Friday, December 8, 2023

Voice, Treaty, Truth - Using Theatre of the Oppressed to Explore Reconciliation

 

Voice, Treaty, Truth - Using Theatre of the Oppressed to 

Explore Reconciliation


About the Presenters

Dr Mark Eckersley (B.A, M.Ed, Ed.D) is an educator and performing arts practitioner. He is Leader of Arts at Santa Maria College. His research interests include: Indigenous methodologies, dramaturgy and privileging Indigenous and Feminist pedagogy.

http://australianindigenousdrama.blogspot.com/

 

Dr Richard (Johnson) Sallis (B.Ed, M.Ed, PhD) is an academic and performing arts practitioner. He is Leader of Drama/theatre Education in the education faculty at the University of Melbourne and co-director of its Research-based Theatre Lab. His research interests include: drama education, initial teacher education (ITE), and equity, diversity and inclusion in education.

https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/4796-richard-sallis

 

Acknowledgement of Country

We and Drama Victoria acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we work, learn and live: the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong peoples.

Drama Victoria also acknowledges and is grateful to the Traditional Owners, Elders and Knowledge Holders of all Indigenous nations and clans who have been instrumental in our reconciliation journey. We recognise the unique place held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the original owners and custodians of the lands and waterways across the Australian continent, with histories of continuous connection dating back more than 60,000 years. We also acknowledge their enduring cultural practices of caring for Country. We pay respect to Elders past, present and future, and acknowledge the importance of Indigenous knowledge in the Arts. As a community of teachers, researchers, professional staff and students we are privileged to work and learn every day with Indigenous colleagues and partners.



What will the workshop be about?

The Uluru Statement from the Heart advocates a trilogy for Recognition and Reconciliation - Voice, Treaty and Truth. Drama has a long history of being used to raise and examine complex and difficult issues in a down-to-earth and honest way. Drama allows people to explore different thoughts, perspectives, and feelings in a comfortable space. Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed is a drama technique that offers ways of exploring social change since the audience becomes active as "spect-actors" examining and transforming reality. Many Australian First Nations companies and performing artists have used these techniques to explore drama for social change. This workshop uses the techniques of Theatre of the Oppressed to examine ways of engagement with Recognition and Reconciliation with the world's oldest continuous cultures, histories, and perspectives. This workshop has been planned and developed in consultation with local First Nations cultural advisors.

 

Introduction to Theatre of the Oppressed



Theatre of the Oppressed was invented by Brazilian educator, drama theorist, theatre practitioner and political activist Augusto Boal (1931-2009). Boal started to invent his techniques after learning about the Pedagogy of the Oppressed (written by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire in 1967). Friere contends that education is a means to control the oppressed. Boal wanted theatre and drama to focus on the oppressed rather than the oppressors or the elite. Theatre of the Oppressed involves many techniques including Newspaper Theatre, Invisible Theatre, Image Theatre, Forum Theatre, Legislative Theatre and Rainbow of Desire. The final goal of using all of these techniques to help participants become critically aware, realise potential solutions and resist and overcome their oppressors. Theatre of the Oppressed is about real life solutions. Participants are called spect-actors since they are both active participants and spectators. Today’s workshop will concentrate on using the techniques of Image Theatre and Forum Theatre. Today, Rich and I will primarily take on the role of what Boal referred to as the ‘Joker’. Boal saw the ‘Joker’ as like the Joker card in a pack of cards. She/He/ They have the mobility to shift roles and contexts from facilitator to referee to workshop leader to director to agitator. You can also have a student or students act as the ‘Joker’ in your own workshops. Today, your role will be what Boal labelled the ‘spect-actor’. It refers to your engagement as both spectator and actor. Boal did not want the audience or actors to be isolated but he wanted to humanise and give agency to both spectator and actors and give them the capacity for action in all its beauty, power and fullness. 

 Framing Australian First Nations Content

Both Rich and I are both male non-Indigenous Australian educators. We are not First Nations Australians and while we can help us all to engage with Australian First Nations histories, peoples and perspectives a little better, we express our limitations and encourage you to directly engage with Australian First Nations knowledge holders if you wish to take this work further. Some of you may have more knowledge than us on Australian First Nations perspectives. Would anyone like to share anything about their own identity, knowledge or even perspectives and /or reservations they have about today’s workshop?

