A Matter of Style – Origins of Drama and
Theatre – Indigenous Australian Songdrama, Totem and Dreamtime Drama
A Matter of Style – Origins of Drama and
Theatre – Indigenous Australian Songdrama, Totem and Dreamtime Drama
The purpose of this blog is to explore and
give some practical insight into different theatre and drama styles, periods,
forms and practitioners. It will give information and practical lessons on
theatre styles, forms, performances, staging conventions, acting and
performance styles, plays and performance texts, staging conventions,
costuming, directors and playwrights.
This blog is written for a broad range of
readers. Firstly for those at university and college studying drama and
theatre. Secondly for high school students studying IB Theatre, A Level, AP,
HSC, VCE, Senior and Middle School Drama and Theatre Studies school students.
Thirdly for Drama and Theatre teachers and those training to be teachers in
this area. Finally, actors and professional theatre practitioners will find
this blog useful to hone or improve their skills or to delve into new areas of
theatre that they have not ventured into yet. It provides information, material
for research and practical exercises for the study of drama and theatre as part
of a World Theatre context.
Some of the work in this blog derives from a
set of articles I wrote on theatre styles for Drama Victoria’s ‘Mask’ magazine
during the 1990’s, a book I edited entitled ‘Drama from the Rim’ and books I
have written such as ‘Australian Indigenous Drama’ and ‘The Dramaturgy of the
Australian Theatre Director’.
There are many different theories about the
origins of drama and theatre. I subscribe to the theory that drama and theatre
had its origins storytelling, myth, ritual, dance and ceremony. Early societies
passed down knowledge and history through ceremonies. They also saw a
connection between the performance of certain actions by a group and the
development of certain responses. A lot of interesting work and observation has
been done in this area by anthropologist and mythologist Joseph Campbell. He
saw that beyond the social and cultural functions of these rituals in different
cultures, these rituals seemed to have fulfilled three basic concerns – those
of pleasure, power and duty.
We know that these rituals probably started
very early in human societies. Some date the earliest theatre to the Ancient
Egyptian rituals and dramas which accompanied sending pharaoh’s to the
underworld and the ‘Pyramid Texts’ dated about 2800 to 2400 BC. I will come to
these rituals later. I would like to contend that the origins of drama can be
traced back to earlier traditions in the peoples of Africa, India and
Australia. Since it is an area I am more familiar with, I would like to start
with early Australian Indigenous Drama which can be seen to date back to about
50,000 years ago.
Indigenous Australian Songdrama – The Great
Father Spirits
Around 40,000 - 80,000 years ago, peoples
from the Asian region crossed by land bridge to what we now know of as Arhnem
Land. The stories of the Great Father Spirit and the journeys of these peoples
and their encounters have been passed down in a form that can be best described
as a hybrid artform.
"I suppose it goes back to the
traditional kingship of art form, the storyteller will dream the story and pass
that on to the song man and the song man will adapt that and the didj player
will hear that song and he will get the rhythm and the dancer will get all
those art forms and display and celebrate that through the physical
spirit and the visual artist is part of that process by taking in the whole
bigger picture. It is a beautiful thing. (Stephen Page 2007 in Casey 2012,
p.17)
Indigenous Australian Songdramas deal with
the first stage of creation - the activities of the Great Father Spirit. Often
the oldest indigenous stories are kept in a half-spoken, half-sung songline
form such as those used in the Whale Arrival Story of the Thurrawal
tribe of New South Wales or The Three Brothers Story of the Gullibul
clans and of course the stories of the famous gwion gwion or jenagi
jenagi cave painting dancers (known to some as the stories of the Bradshaw
Cave Dancers).
These songdramas conjure up and re-enact
events of the past capturing the moods, feelings and oneness of spirit. Some
examples of songdramas include stories of the Father Spirits of Baiame (from
the Sitma-thang clans of the High Plains), Mungan Mgour (from the Kuranda of
Queensland) and Bunjil (from the Kulin and Wotjobaluk). In her magnificent 2007
book Singing the Land – The Power of Performance in Aboriginal Life,
Jill Stubington illuminates the connection of songlines and song drama to the
relationship of indigenous Australian people to their history, spirituality and
social structures and traditions as evident in song cycles and ceremonies.
