2014 August - TarraWarra Museum of Art Healesville VIC
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Change Media was invited to collaborate with Professor Diane Bell on her recent one-act play with Ngarrindjeri weavers, called 'Weaving and Whispers: Miwi Wisdom' to launch at the TarraWarra Biennial 2014 'Whisper in my Mask' in Healesville, Victoria, August 16th 2014.
The co-creative, community-driven play focuses on Ngarrindjeri women's knowledge, the Hindmarsh Island Bridge affair and the role of anthropologists and curators in suppressing traditional oral knowledge.
Our contribution included creative support for the performance team, prop-making, the production of a three-channel moving image projection to illustrate and illuminate the play, for 3 projectors, and the video documentation of the work and the Q & A, produced in collaboration with our community partners from the Ngarrindjeri Media Team.
A Word from the Playwright
In ‘Weaving and Whispers: Miwi wisdom’, we invite the audience into the world of women’s weaving. What do Ngarrindjeri women talk about while they weave? What does that have to do with women’s sacred knowledge? How is this knowledge understood by the institutions dedicated to conserve and preserve Indigenous knowledge? Stories, told as women weave, reveal the hidden truths of their relationship to their country, families and sacred beliefs. This knowledge is inaccessible to those who privilege written texts and dismiss oral traditions. Through their Miwi, their 'sixth sense', located in the pit of the stomach, Ngarrindjeri wisdom comes to full voice.
We have been busy shooting exquisite footage of Auntie Ellen Trevorrow's weaving techniques and worked with Diane Bell and Darrell Sumner on the moving image elements, prop design and dramaturgy of the play.
The play was presented in two performances at the TarraWarra Museum, at the launch of the international exhibition ' Whisper in my Mask', co-curated by Djon Mundine OAM and Natalie King in Healesville, Victoria.
Credits: Moving image creation and documentation
Change Media
Jennifer Lyons-Reid - Artistic Director, Editor
Carl Kuddell - Creative Producer, Editor
Johanis Lyons-Reid - Director of Photography, Trainer
Ngarrindjeri Media Team
Laurie Rankine Jnr - Second Camera
John Karpany - Third Camera
Cyril Trevorrow - Supervisor
Weaving and Whispers Play
Professor Diane Bell - Playwright, Co-creative Director and Producer
Cast
Aunty Ellen Trevorrow
Ellie Wilson
Debbie Rankine
Destiny Rankine
Stephanie Russell
Djon Mundine AOM
Dr. Karen Hughes
Professor Diane Bell
A special thanks to the team at Tarrawarra Museum Healesville for the invitation to be part of the 2014 Biennial ‘Whisper in my Mask’:
Djon Mundine OAM - co-curator of the Tarrawarra Biennial
Victoria Lynn - Tarrawarra Museum Director
The documentation and moving image production was supported through
The South Australian Government Arts SA Partnership for Strategic Communities
Tallstoreez Productionz
Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority
The Play and Performance were supported by generous contributions to the '21st Century Lamington Drive' for the ‘Ngarrindjeri Women Weavers Project’ designated by the National Foundation for Australian Women as a preferred donor fund;
by the Meningie Uniting Church through a gift to the Ngarrindjeri Lands and Progress Association
and by Victor Harbor Removals through donation of boxes for props
© 2014 Change Media, Diane Bell, Ngarrindjeri Land & Progress Association, and the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority