Aboriginal youths find common ground in theatre

THEY live on opposite sides of the globe, but two groups of aboriginal youth are finding much in common during a 10-day cultural meet-up at Manitoba Theatre for Young People.

The Marrugeku Theatre Company comes from Broome, a coastal town in remote northwestern Australia, on the traditional lands of the Yawuru people.

The 18-year-old troupe, which has toured to Europe, the Philippines and Brazil, reinterprets stories from indigenous culture in its contemporary dance-theatre shows.

It's currently here performing Buru, the season-closing show at MTYP. The colourful 40-minute production, aimed at ages eight and up, has one remaining public performance on Friday night. It mixes rap and hip-hop music with acrobatic stilt dancing and storytelling.

The show tells six stories inspired by the six Yawuru seasons, during which people traditionally moved to follow the food supply. One season brings big tides and mangrove fruit, for instance, and another a wind change and salmon. Animal characters include lizards and fish.

Buru is performed by two adults and 11 young people. In total, a delegation of 23 people from Broome arrived here on April 18, having previously performed in Arizona.

They've taken part in the entry procession of a graduation powwow at the University of Winnipeg and done five performances of Buru for school kids. They're being hosted by MTYP's aboriginal arts program, a free, year-round program that trains and mentors teens.

The Australian bunch wasted no time befriending the Canadians who met them at the airport, says Columpa Bobb, 40, director of the MTYP program.

"While they were waiting for their taxis, the youth from the Marrugeku company taught our youth a theatre warm-up game called Ninja," she says. "They played it right there in the airport."

It's hoped that the Winnipeg aboriginal youths will travel to Australia, possibly next year, and perform a show drawing on their culture as the second phase of the exchange.

"We want to continue talking and dreaming," Bobb says. "The third leg of the journey would be to collaborate on a show together."

The whole project was set in motion when Marrugeku contacted MTYP in 2010. At the Australian troupe's invitation, Bobb travelled to Broome that year for the premiere of Buru.

She found that the town of about 15,000 is highly multicultural because of its history of pearl fishing. Aboriginals there don't face a lot of overt racism. But the natural environment is threatened by industrial development and the indigenous people struggle with many of the same issues as First Nations people here, she says.

"We have similar history, in terms of the colonial process," says Bobb. "They have what they call the lost generations, which are people who went to mission schools, and of course we had the residential school system. . . .

"There is language loss, and loss of stories. The drive to reclaim culture is really strong. They, very much like us, have respect for elders and get a lot of their cultural teachings from elders."

Last weekend, about 30 youth, equally split between Australians and Canadians, took part in an intensive theatre workshop at MTYP exploring cultural stories from both nations.

To wrap it up, the locals laid on a feast that included bison, moose and deer meat, as well as fish that was very different from the sea creatures in Buru.

"We gave them pickerel, of course," says Bobb.

alison.mayes@freepress.mb.ca

Theatre Preview

Buru

Manitoba Theatre for Young People

Friday at 7 p.m.

Tickets $14.50 at 942-8898

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 26, 2012 D8