The songdrama form is one that attempts to
set the thoughts and actions of significant long ago events, people and animals
into the ever present. In some ways, the indigenous songdrama is like the Hindu
songdramas and dance dramas in that they attempt to conjure up the form of
the ancient spirits almost like deities (Reed 1993: 17-19). Often phrases and
images are repeated, and emphasis is placed upon the conjuring up of images
through the almost exclusive use of the voice: its tones, intonation, rhythm
and volume. These rituals are often led by songman (the singer, keeper and
composer of songs) a skilled performer with an extensive repertoire of stories
and vocal range and skill. A number of songdramas and the musical
accompaniments are referred to in Neuenfeldt’s wonderful book The Didgeridu:
From Arnhem land to the Internet.
The songdramas of the legends of Baiame
often give the subject Baiame, qualities such as Creator, Benefactor and
First Seed (Reed l993: l7, 32, 53). The songdrama usually attempts to deal with
everything in terms of metaphors e.g. instead of telling someone that your great grandfather
came from Norway to Australia, you may say: ''My Grandfather is the devourer of
all the seas and oceans'' or '' My Grandfather - the Whale of all seasons. The
songdramas are always told proudly and intensely, perhaps this is why some European
historians and anthropologists have remained sceptical about the knowledge
which lies beneath these stories told in this form of narrative.
Songdramas are not just an ancient form used for ancient rituals but can be
used in a modern context and within historical approaches to address specific
stories and ideas from specific areas or places. Often older indigenous
languages are kept alive through songdramas because they keep flourishing the
stories, rituals and languages of traditions which are ancient.
Totem
and Dreamtime Drama
The second order of Australian indigenous
creation is dealt with in the totem dramas, where '' ... the ancestors ...
recreate themselves in the spirit form in the bodies of animals and human
beings who retain the mystical animal qualities inherent in the ancestor's…”
(Reed 1993:67). Many of the stories that Westerners identify as dreamtime stories,
come from the totemic ancestor stories that tell of how the empty featureless
landscape was sculptured by Great Spirits. These totem dramas, enact the very
probable encounters of the First Australians with giant mammals such as Genyornis (the
giant emu), the monster Kadimakara and the giant kangaroos known by
many names. Often Totem dance dramas involve using the totem of an animal
or as the central focus point to dance dramas and rituals and symbols are often
painted on the face and body of participants.
The totem drama is highly ritualistic
and these stories and their enactment are often linked to dances, sung stories
and body painting that is linked to specific initiation and ceremonial
occasions. In this sense, Australian indigenous totem dramas tend to be
parochial, “… dramatizations of portions of legends ... tied down to definite
local centres with each group…” (Strehlow 1986:4). Although the totem dramas of
different indigenous tribes vary in content, the forms, conventions and symbols
of these dramas remain remarkably consistent. A number of examples of totem
dramas are evident on the 1983 Film Australia video Aboriginal Dance – Three
Dances by Gulpilil and Five Dances From Cape York.
The painting of bodies with different earthen
paints and colours to enact spirits, can be seen as an early form of costume,
the creation of specific chanting rhythms for the aspects of different spirits
and the use of a central spatial focus usually embodied in a physical symbol
like the tnatantja pole (of the Aranda peoples), act as a
stage design feature helping to make the totem dramas highly symbolic.
“Among
the Arunta, the men of the witchetty grub totem perform ceremonies for
multiplying the grub which other members of the tribe use as food. One of the
ceremonies is a pantomime representing the fully developed insect in the
act of emerging from the chrysalis. A long narrow structure of branches is set
up to imitate the chrysalis case of the grub. In this structure a number of men
... sit and sing of the creature in its various stages. Then they shuffle out
of it in a squaring posture, and as they do so they sing of the insect emerging
from the chrysalis.'' (Frier in Frazer 1987: l 7)
Indigenous totem and dreamtime drama like
songdrama is essentially done as a sung story but unlike songdrama it
involves the use of specific movements, a specific setting or built set for the
drama and the enactment by actors of various parts of the drama. In totem drama
the group tells the story and takes on the qualities of the creature or plant
that is the subject matter for the drama. The actions are usually involve
mime and exaggerated movement and frequently act out part of the story
being sung. Often animals are the central characters in the dramas enacted.
Sometimes totem drama attempts to predict or
create a situation that people would hope for in the near future. A totem drama
or totem dance can sometimes be given as a gift to another tribe. Gestures
of a tribe’s totem or respect for another tribe's totem, beliefs or land, can
be expressed or given, especially when entering another tribes place or land.
Many examples of rituals of respect, welcome and
healing rituals (such as those of Murray River tribes and clans shown in the Ringbalin film and project) are
performed by various Indigenous peoples. Frequently, in modern times, people in
contemporary Australian cities and towns are privileged enough to have members
of local tribes and clans perform their own welcoming dance or ceremonies at
festivals, conferences and special meetings. Totem drama can also be filled
with many dramatic conventions such as stage design features,
costume and makeup. Amongst many tribes, putting ochre on the forehead,
the hands and the chest shows they are open to receiving or sharing, while
others throw earth into the air or pick up a pebble to introduce themselves and
ask for a good welcome.
