TRANSCRIPT
"Subjects, children, patrons, sit and hear me. Listen to my visit. Sit and see me. Watch my prophesy."
The dynamic art form of circus performance reaching new heights in Melbourne.
A First Nations circus troupe is using lifts, dives, splits and acrobatics to tell a story of status and the relationship between people and country.
Maggie Church-Kopp, an Arrente [[ah-RUHN-duh]] performer from the Na Djinang [[NAH JUH-NUNG]] Circus says their upcoming show is rooted in traditional culture but tells an exciting and imaginative new story.
"In Place is essentially a circus show that melds in dance and theatre as well to tell the story of an imagined kingdom that’s just lost its king, it's leader. It essentially tells the story of how this society comes together and mourns the death of their leader and then finds a new leader to pick and the process that takes and the effects it has on the people."
Work on 'In Place' began more than a year ago when the circus troupe decided to give a gift to 100 members of their prospective audience to encourage a connection with the land.
Harley Mann, the founder of Na Djinang Circus and a Wakka Wakka man explains the unique gesture.
"Over a year ago we brought together 100 community participants from the west of Melbourne, of Naarm, and gave them each a Native plant from the area which is all grasslands area here. And they took those away to look after them for a year and now we've collected those and we've used them to create the set of the work here at Footscray Community Arts."
He says, beyond set decoration, this idea of taking care of our native natural environment forms part of Na Djinang's broader artistic message.
“They make up the space that the show happens in. So there are flips and dives and jumps over the top of and through these plants. For me the plants are a lot more about hope than about specifically something we climb on, but rather this hope for the future, these kind of saplings that could grow into more than they are today.”
Arrernte performer Ms Church-Kopp says she's passionate about how circus can tell fresh stories through powerful displays of acrobatics, dance, and theatre.
"This is primarily ground based acrobatics so we’re holding each other’s weight and creating different choreography, bearing each other's weights, flipping over each other and using that sort of physical language to tell the story."
Circus founder Harley Mann says he hopes projects like this can reveal the unique artistic talents and achievements of First Nations performers.
"Mob know this thing, that art and dance and movement and practice are all embedded in culture and history, it's never been a segregated element. When you look at post-colonial Australia where we have segregated arts from our day-to-day practice, it's a profession, it also then leads to the lack of opportunity for diverse stories to appear on stage. And that's what we've observed in circus as an art form and that there’s really been a limited number of paths and opportunities for mob to engage with circus and circus performance."
Na Djinang Circus will perform their new show, 'In Time', at Melbourne's Fringe Festival from the 16th to the 20th of October.
