Ngapartji Ngapartji

Ngapartji Ngapartji was a community development and Indigenous language maintenance/revitalisation project produced by the Australian arts and social change company Big hART conducted in various locations across the Anangu, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in Central Australia and in Alice Springs.[1] The project ran from 2005 to 2010 with spin-off projects and related performances. The project was structured around an experimental and reflexive arts-based community development program which included the creation of an online interactive language and culture learning website by Pitjantjatjara-speaking young people, elders and linguists; a bilingual touring theatre work and a media campaign promoting the development of an Australian national Indigenous language policy.[2]

Objectives

Ngapartji Ngapartji’s main objective was to effect a sustained positive change in various disadvantaged, struggling Indigenous communities by offering local individuals opportunities to engage with their cultural capital in arts-based practice. Through the creation of art in various forms, Big hART sought to maintain and revitalise the Pitjantjatjara language and thus to preserve cultural knowledge, to improve general literacy levels (defined as both the ability to read and write as well as the ability to engage in a culturally meaningful manner with new media and modern technology) and to promote social cohesion as a crime prevention measure.[3] It was part of the project’s aim to “positively [profile] the strength of culture at a time where health and social issues [were] dominating […] media [accounts of the region and its people].”.[4]

On a global scale, the project aimed to raise awareness, interest and appreciation of Indigenous languages in general and to provide a model for revitalisation of endangered languages.[5][6]

Project

Between 1955 and 1963 the British military was given permission to conduct a number of nuclear tests around Maralinga in the South Australian desert. After initially downplaying the environmental and social impacts of those tests, the Australian and UK governments conceded in 1994 to a payment of AUD$13.5 million in compensation to the local Maralinga Tjarutja people.[7]

The research for a planned theatre show on actor Trevor Jamieson's family brought him and Big hART’s creative director Scott Rankin and producer Alex Kelly to the APY Lands where many of the displaced Maralinga Tjarutja people found shelter. Consultations with community elders and the Jamieson’s extended family about the regions’ history and contemporary challenges brought forth first ideas about the project's focus and structure.[8] In 2002, the play Career Highlights of the Mamu[9] represented the first stage in the theatrical exploration of the family's story.[10]

In 2005, Kelly moved to Alice Springs and started to establish further contacts with community members, organisations and institutions across the APY Lands.[11] The objective of this early stage was to meet locals, to listen to their stories and their first-hand accounts of issues facing their communities and to learn about local ideas on how to tackle those problems. At the heart of the issues people repeatedly identified in the consultations lay two causes: alienation between the generations and an imminent loss of the Pitjantjatjara language and culture.[12]

A challenge for Big hART workers and community members involved was to find a suitable framework that would capture the imagination of both old and young and would bring them together in a meaningful exchange.[13] The development of a second mainstage theatre production taking place in interaction with the Ernabella (SA) community provided one possible field of interaction. To allow for a more targeted approach in language maintenance, the development of an integrated online language course based on short film-clips proved to be another: The technological aspect and fun of creating film and digital media appealed to a large number of young people whilst elders were able to pass on language and cultural knowledge in a setting which fostered respect for their wealth of experience.[14][15] In a series of workshops, artists associated with Big hART developed short film clips on country with a group of youngsters from town camps and remote communities, while elders were providing and advising on the content of the language lessons.[16]

Over the course of the project, this kind of working environment fostered mutual learning that allowed participants to experience themselves and others as creative and productive co-workers as well as helping to reduce the alienation between the generations.[17][18] Beth Sometimes notes that “[by] developing activities that [were] driven by an engagement with Indigenous language such as music recording, filmmaking and travelling to cities to deliver [the] bilingual theatre show, the domains in which the language is used [were] increased. Both younger and older Pitjantjatjara participants engage[d] with broader dialogue concerning language, and in discussion around emerging conceptual realms regarding the experiences that [were] being shared.".[19]

Many of the films were, in addition to being uploaded onto the ninti-website, published on DVD compilations and distributed by the young people across their communities.[20][21] A range of workshops was also offered in other disciplines such as dance, photography, digital storytelling and music. Activities included song writing, performing, voice training, recording and sampling. As well as bringing artists to remote communities to conduct those workshops, Big hART also partnered with the record label ‘Tracks of the Desert’ to record and publish project material, i.e. the “Ngurakutu Ara” CD in Ernabella (SA) with proceeds going towards purchasing musical equipment for the community. All songs and other materials recorded in the project have been made available to the communities by way of portable storage media and by uploading material onto publicly accessible computers.[22]

