Aboriginal Playwright Andrea James

The Australian Aboriginal Theater Initiative, founded in New York City by Artistic Director Karen Oughtred, has been introducing Australian Aboriginal playwrights to American audiences since its inception in 2003. AATI has primarily presented staged readings and discussions of Aboriginal work, with collaboration between indigenous playwrights, directors and actors, with much of the work focused on fostering awareness and understanding of Aboriginal issues. Along with this, audiences are introduced to the rich stories, mythologies and contemporary issues that make up this diverse indigenous culture.

AATI recently produced its first full length production of a play at La Mama. Yanagai! Yanagai!, directed by Karen Oughtred and Harold Dean James, by Yorta Yorta playwright Andrea James, explores the loss of land and denial of history her people experienced at the hands of the Australian government. Using such devices as mythological creatures and spirits portrayed by actors as well as puppets, the playwright conjures a type of fairy tale world, complete with darkness and light. A trial takes place throughout the play regarding the court hearings between the ancestors of the land and the government over land ownership. As the characters step before the judge, the audience hears tales of family connections to the land. We learn that the government is bent on keeping the land and foregoing any rights the people feel they have towards ownership.

Andrea, who is Artistic Director of the Melbourne Workers Theatre, said she felt compelled to write this story because of the land rights hearings she attended. After witnessing over 500 mediations she felt the need to get the story out. When we sat down in the quaint cafe across the street from La MaMa, I asked Andrea how she felt about having her play presented in New York City. "It's kinda wonderful, magical, and strange." She told me she was surprised how the New York audiences were good listeners and that people seemed to understand the storyline. She indicated in the talk back, after the show, that the similarities to land issues here in the states would make people aware of the play's topic. The main difference with Aboriginal land issues is that there were no existing treaties like in the states. So it was the people's word against the government over who owned the land.

Asked about her feelings towards being recognized as an Aboriginal artist verses being recognized as an artist without ethnic labeling, she explained that as her work is focused on Aboriginal subject matter, it is unavoidable to be recognized as an Aboriginal artist. Her subject matters are Aboriginal issues, as that is what she is passionate about. Being recognized as an artist verses Aboriginal artist is interchangeable. In the future she hopes to just be recognized as a playwright; but for now, being recognized as an Aboriginal artist is her identity. Our meeting ended with a feeling of hope and a quote, "Soothing the pillow of the dying race", which Andrea is using as a focus for her next project.

The phrase was used in early Australian Aboriginal policies (1890’s – 1920’s) by Aboriginal government "protectors" as justification for taking Aboriginals off their traditional lands placing them in Christian-based missions and stations. It was believed that Aboriginals were a dying race and as such the Aboriginal Government Protectorate's role was to “help Aboriginals die out of existence”. It was also believed that the race could be bred out of existence, which explains why “half castes” were removed and put into foster care or placed in domestic servitude in white homes. Andrea's next project will explore and transgress this notion, which still underpins Aboriginal psyches. She hopes the piece will explode this notion and play a part in the restoration and continuation of the Aboriginals’ living and vibrant culture.

Danielle Soames lives in NYC and is a Mohawk with roots from Kahnawake. She is the Co-Founder & Artistic Co-Director of Mixed Phoenix Theatre Group. (www.myspace.com/mptgroup) She also writes a column for Eastern Door Newspaper. In May she and her company are performing an original work entitled Mission. Contact Mixed Phoenix Theatre Group for details.

C L O S E