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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
' In 1996 nine Australian artists journeyed into the centre of Australia, seven were the traditional owners of this country and two were white artists from Tracks, a performing arts company of the Northern Territory known for its innovative, large-scale outdoor performances that bring together participants from diverse cultures and artistic disciplines.. Together with an archivist, they followed the 2000 km Ngapa Jukurrpa (the rainstorm dreaming) path. Later that year members of the party regrouped in Darwin to tell their story of the journey though performance. This engrossing, moving and comic performance was divided into two sections. In the first the men created a traditional sand painting while the women painted up and danced. The second was a re-enactment of the journey. Source: tracksdance.com.au/ (Sighted 07/01/2009).
Production Details
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Perfomed in 1996 at the Brown's Mart Theatre, Darwin.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Resistant Images: Official Amnesias and Performances of Memory in the Top End
2005
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 46 2005; (p. 117-123) 'In Darwin, community performances and postcolonial issues intersect vibrantly to create a form of what Barbara Harlow has termed "resistance literature," genres that rewrite history form the bottom and that counter the attempted erasures of official historiographies. Such Foucaldian amnesias have been vividly contested in recent years by indigenous performances of dance and drama that inscribe histories by painting their images onto dancing, singing and acting bodies in order to remember. These performances resist official forgettings, both of the cultural losses caused by enforced resettlement in "Ngapa: Rainstorm Dreaming", and of the extent of World War II Japanese raids in the "Bombing of Darwin". Performed respectively by the Lajamanu community with Darwin's Tracksdance and the Tiwi Island Dancers, these indigenous productions kept alive in Top End memory histories that were curiously suppressed in Darwin museum display and public memorials.' Source: www.adsa.edu.au/ (Sighted 07/01/2009).
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Resistant Images: Official Amnesias and Performances of Memory in the Top End
2005
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 46 2005; (p. 117-123) 'In Darwin, community performances and postcolonial issues intersect vibrantly to create a form of what Barbara Harlow has termed "resistance literature," genres that rewrite history form the bottom and that counter the attempted erasures of official historiographies. Such Foucaldian amnesias have been vividly contested in recent years by indigenous performances of dance and drama that inscribe histories by painting their images onto dancing, singing and acting bodies in order to remember. These performances resist official forgettings, both of the cultural losses caused by enforced resettlement in "Ngapa: Rainstorm Dreaming", and of the extent of World War II Japanese raids in the "Bombing of Darwin". Performed respectively by the Lajamanu community with Darwin's Tracksdance and the Tiwi Island Dancers, these indigenous productions kept alive in Top End memory histories that were curiously suppressed in Darwin museum display and public memorials.' Source: www.adsa.edu.au/ (Sighted 07/01/2009).
Last amended 7 Jan 2009 10:33:45