 

Going forward, it might be good to include early in the workshop an Australian First Nations’ perspective in approaching this work. Martin Nakata (a Torres Strait Islander educator and academic) in approaching work like this often starts with the following questions:

  • What does the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives look like and how do teachers embed these meaningfully in a non-tokenistic way? 
  • How can non-Indigenous teachers do this when they have their biases and may already be challenged in this area? 
  • Does this area of work involve a two-way negotiation of teaching and learning roles between Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators? 

Nakata states these are ongoing questions to be asked and critically assessed. Not answered.

 

Let’s start the workshop by reading the Uluru Statement of the Heart silently.

ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART 



We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart: 

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago. 

This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown. 

How could it be otherwise? That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two hundred years? 

With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood. 

Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are alienated from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future. 

These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness. We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country.  When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country. We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution. 

Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination. 

We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history. 

In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.

 

Exercise 1 - Response in a Still Image

Stand in a circle. Thinking about the Uluru Statement from the Heart, find a phrase or an image that resonates for you. Think of a physical still image to represent this phrase, thought or image. In a moment, we will all together create a physical image responding to something that resonated for us in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. If you are watching this workshop online, you are invited to create your own physical image while also observing the physical images created by others. Try to stay in a dynamic pose but also try to gently observe the images around you while you hold your own pose. We are now going to stand in a circle. One by one, people come into the centre of the circle and add their tableaux. Try to have your tableau join to what you see or add tension or juxtaposition to create an overall group image. We will now talk about what we saw or what the intention behind our own physical image was. Now half the group will make the group image with their tableaux and the other half of the group will provide a commentary or thought tracking of the group image as it is created. The group now swaps and those who created body images are thought trackers or commentators and the commentators become image makers. 

Reflection - How are body images ‘dynamised’ by thought tracking or adding sound?

 

Exercise 2

We are now going to in pairs or small groups create images where a member or members of the group ‘sculps’ the other or others into shapes. We will then find a way to bring the shapes together. If you are online, you can sculpt or manipulate your own shape and decide where in the group your shape might best fit to add to the image or provide a contrast or juxtaposition. The stimulus for the shapes can be either the following extract from the Uluru Statement from the Heart or from the following statement about the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice Referendum.

 

Stimulus 1

“We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history. 

In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.”

Stimulus 2

The 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice Referendum was an unsuccessful constitutional referendum held on October 14 2023. Australian voters were asked to alter the Australian Constitution to recognise Australian First Nations peoples in a body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice which would make representations to Parliament and the Executive Government on matters relating to Australian First Nations peoples. The proposal was rejected. The ACT was the only state or territory with a majority of ‘Yes’ voters. 9.4 million voted ‘No’ and 6.3 million voted ‘Yes’. 63% of voters of Australian First Nations heritage voted ‘Yes’. 

 

Now in your pairs or groups, decide which stimulus you will use. Now have one person or persons decide to be the ‘clay’ or ‘moulded body or bodies’ and the other or others become the sculptor/s. The ‘clay’ takes up a shape and then the sculptor/s sculpt or change the shape. Discuss what the ‘clay’ and the sculptor/s thought the shape was trying to show or represent. Now swap. The ‘clay' becomes the sculptor/s and the sculptor/s becomes the ‘clay’. Discuss what the ‘clay’ and the sculptor/s thought the shape was trying to show or represent. We will now repeat the sculptured images as a group. 

Reflection: How did sculpturing your image change or help you find a different aspect to what you were trying to represent? How did some images compliment or provide an opposition or juxtaposition to other body images?

