“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)
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?
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.
.jpg)
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 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.
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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