'm Mundine, I'm Cathy Freeman, that fire inside a me

I'm Adam Goodes, and Adam should

Be applauded when he stand up

You can look to us when that time stop

Im Patty Mills with the last shot

I'm Gurrumul, I'm Archie

I'm everything you ask me

I'm everything you can't be

I'm the dead hearts, heart beat

I'm Doug Nicholls, I'm jimmy little

With a royal telephone

I'm the world champ in '68

Boy I'm Lionel Rose

I'm William Cooper, I take a stand

When no one even knows

I'm the walk off, I'm the sound of

The children coming home

I'm Gurrumul, I'm Archie

I'm everything you ask me

I'm everything you can't be

I'm the dead hearts, heart beat

 

Let me take it home, I'm Rumba
I'm the sand hills on Cummera

I'm Les Briggs, I'm Paul Briggs

I'm Uncle Ringo with all them kids

I'm Uncle Buddy - everybody love me

Ain't none below, ain't none above me

I'm the carvings outta every scar tree

I'm those flats that birthed Archie

Now Mr abbott, think about it - me and you we feel the same 

That might sound strange, I'm just saying, 

We both unsettled when the boats came

I'm Gurrumul, I'm Archie

I'm everything you ask me

I'm everything you can’t be

I'm the dead hearts, heart beat.

Documentary and Verbatim Theatre

Documentary Theatre is a style of theatre performance and /or theatre making or

performance making where documentary material such as interviews, reports, media

material and transcripts are used as the primary source for the script. Although it is

often seen as a theatre form unto itself, Verbatim Theatre is a subset or branch of

Documentary Theatre.

Verbatim theatre is a style of documentary theatre and/or research which is

developed from the transcripts and recordings of people interviewed normally

centering on the interviewers observations, insights and experiences about a topic,

event or theme. It often involves a writer, researcher and/or actors and directors

interviewing a person or people about an event, experience or topic and selectively

using parts of the transcripts of those interviews to construct a performed piece.

If you want more information about this form of drama, visit the blog I have created on this form of drama.

Documentary and Verbatim Theatre

We will now use this form of drama using an anthology which has stories and interviews from a variety Australian Indigenous people. The anthology is called 'Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia'.

'Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia' is a biographical anthology which was compiled and edited by Anita Heiss in 2018 through interviews, submissions and discussions. The book is often studied in Australian schools from Years 7-12 and contains 52 short written pieces from the lives of Indigenous Australians of different ages and with different life experiences and it addresses and discusses country, culture, language, colonization, assimilation, activism and many other life experiences and themes. 

We will start with reading extracts from one entry in the anthology 'Dear Australia' written by Dom Bemrose, a Gunggari man who is an accomplished opera singer. The entry is done in the form of a letter and includes irony and sarcasm as a technique. I always get students to think about focus questions before they read a piece. Here are some pre-reading questions for 'Dear Australia'. 

DEAR AUSTRALIA:

1: Think about the tone of the writing

2: Dot point a profile of this person (the writer).

Who are they? (How they identify themselves)

Where are they from? (Their Country)

What are their interests?

What are their qualifications?

What are their experiences?

3: What themes are present in this story?

Choose one or two themes to explore in more detail. Give examples and quotes that relate to this particular theme.

Themes such as:

Racism

Identity

Breaking down stereotypes

Family

Love

Impacts of Colonisation /Invasion

Resilience

Importance of Country

Extracts from 'Dear Australia'

"Dear Australia,

I am a descendant of the Gunggari people of the Maranoa district near Mitchell. I am a member of a ricj living culture... I love this country and all its people for shaping the man I am today and allowing me to be me... I'm sorry I identify as Gungarri and Aboriginal. I know you would prefer I added 'part', 'quarter' or some other quantifier to signify that I am less than full... and as a reminder that my people are to be bred out... I'm sorry I am neither white, nor black enough for you yo easily label or identify me as 'other'.... I'm sorry I'm not a 'real Aboriginal' living in a remote part of Australia, surviving off the land...Please forgive me for identifying as gay... Please forgive me for not being lazy: I know you prefer your natives to want nothing but a free handout...Please forgive me for not putting that native title claim on your backyard... Thank you for never allowing me to be only Australian. Thank you for teaching me I am a third-class citizen in my own country... Thank you for acknowledging every 26 January with such grace and humility..." (p. 26-29)

Now decide on which extracts you want to present. Decide of which themes and aspects you think are important to keep in your presentation. Remember that Verbatim and Documentary Theatre seeks to honour and respect the words and life of the people who provide material. The responsibility is not to interpret the words in a presentation or performance but to document, report and represent the words, life and perspective shown. 

We will now move onto using another extract from the anthology 'Nobody puts Baby Spice in a Corner'. It is a reflective life piece written by Indigenous Australian actress Miranda Tapsell who was born in Darwin and grew up in the town of Jabiru near Kakadu National Park. 