Especial care was taken to afford the young people as much exposure for their artworks as possible to enhance the experience of appreciation and to incite communication and reflection. Participants presented the project and their works at conferences and festivals while a strong media strategy ensured regular coverage on local and national level.[23]

To afford opportunities for the expansion of professional skills, creative developments of the associated theatre show were organised in Ernabella (SA) to give people the chance to observe working processes, to grow and to participate in various capacities on and off-stage, i.e. by joining the multiple tours of the production to national festivals as paid performers or assisting technicians.[24]

In order to maximise the impact of language revitalisation, Big hART collaborated with the ‘Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy and Research’ of the Australian National University (ANU) whose researchers advised on the literacy elements of the project while conducting a three-year study,[25] as part of the ‘Lifespan Learning and Literacy in Remote Indigenous Communities 2007-10’ ANU and Fred Hollows Foundation linkage project.[26][27] Improvement of literacy in both Pitjantjatjara and English was a strong element of the project: As many participants had had negative experiences with formal education settings and shame being a strong inhibitor to participation in Indigenous communities, literacy was playfully integrated into the general workshop activities and ‘trained on the job’. This tied in with the asset-based approach Big hART adopted for the project in that the task-focus was laid on the story while literacy skills were imparted by way of accessing this story and supporting the individuals in translating it into art.[28]

Together with the ANU researchers and other experts in the field, Big hART commenced to push for a change in national policy regarding the maintenance of Indigenous languages in Australia as part of the project's legacy which eventually prompted the release of the Commonwealth Government's strategy paper "Indigenous Languages – A National Approach" in August 2009 and the tabling of the House of Representatives Standing Committee Report into Indigenous Language Learning.[29]

Theatre show

The two pillars of the project, the Pitjantjatjara language course and the performance piece, kept informing each other throughout the project.[30]

The theatre show Ngapartji Ngapartji[31] premiered at the 2005 Melbourne International Arts Festival as a work in progress.[32]

The play has lead actor Trevor Jamieson recounting his family's story, situating it in the larger context of the British nuclear testing around Maralinga. The show explores themes of dispossession and displacement from country, home and family,[33] yet within this political constellation, the focus remains firmly on the detrimental impacts the events had on the social fabric and cultural life of the Indigenous people of the region.[34]

As Ben Hermann notes, the play “mixes traditional storytelling, tragedy, humour, pop-culture references and direct audience participation to both entertain and educate audiences about the history of Indigenous Australians”.[35] The feature of direct participation awards audiences opportunities to learn Pitjantjatjara words and phrases, thus tying-in the show with the language focus of the larger project. As a whole, Sometimes argues, “Ngapartji Ngapartji […] exposed the general public to Indigenous language in an emotive context – theatre – providing a platform for meaningful engagement and giving liberty to understanding.".[36]

Plot synopsis

The play starts out in its bilingual form with an introduction given by Trevor Jamieson in which he establishes his troubled brother Jangala as the touchstone of his narrative. The following show sets out to contextualise his story within the larger family story which in turn is framed by the political history of their home-country, the Spinifex nation of the South Australian desert which encompasses the British nuclear testing site of Maralinga.

Before jumping into the narrative which spans 60 years of dislocation and emotional trauma, the cast (an Indigenous choir, members of the Jamieson family and a group of non-Indigenous, Australian actors from mixed ethnic backgrounds) teaches the children's song ‘Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes’ in Pitjantjatjara to the audience. The song resurfaces throughout the performance in different languages and contexts to signal and remind of a common humanity all people on earth share.[37] To strengthen this theme and to open up an emotive space of understanding, the show also makes use of a wide array of popular songs translated into Pitjantjatjara and performed bilingually.

The family story then quickly proceeds from the family-focalised first encounters with Afghan Australian people in the desert to the beginnings of Christian missionary endeavours.

