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