NOBODY PUTS BABY SPICE IN THE CORNER

"There were moments in my life when I've had to take control of my own identity... I was a weird in-betweener, I didn't feel black enough for the aboriginal kids and too black for the white kids...Although the majority of people in school were Indigenous, I hung out with more non-Indigenous  as we had more in common... That's when it occurred to me, I was whitewashing my picture... Colour is something that validates me...My class were colouring in the same picture of a family in front of a Christmas tree...In my picture Mum and the kids were brown. I kept my dad white, just like mine. I liked this picture. Sure, colouring the people brown took more time, but it was something that made me feel validated. proud..."

Now decide on which extracts you want to present. Decide of which themes and aspects you think are important to keep in your presentation. Remember that Verbatim and Documentary Theatre seeks to honour and respect the words and life of the people who provide material. The responsibility is not to interpret the words in a presentation or performance but to document, report and represent the words, life and perspective shown. 

Now have students reflect on the different verbatim and documentary scenes they saw presented. Here are some reflections written by students after doing verbatim and documentary scenes using these two stories.

Reflection 1 - 'Dear Australia':

In the first group's presentation of 'Dear Australia', I noticed the tone of the language in the piece. Some of the language elements I noticed in ‘Dear Australia’ were stereotypes, sarcasm, irony, political language and change of tone. The form of a formal personal letter to a broad Audience (Australia) also came across strongly. I noticed the tone of sarcasm more than I did reading the story. Sarcasm such as when he says ‘I am sorry for identifying as gay’ This is also ironic because he should not be apologising for his identity, and he is using a tone that indicates not only sarcasm but conveys displeasure of the need for having to be sorry for his identity and the way that he chooses to live his life. Other changes in tone and attitude came through the way the speaker addressed the audience in the letter such as when it went from “... so I must tell you of how sorry I am and ask you to please forgive me.” to “I’m sorry I am neither white nor black for you to label me or identify me as other easily.” You can see how the sarcasm increases, especially when he states the quote saying “Finally, I am sorry I have said sorry more than once. Once really should be enough to heal all past and current atrocities…” (p.27). This scene also made me think of the inadequacy of PM Rudd's Apology on December 3 2007 to the Stolen Generations. This scene and the original story/letter has many relations to racism, blood quantum, skin colour, and stereotypes 1800-2000. This is clear in the quote  “I know you would prefer I added ‘part’, ‘quarter’ or some other quantifier…” (p.26) he says this with irony as then he wouldn't be fully classified as an aboriginal person in the government's eyes.

Reflection 2 - 'Nobody Puts Baby Spice in a Corner'

Some words and lines from the scene stuck with me such as “I was a weird in-betweener, I didn't feel black enough for aboriginal kids and too black for the white kids” (p. ). I could see the metaphor here using the colours black and white to signify both the cultural and sociological divide that Tapsell feels. The actors also showed this divide though the way they used the space. For an audience, this shows us how Tapsell questions her own identity and eventually ends up describing herself as a “weird in-betweener” belonging neither to Aboriginal nor non-Aboriginal societies and cultures. Another line that stuck with me was ‘Although the majority of people in school were Indigenous, I hung out with more non-indigenous as we had more in common,  “That when it occurred to me, I was whitewashing my picture”, “Colour is something that validates me”. The way this was presented on stage made me think about how identity is a complex thing that is constantly being assessed and reassessed by a person. It must be also more difficult and complex if you have First Nations heritage added to this. Not better or worse but just more complex.

References and Resources:

Books

Briggs, A., Moon, K. & Sarra , R. Our Home, Our Heartbeat. South Yarra , Vic: Bright Light

Eckersley, M. (2022). Australian First Nations Drama. Northcote, Vic: Tasman Press.

Heiss, A. (2018). Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia. Collingwood, Vic.: Black Inc.

Videos

Wheeler’s Centre (18th May, 2020). Interview with Briggs: Our Home, Our Heartbeat . [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psB KVMn1TY www.youtube.com Archie Roach Took The Children Away (Official Music Video) Video). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL_DBNkkcSE&t=1s

Briggs & Gurrumul. The Children Came Back. [Music Video]. Recorded for Triple J 'Like a Version'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of7JZK8lTEI

Websites Eckersley, M. A Matter of Style: Documentary and Verbatim Theatre. [online] A Matter of Style. Available at: https:// theatrestyles.blogspot.com/2015/01/verbatim theatre.html

Eckersley, M. (2016). Reader’s Theatre . [online] Blogspot.com. Available at: https:// theatrestyles.blogspot.com/2016/09/readers theatre.html

Eckersley, M. Voice, Treaty, Truth Using Theatre of the Oppressed to Explore Reconciliation. [online] Blogspot.com. Available at:

https:// australianindigenousdrama.blogspot.com/2023/12/voice treaty truth using theatre of.html

Reading Australia. Lessons on 'Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia'. [online]. https://readingaustralia.com.au/lesson/growing-up-aboriginal-in-australia/