Intersecting the family story is a larger global narrative of the Second World War and its annihilating race for nuclear power which will invariably come to affect the Jamieson's as their home-country is turned into a nuclear testing ground. The links established by this narrative eventually all tie in with the family story and serve to turn the abstract, political frame into an intimately personal one in which accountability and impact can no longer be deferred onto the distant and other.[38]

The story resumes with father Arnold Jamieson being born on country just before the family is moved to Cundalee mission ca. 440 km west of their home country. The strain of dislocation and attempts to save as many family members as possible while evacuation measures of the government fall short of communicating over the cultural divide, eventually break up the grandparents’ marriage, ending in the murder of the grandmother by the grandfather. The story then follows Arnold on his journey into adulthood, longing for his country while restricted to far-away missions. The love and belonging he finds with his wife Gail opens up the hope for a new beginning beyond trauma and sorrow. Overcoming, however, is barred by the murder of Gail's mother on her way to the wedding by a taxi-driver and the vision of more and more Pitjantjatjara people losing their way in between the two cultures. As cultural protocols are explained, the audience is invited to consider the adopted solutions for reconciliation in Australia from an Indigenous perspective. The last third of the show is increasingly interspersed with video footage of intimate family conversations revolving around the worry for Jangala's life in this culturally divided space, bringing the focus back onto the brother and present issues facing the displaced Spinifex people in their country. The play ends on a note that affirms Indigenous persistence and survival, expressing hope to be one day released from the cycle of trauma and sorrow.

Production history

Ngapartji Ngapartji has toured Australia extensively in between 2005 and 2008 with the show undergoing various developments throughout its production history. In 2012, the show was revived in Canberra in a condensed version under the name Ngapartji One.[39]

Presentations of the show included among others:[40]

Selected credits

Creative Producer: Alex Kelly

Key Performer/Co-creator: Trevor Jamieson

Writer/Director: Scott Rankin

Performers/singers/teachers/musicians: Jarmen Jamieson, Lex Marinos, Yumi Umiumare, Tomoko Yamasaki, Saira Luther, Andrew MacGregor, Damian Mason, Pantjiti McKenzie, Lorna Wilson, Jennifer Mitchell, Janet Inyika, Julie Miller, Maureen Watson, Elton Wirri, Kunmanara (Iris) Ajax, Amanyi (Dora) Haggie, Mervin Adamson, Belinda Abbott, Imuna Kenta, Rhoda Tjitayi, Melissa Thompson, Delaine Singer, Deanne Gillen, Alana Kelly, Sandy Brokus Abbott, Linda Stanley, Unurupa (Nami) Kulyuru, Sadie Richards, Makinti Minutjukur, Renita Stanley, Alison (Milyika) Carroll, Najeeba Azimi, Nathaniel Garrawurra, Conway Ginger, Melissa Abbott, Joanne Andrews, Keischa Haines, Kalem Haines, Nick Hemple, Dilly,

Musical Composer: Damian Mason

Set and Costume Design: Genevieve Dugard

Lighting Design and Production Support: Neil Simpson

AV Design: Suzy Bates, Olaf Meyer

Language Reference Group: Pantjiti McKenzie, Jennifer Mitchell, Simon McKenzie, Paul Eckert, Gordon Inkatji, Yanyi Baker

Translators: Lorna Wilson, Thomas Holder, Yumi Umiumare, Najeeba Azimi, Lex Marinos

Awards and recognition

While creative content created for the project received coverage in local and national media and festivals, the overall project and associated theatre show received the following awards and nominations:

  • Deadly Awards 2008 - Winner Most Outstanding Achievement in Film, TV and Theatre[43]
  • Sydney Theatre Awards 2008 - Winner Best Lead Man Trevor Jamieson
  • Sydney Theatre Awards 2008 - Nominee Best Mainstage Production
  • Sydney Theatre Awards 2008 - Nominee Best Direction[44]
  • NT Innovation Awards 2008 Finalist[45]

Legacy

The Ngapartji Ngapartji project officially wrapped in 2010. However, in order to create a tangible legacy of the project, Big hART produced a range of media illustrating the project's journey:

The media kit ‘Memory Basket’ “captures the story of the project through photos, music, text and film” and was distributed across Australian libraries.[46]

