Rites

Yo, Gululu.
My name is Djakapurra Munyarryun. I am from North East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. I come from a little community called Dhalinybuy. I am a Songman and leader of the Wanguri Clan and I’ve worked with Bangarra Dance Theatre for
over 25 years.
_{Djakapurra Munyarryun, 2022}

Like an emanation of rock and earth, he dominates the stage at the beginning of the work and again at its closing.
^{Shirley McKechnie, The Bulletin, 1997}

When you walk with us you will hear that time is not linear
The future calls out to the past
And the present provides the keys for the interweave
You will feel the body as a breathing knowledge vessel
A time keeper
Beating in and out of the earth
Through generations
An extension of Country

^{Yolande Brown}

A W A K E N I N G

The production began in silence. As the light grew, like the first morning light, Djakapurra rose from the earth, awakening Country. Following his cultural vocal call, the opening bassoon solo began.

Bangarra's signature is evident, as Djakapurra Munyarryun emerges from a circle of bodies. His every action is so steeped in intent that he transports us to another dimension.
_{Hilary Crampton, The Age,1999}

That sense of bringing people together – Clanship.
_{Stephen Page, 2022}

Trusting his instinct and his vision for the work, Stephen guided the Bangarra Dance Theatre team towards an exciting, supportive space created equally by both companies, centred around reciprocity. The energy inside this creative cave was sacred. It was a place to share openly, to learn, to look both through the past and towards the future, and to be moved by the interweave of three distinct, and extraordinary worlds – Bangarra, The Australian Ballet and The Rite of Spring.

We were looking at it ... from a humane way, even though we were in this political world.
_{Stephen Page, 2022}

We were all learning.
_{Stephen Page, 2022}

For both dance artists and audiences alike, Rites brought about an awakening. With Stephen at the helm and Djakapurra guiding the spirit of the work, Rites was unlike any mainstream dance production ever created before.

There was the bigger picture story and these little micro stories that were changing people’s lives. I loved seeing Djakapurra in the corner, with the boys laughing, or he’d be in the dressing room before the show teaching some guy Yidaki.
_{Frances Rings, 2022}

To this day, many people living in Australia have not engaged in, nor experienced, genuine relationships with First Nations people and Country. First Nations perspectives and ways of being are largely not visible in contemporary society, as the colonial-settler system has supplanted these voices, reinforcing the disconnection between people and place. Subliminally, Rites opened people's senses to new possibilities through sharing and learning together and building cross-cultural relationships.

I had some of the ballet dancers come up to me and say, "Look, we don't mean to be rude, but we'd never met an Aboriginal person before", and I thought that was just so innocent – they were really wanting to learn.
_{Stephen Page, 2022}

Each one of us had our own transformation, our own reckoning about what it was to be an Australian dancer, an Australian artist and how to authentically carry the story of Australia, of our culture, and how we care for that [as] something that we do together.
_{Frances Rings, 2022}

Slowly, things shift and awaken, as the importance of recognition, understanding and respect for these cultures and deep knowledges are realised.

From both companies, there was reciprocated esteem for the degree of discipline, training, devotion, and the total immersion it takes to become a master of communicating through dance.

[Djakapurra] loved the ballet – he’d stand at the window and watch the class. All of it made sense to him – this is the house where classical is in its element – this is their ritual ... this is their sacred.
_{Stephen Page, 2022}

The roots of two, disparate, physical languages entwined to create something both captivating and truly unique.

It became a new expression of Australian dance.
_{Frances Rings, 2022}

All of the dancers' bodies were arranged around the floor, almost like they were submerged into the earth, emerging out of the ground. 
_{Peter England, Set Design, Rites, 2022}

E A R T H

Igor Stravinsky created The Rite of Spring in two large sections, the first of which he named The Adoration of the Earth, a name befitting First Nations beliefs and protocols.

The section Stephen Page called Earth was danced by Bangarra Dance Theatre dancers. The music was a dynamic and rhythmical interplay between traditional instruments and non-traditional patterning. Breathing in and out of the earth, Bangarra's artists drew on their unique style where cultural dance converses with contemporary form.

W I N D

Wind swept onto stage, shifting the colour palette from earthy tones to blues. Jennifer Irwin's diaphanous Wind costumes enhanced the movement's fluidity and temperament, which pivoted from delicate to tempestuous.

"Wind was beautiful with that set and the partnering. The dresses had a lot of skirt so that you got the feeling of movement and wind."
_{Jennifer Irwin, Costume Design, Rites, 2022}

The Wind section was created on and performed by dancers from The Australian Ballet, with Miranda Barker driving the energy as the lead dancer.