Brief Timeline of some early Indigenous
Australian Drama
64,000BC Indigenous peoples
arrive in Australia, some evidence of early storytelling rituals seems to point
to storytelling even from this period.
54,000BC Evidence from a
rock shelter in Arnhem Land (400 km east of Darwin) suggest body decoration
used in dance and storytelling.
30,000BC Fireplace evidence
suggests rituals and dancing attached to storytelling traditions in Lake Mungo
NSW and Keilor, Victoria.
Indigenous remains around the now extinct
Willandra Lakes system (Mungo National Park, NSW) show evidence of
spiritual and creative aspects to storytelling traditions and dance.
20,000BC Sites at Wentworth
Falls (NSW) and Koonalda (S.A.) suggest art, body decorating and storytelling
are linked in more formal rituals.
18,000BC Art at Ubirr
in Kakadu National Park (Northern Territory, 300 kms east of Darwin)
depicts now extinct animals, the Thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), and
Zaglossus (the long-beaked echidna).
11,000BC Landbridge between
mainland Australia and Tasmania is flooded. Some songlines and dreamtime
stories of both Victorian indigenous peoples and Tasmanian indigenous peoples
tell the story of this event. It is believed that some of these stories
may have been passed down continuously from this time.
7,000 BC Evidence
of Rainbow Serpent Creation Story from the Kunwinjku peoples of Western Arnhem
Land. Earliest visual evidence of Indigenous belief in and
representation of the Rainbow Serpent which becomes a continuous creation story
and belief system in many Australian Indigenous cultures.
3,000BC Cave paintings
dated around this period suggest the adoption of tribal and clan totems and the
actual use of totems in rituals.
1,000BC Evidence in a
number of cave paintings suggests the use of didgeridoos and body painting used
for rituals.
Expanded Indigenous Australian Drama Lesson Plans
Indigenous Australian Songdrama Practical Exercises and Discussion
Indigenous Songdrama Exercises:
Metaphoric Storytelling Exercise
- Objective: This exercise helps participants explore Indigenous songdrama traditions by creating a metaphoric performance of a personal story.
- Instructions:
- Ask participants to reflect on a relative, friend, or event from their past that shaped who they are. It could be a moment of personal significance or a family history that has left a deep impression.
- In pairs, participants share this story with their partner, but they must use metaphoric language rather than literal descriptions. Encourage the use of sound, rhythm, and the cadence of speech to evoke emotions and bring the story to life in a song-like manner.
- The focus should be on the melody and rhythm of the voice, so body language and hand gestures should be kept minimal. The participants should aim to make their storytelling feel like a chant, with each word flowing into the next.
- Afterward, the group can reflect on the process and discuss how metaphoric storytelling can be connected to the Indigenous practices of using songdrama to preserve history and culture.
Chanting and Storytelling in Group
- Objective: To deepen participants' understanding of Indigenous Australian communal songdramas by engaging in group rhythm, chant, and individual story sharing.
- Instructions:
- The group starts by creating a rhythmic tapping sound, perhaps using the body, clapping, or tapping objects like sticks or stones.
- Each participant takes turns singing or chanting a short story about their origins—whether it's about a person, place, or event. The story doesn't need to be strictly factual; rather, participants should focus on the emotional or metaphorical essence of their story.
- As each individual shares their piece, the rhythm continues in the background, adding a sense of unity and flow to the session. Participants should infuse their stories with energy and drama, using their voices and rhythmic beats to convey meaning.
- Afterward, discuss how the practice of songdrama serves to connect individuals to their ancestors, land, and cultural identity.
Cross-Cultural Song Sharing
- Objective: To explore the practice of cross-cultural sharing through song and language, fostering a deeper connection to different cultural traditions.
- Instructions:
- Select a group member or several to sing a well-known children's song, ballad, or popular song in their native language, a dialect, or a language that they are unfamiliar with.
- The rest of the group will listen and attempt to learn a portion of the song by ear. This exercise emphasizes listening, repeating, and connecting to a new language or form of song through the oral tradition.
- The group can reflect afterward on how songs in different languages carry emotional weight and how they may connect to different cultural practices, particularly Indigenous Australian traditions of passing down knowledge through song.
Indigenous Totem Drama Exercises and Discussion
Totem Drama Exercises:
Animal or Plant totem Creation
- Objective: To connect participants with nature and their environment through the practice of creating a totem-based performance that uses physical movement and simple chants.