The film Nothing Rhymes with Ngapartji[47] documents the staging of the theatre show in a creek bed in the remote Indigenous community of Ernabella (SA) in 2008, the negotiation of cultural protocols following the death of Arnold Jamieson and the personal repercussions for the creative team.[48]

As mentioned above, the joint advocacy for a new national policy to revitalise and maintain Indigenous languages across Australia eventually prompted the release of the Commonwealth Government's strategy paper "Indigenous Languages – A National Approach" in August 2009 and the tabling of the House of Representatives Standing Committee Report into Indigenous Language Learning.[49]

Another legacy of the project is the spin-off performance work Nyuntu Ngali,[50] which was workshopped in Ernabella (SA) in early 2009 before completing seasons at the Adelaide Festival Theatre (Nov 2009), the Australian Performing Arts Market (Feb 2010) and the Sydney Theatre Company (May 2010).[51]

The creative team of Ngapartji Ngapartji was invited to Japan in early 2012 to attend the commemorations of the Fukushima disaster and to celebrate the publication of a Japanese translation of the script.[52]

Big hART's Namatjira project was also incepted during Ngapartji Ngapartji’s lifetime as Elton Wirri (artist and project participant) provided the link to the Hermannsburg community and helped promote Big hART as a company of credence among elders.[53]

A most important legacy of the project according to academic Dave Palmer was that people connected with their culture in a new way, building strong identities and asserting themselves flexibly and successfully in a multicultural context. The Pitjantjatjara concept of ‘ngapartji ngapartji’ itself provided the overarching framework for such a new form of intercultural engagement: glossed as ‘I give you something. You give me something’ it denotes a reciprocal exchange of gifts that create a social framework of mutual obligations. In contrast to Western ideas of trade, here the defining element of exchange is not the material value of the objects and services traded but the fact that trading itself establishes bonds that link people to each other – not only in a material way, but also socially, emotionally and spiritually. Consequently, it is deferral of immediate gratification that keeps people engaged and not a quid pro quo situation that is sought.[54]