There was a responsibility to dancing the wind. I tried to conjure up the spirit of the wind – to embody the wind. I did feel quite powerful ... the wind is powerful. It was an experience that was so new and different for me.
_{Miranda Barker, 2022}

North, South, East, West

The wind signals change in environment.
For First Peoples, the wind (and the directions it comes from) indicates a shift in nature's energy and can flag the changing of the seasons.

Like these winds of change, Rites brought about a new season in Australian dance. It shifted the consciousness around the representation of First Nations cultures and peoples in the arts.

For too long, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been, and often still are, spoken on behalf of and represented through the ambitions of assimilation practices and the notion of ‘the dying race’. Rites set a new precedent. It exemplified best practice – the sharing of First Nations cultures and stories first-hand, through First Nations leadership.

When I started to reflect on [the Wind] section … to me it characterises the responsibility that we have to be a conduit – to be advocating … supporting … and to continue to work for and hope for change – which the wind can bring.
_{Steven Heathcote, 2022}

If it’s not happening in society and if it’s not happening in our communities, if our politicians aren’t making it happen, then our artist are. Our artists are creating this moment of change, and this shift ...
_{Frances Rings, 2022}

F I R E

Ceremonial smoke drifts from the dancers' coolamons as blues warm to reds. The scene for ritual is set as men and women quietly settle into a circle.

Fire awakens new life – it’s cleansing for the Earth. It also nourishes us – we light the fire for cooking. And after a death, we make a fire for cleansing – a smoking ceremony so that the spirit can journey to where he belongs to.
_{Djakapurra Munyarryun, 2022}

Igor Stravinsky called the second half of his work The Sacrifice. In the section that Stephen Page named Fire, the Bangarra Dance Theatre dancers explored the elements of ritual in First Nations cultural practices – fire, smoke, painting, dancing, healing and the quiet sharing of story and knowledge.

Stravinsky’s music taps into a sense of ritual, and a kind of ceremonial process that has a real journey from the beginning of the piece right through to the end.
_{Steven Heathcote, 2022}

Inside The Australian Ballet studios, during rehearsals, the dancers would watch and admire members of the other company employing the mastery of their own form to advance the work.

Our cultural dances are really low. The Australian Ballet work with pointe shoes, working higher. We challenged ourselves to learn from each other. I was teaching them to connect to the earth.
_{Djakapurra Munyarryun, 2022}

Culturally, the purpose of ritual is vast and varied, but ritualistic practices always transmit knowledge and maintain connection to people and place through a complex kinship system.

The ability to practice Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures has been thwarted by colonisation, and the effects of this extend far beyond First Peoples' communities. At the time of colonisation, every part of this country was cared for by Traditional Custodians who worked in accordance with Lore to maintain the health of Land and People.

Utilising knowledge grown over thousands of years, tools such as fire-stick farming have been an important practice on this continent for millennia. However, Western understandings of fire are not transferable to this country. Laws have been established, based on the colonial fear of fire. This has seen much cultural burning banned, enabling dangerous fuel loads to mount, causing loss of habitat and wildlife, and uncontrollable wild fires to become a regular summer danger.

As society grows to respect and engage with the deep knowledges of our First Peoples, Country may be healed with the reinvigoration of such cultural practices. First Nations people seek the recognition of sovereignty, and the ability to exercise their customs and cultural practices. If we want to have true reconciliation, there will need to be sacrifices – a change of perspective, a change of views and a change to the way we live on this country.

... initially I missed the element of sacrifice which remains key to most stagings [of The Rite of Spring]. Afterwards, though, I realised what every Australian would know from the beginning: that the sacrifice has taken place in real life and real time - in the genocide of native Australians by European settlers, and the heartbreak of the 'stolen generation' ...
^{Luke Jennings, The Guardian, 2008}

And through art, First Nations voices have forged a platform to affirm:

We are here – Always Was, Always Will Be.

It is a beautiful thing to share the space, equally, through cultural recognition and expression.

The moment when water is finally poured on the parched, ochre-smeared dancers is masterly, for Page allows the music to make the point, drums pounding, while the dancers simply receive the life-giving liquid. To Australians the symbolism is potent.
_{Hilary Crampton, The Age, 1999}

W A T E R

For people across the globe, water is cleansing, washing away what does not serve us. For Yolngu people, it also represents knowledge. Water has been here since the beginning of creation. It has nestled inside the belly of the Earth, it has dabbled the sky, carved through waterways, and supported all living beings. Aquatic bodies are intimately woven into lore, the Songlines, the kinship systems. Spiritually, water holds memory, carrying knowledge from all it has touched. It is sacred. Water is life.

Bodies coating each other as ochre coats the skin, through sinuous duets and trios, 27 dance artists aligned through the kinetic energy of Water.