- Instructions:
- Ask participants to choose an animal or plant from their local environment that holds significance for them, whether it's something they hope for, an animal they admire, or something connected to their ancestry.
- Provide materials like sticks, leaves, and branches to create a natural setting for the totem.
- Each participant creates the rhythm and physicality for their totem—begin with feet to establish a rhythm, followed by simple arm or body gestures to represent the creature or plant. Add a chant that reinforces the movement, such as “find the food” for a foraging animal or “fly high” for a bird.
- As each participant performs, the group should maintain a steady rhythm to help build momentum and energy.
- Afterward, discuss how this form of movement and sound connects to Indigenous storytelling traditions, where animals and totems are considered both spiritual guides and cultural symbols.
Totem Ritual and Dance
- Objective: To immerse participants in a ritualistic totem performance that encourages personal expression and group interaction.
- Instructions:
- Ask participants to create a personal space within the room by placing pebbles or earth on the floor to define their area.
- Each participant thinks about their animal totem and creates a rhythm, gestures, and simple movements to embody their totem. This could include animal-like movements, symbolic actions, or an imaginary ritual performed by the animal.
- Once the individual totem performances are established, each participant will perform in their own space, then invite others into their space through a ritual, like picking up a stone or sand and performing an associated movement.
- The group can then engage in a ‘totem exchange,’ where they visit each other’s spaces, learn movements, and share rituals.
- Reflect on the importance of these totems in connecting people to their land and ancestry and how this creates a strong sense of cultural identity within the group.
Indigenous Totem Drama Discussion
Discussion Question 1: Many Indigenous cultures believe that animals, totems, and spirits provide guidance and direction. In what ways do you think a society that is disconnected from nature and animals loses its sense of direction? How can totem stories and rituals help reconnect people to the natural world?
Discussion Question 2: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples often identify with specific totems, which play an essential role in cultural identity. How do you think totemic beliefs and practices might be important for maintaining cultural traditions and protecting the environment? Are there any similar functions of identity and protection in other cultures, such as in European traditions of family crests or national symbols?
Indigenous Totem and Dreamtime Drama:
- Objective: To explore the ritualistic aspects of Indigenous drama through the lens of totemic beliefs and Dreamtime stories.
- Instructions:
- In pairs or small groups, participants choose an animal, bird, or natural feature that represents their environment. They then develop a physical gesture or action that symbolizes this totem or feature.
- When ready, each participant performs their gesture and chants the name of the totem aloud for the group to repeat.
- Gradually, participants can build on their gestures and chants to create more elaborate sequences. Encourage the incorporation of physical space, such as marking sacred areas with pebbles or earth.
- Encourage students to expand their practice into a short totem drama, involving a simple storyline or symbolic representation of the totem's characteristics.
- As a class, discuss the significance of using body paint, specific chants, and spatial focus in Indigenous totem performances. How do these practices reflect the interconnectedness of people, animals, and the land in Dreamtime narratives?
Rainbow Serpent Myth Story (Kunwinjku peoples of Western Arnhem Land)
- Objective: To bring Dreamtime stories to life through dramatic interpretation and creative reenactment.
- Instructions:
- Start by reading the Rainbow Serpent Creation Story from the Kunwinjku peoples of Western Arnhem Land.
- Students can perform a reader's theatre version of the story in groups, taking on the roles of various characters such as the Rainbow Serpent (Goorialla), the landscape, and other animals or spirits.
- Emphasize the use of voice modulation, rhythmic chanting, and body movements to represent the spiritual journey of the Rainbow Serpent.
- Discuss the significance of the Rainbow Serpent in Indigenous culture and how the story symbolizes the connection between creation, people, and the land.
Traditional Indigenous Dance and Mime:
- Objective: To help students experience traditional Indigenous dance and mime as a way of connecting to cultural identity and the land.
- Instructions:
- Introduce students to traditional Indigenous dances by focusing on the mimetic representation of animals and natural elements. Use video resources to show examples of such dances in action.
- Guide students in practicing these dances, breaking down movements that represent animals like kangaroos, emus, and snakes.
- Encourage students to perform these dances with attention to rhythm, gesture, and intent, as these dances often carry deep spiritual meanings.
- Discuss the role of body language, gesture, and rhythm in conveying meaning in Indigenous dance and mime.
These activities, combined with discussions and reflections, can provide a deeper understanding of Indigenous Australian drama and its importance as a means of storytelling, cultural transmission, and spiritual connection to the land.