References
  1. Sometimes, Beth et al: “Ngapartji Ngapartji; Indigenous Languages in the Arts”, in: Hobson, John et al: Re-Awakening Languages. Theory and Practice in the Revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous Languages, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2010. p.86| quote= Ngapartji Ngapartji participants include young people from Alice Springs town camps such as Abbott’s Camp, Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) land residents who have shifted to Alice because they or their partners are in need of renal dialysis, and both young people and Elders from remote communities – in particular Ernabella, on the APY lands. The project has worked with around 300 participants since 2005 and about 25 of those have come on one or more of the nine national tours of Ngapartji Ngapartji.
  2. Somestimes, Beth et al: “Ngapartji Ngapartji; Indigenous Languages in the Arts”, in: Hobson, John et al: Re-Awakening Languages. Theory and Practive in the Revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous Languages, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2010. p.84 |quote= Ngapartji Ngapartji was a high-profile arts, theatre and language maintenance and revitalisation promotion project produced by social-change company Big hART. Since 2005 Ngapartji Ngapartji has been operating an innovative and experimental program which includes: the creation of an online interactive language and culture learning website, working with Pitjantjatjara-speaking young people, Elders and linguists; an arts-based community development program; a highly successful touring theatre work which is performed bilingually and a media campaign promoting the development of a national Indigenous languages policy.
  3. Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 14-20
  4. "Indigenous Theatre Heads for Sydney Opera House". ABC News. 23 October 2006. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  5. "Ngapartji Ngapartji". Our Languages. November 2009. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2013. Ultimately it is hoped that the profile of the Ngapartji Ngapartji project and its model generate a broader understanding of and interest in the value and preservation of all Indigenous languages, not just Pitjantjatjara.
  6. The online language course created as part of the project [was] “to encourage audience interaction and introduce people to a language and culture they may not have experienced before” as well as to generate interest among Indigenous communities themselves to maintain their cultural capital. Compare "Ngapartji Ngapartji". by John Doyle for ABC Radio National. 11 January 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2013. and Sometimes, Beth et al: “Ngapartji Ngapartji; Indigenous Languages in the Arts”, in: Hobson, John et al: Re-Awakening Languages. Theory and Practice in the Revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous Languages, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2010. p.89
  7. "Ngapartji Ngapartji One". by Ben Hermann for BMA Magazine. 17 July 2012. Archived from the original on 2 March 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2013. Between 1955 and 1963 the British conducted a number of nuclear tests in the Maralinga Desert near Woomera, South Australia. Despite an initial 'cleanup' in 1967, in 1985 it was conceded that significant radiation hazards existed in the area. In 1994, nearly 40 years after the tests began, the Australian Government acknowledged the severe effect the tests had on the Aboriginal owners of the land and paid $13.5 million in compensation to the local Maralinga Tjarutja people.
  8. "Ngapartji Ngapartji One". by Ben Hermann for BMA Magazine. 17 July 2012. Archived from the original on 2 March 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2013. My side was to look at the storytelling of the families out in the desert," Jamieson says of the creative development of the production by him and Rankin. "I went out and sat down with the elders and got the testimonies of the people who actually witnessed [the nuclear testing].
  9. http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/31674435?versionId=38410944
  10. Grehan, Helena: Performance, Ethics and Spectatorship in a Global Age, Basinstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. p.63-92
  11. "Guestroom - Alex Kelly". by Kate O'Toole and Miranda Tetlow for ABC. 20 September 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  12. Somestimes, Beth et al: “Ngapartji Ngapartji; Indigenous Languages in the Arts”, in: Hobson, John et al: Re-Awakening Languages. Theory and Practive in the Revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous Languages, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2010. p.85 |accessdate=15 Jan 2013 |quote= Pitjantjatjara can be seen as a strong language with over 2500 speakers across northern South Australia, the south of the Northern Territory and into Western Australia. However Pitjantjatjara is still regarded as endangered as it is changing substantially among generations with classical Pitjantjatjara being spoken less and less by young people. The domains of the language are shrinking, especially among young people, and particularly those young people that no longer live on traditional Pitjantjatjara country, but in towns such as Alice Springs, Port Augusta, Coober Pedy and Adelaide where they speak a mix of Pitjantjatjara, English and other Indigenous languages such as Luritja and Arrernte.
  13. Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p.45
  14. Sometimes, Beth et al: “Ngapartji Ngapartji; Indigenous Languages in the Arts”, in: Hobson, John et al: Re-Awakening Languages. Theory and Practice in the Revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous Languages, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2010. p.86 |quote=Through producing work that engages multiple age groups from the community, an intergenerational exchange occurs with a language focus. Ninti Mulapa translates as highly knowledgeable and is the name given to the language reference group made up of senior Pitjantjatjara people who advise and consult on aspects of Ngapartji Ngapartji, in particular the Ninti website, created as a language and culture learning forum. Through the process of reviewing film and other content created by young people both in town and out bush, these senior people are able to re-engage with communities from which they are separated, consult on subject matter and monitor language use.
