Performance Artist
During the 1950’s and 60’s, the British Government conducted nuclear tests at Maralinga in South Australia. These tests exposed Aboriginal inhabitants to radiation and contaminated the landscape with radioactive materials for hundreds of thousands of years.
I SEE A BLACKENED EARTH
COVERED BY LEAVES
I SMELL DEAD TREES
I TASTE SMOULDERING ASHES
BUT HEAR NO BREEZE
B. Walong
‘Black Vine’ 1995
Djakapurra Munyarryun ‘Black Vine’ performance Sydney Town Hall 1995
In 1995 Bangarra Dance Theatre were given a grant to produce a book about their fledgling history and origins but most importantly it was to be about the future where the objectives were to break down the mainstream conditioning of the perceptions of Indigenous Australian cultures by producing a juggarnaut of contemporary and traditional dance - art - music performances that served to irreversibly destroy ignorance.
Francis Rings, Gina Rings, Bernadette Walong and Marilyn Millar - Leichardt 1995
Gina Rings - for the production ‘Ochres’ 1995
Bernadette Walong - for the production ‘Ochres’ 1995
David Page - Leichardt 1995
Albert David - rehearsals ‘Black Vine’ Sydney Town Hall 1995
Not long into production of the book the funding grant was removed via government bureaucracies-undeterred we continued to produce work together for the next five years.
Bernadette Walong, Djakapurra Munyarryun, Albert David and Russell Page - La Perouse 1995
Djakapurra Munyarryun - 1995
Djakapurra Munyarryun - 1995
Djakapurra Munyarryun 1995
Russell Page and Francis Rings ‘Fish’ session 1997
Russell Page and Francis Rings - ‘The Dreaming’ Grove Farm 1997
Francis Rings ‘Movement Study’ Grove Farm 1997
Janet Munyarryun ‘Fish’ 1997
Francis Rings ‘Dance Clan II’ 1998
Janet Munyarryun ‘Movement Study’ Dance Clan III 1999
Elma Kris and Russell Page ‘Skin’ session 1999
Djakapurra Munyarryun ‘Skin’ rehearsals Enmore Theatre 1999
Archie Roach ‘Skin’ Sydney Opera House 2000
‘May Numbakul’ Reach to the stomach of the sky - the earth is the stomach of the sky.
For Western Man, the destruction of wilderness and the extension of fixed or structured space is the foundation of our time measured civilisation and personal identity. Both wilderness and the unconscious threaten the bases of our sense of self and our culture. For Indigenous cultures, the loss of wilderness is not only the loss of identity, but also the loss of contact with the eternal truth and meaning of existence.