True Stories: Bangarra Dance

Bangarra dance is a type of native Aboriginal Australian dance that has gained recognition and popularity worldwide. We went to the Sydney Opera House to see a performance of "True Stories" by a Bangarra dance group. The play was broken into two major acts, the first depicting the story of traditional Torres Straight Islander people and the second the clash of western influence, (particularly atomic testing in the 1950s) on the Tjarutja traditional lands at Maralinga.

The dances were powerful, to say the least. The first act felt like traditional aboriginal dancing, depicting the dancers hunting, gathering, playing and exploring their land and sea. They were dressed in traditional paint and clothing made of grasses and looking somewhat stereotypical, but the dancing was incredible.

The second half was mesmerizing. The story was of the affect of western culture and the affect of atomic testing on the native people. The dances varied from traditional to 50s style to showing the physical torture of the testing on the native people. The image above is from this half of the performance. There was one piece where the light was shining just on the legs of the female dancers, we couldn't look away. The dances were so varied and all equally captivating, there are images on the groups' myspace site, if you'd like to take a look.

In my aboriginal Australia class we've talked a lot about the treatment of indigenous people of Australia from the 1780's until now. Current legislation in the Northern Territory is terribly discriminatory. The continued racism and inequality in this country is appalling and reflects the change from forced segregation to forced assimilation to forced 'self management' that has left the indigenous people in poverty, poorly educated and plagued with diseases .... much like the American Indian population in the US. It feels like Australia is about 75 years behind the United states in their treatment of these groups of people, and trying to understand what is being done about it is a frustrating thing. However, that's another story for another day.

The Opera House at night was stunning, the performance was unbelievable... overall one of the best nights here :)

xo, Rach