  15. Sometimes, Beth et al: “Ngapartji Ngapartji; Indigenous Languages in the Arts”, in: Hobson, John et al: Re-Awakening Languages. Theory and Practice in the Revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous Languages, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2010. p.88 |quote= The engagement of young speakers in developing content in their own languages in turn empowers communities. A multigenerational approach enhances language use as a broader part of cultural continuity. Engaging young community members through language-based activities gives access to Elders who have the relevant cultural and life experience to understand the importance of language revitalisation, whilst legitimising the cultural forms to which young people are attracted.
  16. "Ngapartji Ngapartji". Our Languages. November 2009. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2013. A language and culture reference group, Ninti Mulapa, comprising senior Pitjantjatjara elders and language workers, oversees and reviews the cultural and linguistic appropriateness of site content
  17. Sometimes, Beth et al: “Ngapartji Ngapartji; Indigenous Languages in the Arts”, in: Hobson, John et al: Re-Awakening Languages. Theory and Practice in the Revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous Languages, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2010. p.88 |quote= We suggest that the creation of media by young people is a strong identity-building activity which, when linked with language that is being revived or revitalised, results in a reinforcement of participants’ association with that language and a relationship between self-worth and their language.
  18. "Ngapartji Ngapartji One". by Ben Hermann for BMA Magazine. 17 July 2012. Archived from the original on 2 March 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2013. There's a whole many different levels to the project – engaging with young people and making small films," Jamieson explains, "but also talking to the elders about the life of the town, what happened in the old days. We're trying to join the gaps between young and old. […] All of it is aimed at bringing to the community a sense of culture and the ability to tell stories in a theatrical way.
  19. Sometimes, Beth et al: “Ngapartji Ngapartji; Indigenous Languages in the Arts”, in: Hobson, John et al: Re-Awakening Languages. Theory and Practice in the Revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous Languages, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2010. p.86
  20. Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 27
  21. Sometimes, Beth et al: “Ngapartji Ngapartji; Indigenous Languages in the Arts”, in: Hobson, John et al: Re-Awakening Languages. Theory and Practice in the Revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous Languages, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2010. p.85 |quote= The content that is created feeds back into the website and the theatre show, and is made accessible to communities through the distribution of DVDs and CDs and broadcast on local channels.
  22. Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 28
  23. Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 25
  24. Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 25/33
  25. Kral, Inge & Schwab, Robert G.: Learning spaces: Youth, Literacy and New Media in Remote Indigenous Australia, Canberra: ANU E Press, 2012
  26. Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 53
  27. Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 68
  28. Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 73/74
  29. Sometimes, Beth et al: “Ngapartji Ngapartji; Indigenous Languages in the Arts”, in: Hobson, John et al: Re-Awakening Languages. Theory and Practice in the Revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous Languages, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2010. p.87/88 |quote= Over the last three years the Ngapartji Ngapartji team have researched the status of language support in each state and put together a position paper on language policy. Every touring season politicians, advisors, language workers, academics, linguists and other influential people are invited to watch the show and encouraged to consider the importance of Indigenous languages.
  30. "Ngapartji Ngapartji". Our Languages. November 2009. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2013. Young people and elders, along with arts mentors and language workers, [were] producing diverse linguistic and cultural material for Ngapartji Ngapartjis online language and culture site, Ninti (ninti.ngapartji.org). With storytelling at the heart of this ever growing website, the audience is invited to engage with Pitjantjatjara language and culture beyond the experience of the staged performances.
  31. Rankin, Scott (2012). "Namatjira, written for the Namatjira Family (Aranda) and Ngapartji Ngapartji written for Trevor Jamieson (Pitjantjatjara)". Currency Press. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
  32. "Ngapartji Ngapartji and From the Edge". by Daniel Browning for Awaye!, ABC Radio National. 7 April 2006. Retrieved 15 January 2013. Ngapartji Ngapartji ('I give you something, you give me something') debuted at the 2005 Melbourne Festival as a performance work in progress.
  33. "Namatjira/Ngapartji Ngapartji". Currency Press. 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2013. Exploring themes of dispossession and displacement from country, home and family, the play tells the story of a Pitjantjatjara family forcibly moved off their lands to make way for the testing of British Atomic bombs at Maralinga.
  34. "Ngapartji Ngapartji, Big hART". by Trevan Allan Chilver for Australian Stage. 27 July 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2012. Of course the story of the Maralinga tests is invariably political, but while Ngapartji Ngapartji addresses the political context, this story is about the people whose way of life, culture and heritage was irrevocably changed by events so extraordinarily remote from the centre of their world.
  35. "Ngapartji Ngapartji One". by Ben Hermann for BMA Magazine. 17 July 2012. Archived from the original on 2 March 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  36. Sometimes, Beth et al: “Ngapartji Ngapartji; Indigenous Languages in the Arts”, in: Hobson, John et al: Re-Awakening Languages. Theory and Practice in the Revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous Languages, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2010. p.88