I loved the [Water] section – we had more interaction with the ballet dancers.  I felt this real sense of coming together to respect, honour and celebrate [with] the sense of rewriting the narrative of our Country. It’s a collective responsibility to care for Country and to honour the original custodians and the people who are born from that.
_{Frances Rings, 2022}

As the dancers of The Australian Ballet came to experience how this 'new' Country has ancient roots – to be respected – they also learned how to access the roots of their movement from a new place, adding to their technical and story-telling palette. The Bangarra Dance Theatre artists observed the ballet dancers' mastery in performing the Western, classical style, their precision and focus. As these two distinct companies united, there was a beautiful exchange of knowledge ... a recalibration and re-patterning of minds, and even of organisational operations.

The Australian Ballet has one of the best ‘safe-dance’ programs in the world. This supports dancers to maintain peak physical condition as well as longevity in their careers. The Bangarra dancers had access to this new world of support from The Australian Ballet's expert physiotherapists, massage therapists and sports physicians. They were introduced to training programs that focussed on strengthening the individual. This was transformative for Bangarra. They witnessed and embraced how small, fine-tuning measures can bring about incredible, long-lasting results. Bangarra’s safe-dance practice was forged following this collaboration.

The transmission and sharing of knowledge have also guided subsequent Rites seasons, with next generation dancers bringing their best to the production. Stephen Page worked with the strengths of each dancer, adjusting finer elements within the choreography to air their unique qualities and also enhance the work. In the 2006 and 2008 Rites seasons, Patrick Thaiday, took on the role previously performed by Djakapurra Munyarryun.

 Page always leaves room for individuality among the dancers and there is a succession of notable contributions in addition to the mesmerising performance by Bangarra's Patrick Thaiday.
^{Jill Sykes, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2006}

Through the poetry of movement, the pouring of water became ceremony, reinforcing the reciprocation experienced through exchange of knowledge from a place of openness and respect.

We went through a rite of passage in quite a few ways.
_{Miranda Barker, 2022}

… true to his cyclical beliefs, Page returns everything to the earth and another dreaming.
^{Lee Christofis, The Australian, 1997}

D R E A M I N G

Dreaming stories are visionary and intuitive, as is the choreographic process for Stephen Page and Bangarra Dance Theatre. Like many artists, through creative flow, Stephen often feels he becomes a vessel facilitating the transmission of story. Inside the creative cave, he opens his senses to the energy of the room and the artists’ responses to story.

I feel so lucky to have had this experience. Being part of the clay, part of the birthing of a new creation is, for a dancer, the ultimate highlight. It’s hard to beat that experience.
_{Miranda Barker, 2022}

In 2008, The Australian Ballet and Bangarra Dance Theatre reunited to remount Rites for a highly awaited tour of London and Paris. This was the second international tour of this production, which had touched hearts in New York and Washington in 1999.

Performing the work in Paris was especially exhilarating for all involved – taking the work back to its birthplace, paid homage to the music, to Stravinsky and the Ballets Russes. The Parisian audiences generously responded with standing ovations. This was the last season of Rites.

With production seasons spanning from 1997 to 2008, it is interesting to reflect on the incidental timing that saw the trajectory of Rites bookended by the Australian Government’s appraisal of the Stolen Generations.

On 13 February 2008, Kevin Rudd became the first Australian Prime Minister to issue a formal, national apology:

I believe it was absolutely the right thing to do as the first act in my prime ministership in parliament. This had been unfinished business for the nation for a very long time and it was time to bring that chapter to a close. 
_{Kevin Rudd, The Guardian, 2016}

With the passing of time, we can look back and reflect. What did the apology mean to Australia and what was its legacy? Did this statement of regret, and acceptance of responsibility, lead to remedy through impactful support and a transformation of systemised injustices?

When you walk with us

you will understand ...

Country is everything

Reciprocity is vital

and through the Songlines

Kinship cradles us into Place

Where we belong

^{Yolande Brown}

Let’s bring Country on stage, before we do this work.
_{Stephen Page, 2022}

At the New York, City Center, opening night of Rites in 1999, the orchestra, led by Charles Barker, took pause to give space to Yolngu Songman and Wanguri Clan leader, Djakapurra Munyarryun. Stephen Page and Munyarryun had made the call to awaken the performance with a culturally significant Gathering Song. This song was incredibly grounding.

It was important for me to connect everybody as one, then we could go together on this journey and share culture.
_{Djakapurra Munyarryun, 2022}

When 'Australia' was 'settled' in 1788, people did not arrive with intent to learn or to connect through reciprocity. In the theatre that night, people from all different walks of life entered. They carried their day, their backgrounds, their story. This song was spiritual preparation, for dancers, musicians and the audience:

...for the sharing of knowledge, for the building of bridges together, and for walking hand to hand.
_{Djakapurra Munyarryun, 2022}

Every day, as we walk on 'Australian' soil, the choice is ours.