 



Exercise 3

We are now going to attempt to in groups of 3-5 people create scenes that have three still physical images. One group physical image will show what has caused or lead up to a problem. The second physical image will show or identify the problem. The third image will show a solution. You should also make a poster or placard for each image that either makes a statement or provides a quote which clarifies the image or provokes a reaction to the image. We will use Recognition and Reconciliation - Voice, Treaty and Truth as the subject matter for the three image story. You may want to use the Uluru Statement from the Heart as the basis for your exploration or the Voice Referendum or some of the targets of the Closing the Gap initiatives - the main areas of which are health, wellbeing, life expectancy, education, employment, justice, safety, housing, land, waters, languages and digital inclusion. Some material to help your creation of your three images will be provided. Now discuss your topic, work out and sculpt your still images and make your poster or placard. You can flesh out or brainstorm the background to the issue chosen. You will present your three image scene to the whole group.

 


Exercise 4 

Each group presents their three image scene to the larger group. After the image is presented, the spectators engage with the ‘actors’. They can either reveal what they think the ‘cop in the head’ might be in the solution offered - The oppression that is internalised that reinforces the power structure or oppression in what the group is representing. The spect-actors decide whether they want the group to reconstruct the third image and they can help to sculpt this or spect-actors can step in and add to or change the third image to offer a different solution. The sign or placard for the third image can also be changed. Another option is that a member of the spectators is chosen as a ‘Joker’ and they ask or raise questions for the group showing the three images. The group then is able to talk for about a minute and try to change some and all of the images to address the concerns raised by the ‘Jokers’ questions.

 


Reflection

How can Image Theatre help to raise and address issues when exploring Voice, Treaty, Truth and reconciliation? How does having different positionings such as ‘Joker’ and Spect-actors allow for critical exploration, observation, representation of reality and the production of conscious and concrete actions?


References & Resources

Babbage, F. 2004. Augusto Boal. Routledge. New York.

Blair, N. 2015. Privileging Australian Indigenous Knowledge: Sweet Potatoes, Spiders, Waterlilys & Brick Walls. Champaign, ILL.: Common Ground Publishing.

Boal, A. 1974.Theater of the Oppressed, trans. Charles A and Maria-Odilia Leal McBride and Emily Fryer, London: Pluto (2000 Edition).

Boal, A. 1992. Games for Actors and Non-Actors, trans. A Jackson, London: Routledge.

Boal, A. 1995. Rainbow of Desire: The Boal Method of Theatre and Therapy, trans. A Jackson, London: Routledge.

Boal, A. 1998. Legislative Theatre: Using performance to make politics, trans. A Jackson, London: Routledge.

Boal, A. 2001. Hamlet and the Baker's Son; My Life in Theatre and Politics. Augusto Boal. trans. A Jackson and C. Baker. Routledge. London.

Casey, M. (2005). Indigenous Drama in the Classroom. ADEM Drama and Indigenous Perspectives, 10, 6-11.

Eckersley, M. 2015. A Matter of Style: Boal and the Theatre of the Oppressed. Jan. 4, 2015. Retrieved from https://theatrestyles.blogspot.com/2015/01/boal-and-theatre-of-oppressed.html

Eckersley, M., 2019. Signposts and Messagesticks: An ethnographic study of non-indigenous drama teachers’ engagement with an indigenous drama text (Doctoral dissertation, Australian Catholic University).

Hradsky, D., Forgasz, R. Possibilities and problems of using drama to engage with First Nations content and concepts in education: A systematic review. Aust. Educ. Res. 50, 965–989 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-022-00536-1

Nakata, M. (2007). The Cultural Interface. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 36(1), 7-14. Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/australianjournal-of-indigenous-education/article/the-culturalinterface/B8321A596C2BFF62FA6B81E7F214BC38

Schechner, R. 1988. ‘Forum Theatre’. Theatre Research International. Vol. 34, No. 3. New York.

Schechner R. & Taussig, M. 1990. Boal in Brazil, France, the USA: An Interview with

Augusto Boal. TDR. Vol. 34, No. 3 (Autumn 1990). New York.



Websites

MacDonald, S. & Rachel, D. 2000. Boal's Arsenal of Games. Retrieved from https://organizingforpower.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/games-theater-of-oppressed.pdf

Osburn, A. 2010. Forum Theatre Empowering Students to Act

http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1250&context=stu_hon_theses&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dboal%2Bforum%2Btheatre%2Blesson%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26oq%3D%26gs_l%3D#search=%22boal%20forum%20theatre%20lesson%22

Theatre of the Oppressed Laboratory

http://www.toplab.org