Some other activities can be based around using the work
of Oodgeroo Noonuccal's (also published under the name Kath Walker) poem Ballad
of the Totems (see Oodgeroo Noonucal 2008) or her short story Kill to
Eat (in the anthology Global Tales Naidoo 1997).
Further Readings and Resources on Indigenous
Songdrama, Totem and Dreamtime Drama
Aboriginal Dance –
Three Dances by Gulpilil and Five Dances From Cape York (video).
1983. Film Australia. Sydney.
Berndt, R.M. &
Phillips, E.S. 1973. The Australian Aboriginal Heritage: An Introduction
Through the Arts. Ure Smith. Sydney.
Casey, M. 2012. Telling
Stories. Australian Scholarly Publishing. Kew, Victoria.
Bungalung (short
film). Morton-Thomas, Trisha (indigenous director). CAAMA. 2007.
Marshall, A. 2004.
'Singing your own songlines: approaches to Indigenous Drama' in Mooney, M.
(ed.) & Nicholls (ed.) Drama Journeys:Inside Drama Learning.Currency
Press. Strawberry Hills, Sydney.
Mathews, R.H. 1905. Ethnological
Notes on Aboriginal Tribes of N.S.W. and Victoria. White Publishing.
Sydney.
Mullins, B. 1989. Aboriginal
lore: a pictorial review of ancient aboriginal life, ritual and culture, as
recorded in the marks they left on the land. Shepp Books. Hornby, N.S.W.
Oodgeroo
Noonuccal's (also published under the name Kath Walker). 2008. Ballad of the
Totems from the book My People – A
Kath Walker Collection.
Neuenfeldt, K. 1997.
The Didgeridu: From Arnhem land to the Internet. John Libbey & Co.
Sydney.
Reed, A.W. 1993. Aboriginal
Myths, Legends and Fables. Reed. Chatswood, N.S.W.
Strehlow, T.G.H.
1986. Aranda Traditions, Melbourne University Press. Melbourne.
Stubington, J.
2007. Singing the Land – The Power of Performance in Aboriginal Life. Currency
Press. Strawberry Hills.
Woolgoodja,
S. 1976. Lalai Dreamtime. Aboriginal Arts Board. Canberra.
Useful Resources for
Teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives in The Arts and
Drama
ABC Australian
Broadcasting Commission TV Documentaries Unit. Frontier Stories from White
Australia’s Forgotten War. Bruce Belsham [Dir.] Video (1997) DVD (2007). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQE75wmRgZo
ABC Australian
Broadcasting Commission. 2005. Buried Alive: Sydney 1788-1792 Eyewitness
Accounts of the Making of a Nation. ABC Sydney. Sydney. (DVD)
ABC Splash Education
Website
Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures
ACARA website.
Sample Curriculum
Maps
Australian
Children’s Television Foundation. 2009. My Place for
Teachers. ACTF. Sydney. (Website). http://www.myplace.edu.au/home.html
Creativespirits
Aboriginal Culture
Drama Australia
Drama Australia
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Guidelines
Drama Teachers
Network
Indigenous Lesson
Ideas – Play ‘Stolen’
Eckersley, Mark. (2012). Australian Indigenous Drama.
Tasman Press. Altona.
Australian
Indigenous Drama Blog
Haddon, A.C. 1898. Torres
Strait Islanders (short film). Australian Government Film Archives. http://aso.gov.au/titles/historical/torres-strait-islanders
Miers, J. 2008. Aboriginal
Dreamtime Stories website.
NSW Department of
Education and Communities Aboriginal Perspectives in the Creative Arts
Aboriginal
Perspectives in the Creative Arts
Aboriginal Dreaming
Unit
Resources for
Teaching Primary Drama with Indigenous Units and Activities
Exploring
the worlds of K-6 Drama: Ancient Anna to the Cloth of Dreams (book
and video) 1999
Queensland
Curriculum and Assessment Authority
Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Perspectives Resources Page
Queensland
Government, Department of Education and Training
EATSIPS (Embedding
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives in schools)
Reconciliation
Australia
The National
Curriculum - Knowing the Truth about Australia's History
Questions and Fact
Sheets
NSW AECG Aboriginal
Education Unit. 1987. A Lesson in History: 1788-1988.
Sydney. (Video). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cydE-O-CJT8
South Australian
Curriculum Standards and Accountability Framework
Aboriginal
Perspectives
A number of
Australian Indigenous poems are available for use at:
Yarra Healing.
2012. ‘Unit 7 Changing Lives Changing Ways’ on Teaching and Learning page
(Website). CEO Melbourne (Catholic Education Organisation, Melbourne).
Melbourne.
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