  37. while later also turning into a reference for a body infested with cancer
  38. i.e. through the stereotypical role of the Japanese as archenemy being turned inside out as references to their alliance in World War 1 precedes the haunting account of Japanese dancer Yumi Umiumare as a mother experiencing atom bombs melting her world beyond recognition which again resonates with the trauma experienced by the Indigenous families; through the story of British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s mother sheltering him from a radioactive cloud passing over Adelaide with the mention of her death caused by cancer years later; or through the non-Indigenous Australian soldier who signed up as a volunteer to support his government in the Maralinga tests and finds himself poisoned and written out of his country’s history
  39. "Memories of Atomic Horror". by Diana Streak for Canberra Times. 14 July 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2013. Ngapartji Ngapartji has been around for nearly a decade morphing through a variety of forms and sizes. The version coming to Canberra is a distillation of the story and includes Jamieson's experiences of telling it over the years, including a heart-wrenching decision whether to include references to his father after he died. It was originally a sweeping narrative work with a large cast that included a choir, elders teaching Pitjantjatjara language, storytelling, singing and dancing.
  40. "Performance Dates". Big hART. 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  41. "Ngapartji One". International Community Arts Festival. 31 October 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  42. "Ngapartji One". Canberra Theatre Centre. 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  43. "Ngapartji Ngapartji One". by Ben Hermann for BMA Magazine. 17 July 2012. Archived from the original on 2 March 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2013. Written by Jamieson and Big hART's Creative Director Scott Rankin, the production was awarded the 2008 Deadly Award for Most Outstanding Achievement in Film, TV and Theatre...
  44. "Sydney Theatre Awards 2008". Sydney Theatre Awards. 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  45. "Ngapartji Ngapartji". Glynn Nicholas Group. October 2004. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  46. Sometimes, Beth et al: “Ngapartji Ngapartji; Indigenous Languages in the Arts”, in: Hobson, John et al: Re-Awakening Languages. Theory and Practice in the Revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous Languages, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2010. p.89
  47. "Nothing Rhymes with Ngapartji". Ronon Films. 2010. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  48. "Nothing Rhymes with Ngapartji". ABC Arts Blog. 30 June 2011. Retrieved 15 January 2013. The film follows the Ngapartji Ngapartji team's journey to Ernabella and performance of their acclaimed show. It is terrible timing for Trevor, whose father, a central character in the stage show, passed away only weeks before. Not only does Trevor have to confront his grief in order to deliver the performance, in doing so he has to grapple with the decision to risk breaking traditional law by saying his father's name, acting the part of him, and showing footage of him as part of the show.
  49. Sometimes, Beth et al: “Ngapartji Ngapartji; Indigenous Languages in the Arts”, in: Hobson, John et al: Re-Awakening Languages. Theory and Practice in the Revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous Languages, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2010. p.87/88 |quote= Over the last three years the Ngapartji Ngapartji team have researched the status of language support in each state and put together a position paper on language policy. Every touring season politicians, advisors, language workers, academics, linguists and other influential people are invited to watch the show and encouraged to consider the importance of Indigenous languages.
  50. "Nyuntu Ngali". Windmill Theatre. 2009. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  51. Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 44
  52. "Memories of Atomic Horror". by Diana Streak for Canberra Times. 14 July 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2013. In March Rankin and Yumi Umiumare visited Japan on the anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that struck the Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011. Trevor couldn't do it because he was touring Namatjira so Yumi and I took this story in a lecture-based outing as part of the anniversary of Fukushima. Some Japanese people are coming to the Canberra Theatre Centre to see it because they are very interested in the story with the potential of taking it back there. It's also an interesting tie-up given the twin city relationship between Canberra and Nara, he says. The new version is designed to travel. It will be in a shape that we can tour internationally if and as we want to. There is a special reason for doing it in Japan, there is a comradeship there and I think that would fit very well with where the material is after 10 years of working on it.
  53. "The Skill of Namatjira's Grandson". by Emily Dunn for The Sydney Morning Herald. 1 November 2006. Retrieved 19 December 2012. His work […] forms the backdrop for Ngapartji Ngapartji, a performance at the Sydney Opera House which tells the story of the Spinifex or Pitjantjatjara tribe of Central Australia and their encounter with atomic testing at Maralinga in the 1950s. For Ngapartji Ngapartji, one of Elton's watercolours was cut into small squares which are turned as the play progresses to reveal the landscape.
  54. Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 4-6

Further reading

Davis, Matt (2009): “Stories with the Heart”. In: Outback (66), p. 88-91.

Grehan, Helena: Performance, Ethics and Spectatorship in a Global Age, Basinstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. p. 63-92

Grehan, Helena (2010): “Aboriginal Performance: Politics, Empathy and the Question of Reciprocity”. In: Australasian Drama Studies (56). p. 38-52

Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010.

Rankin, Scott: Ngapartji Ngapartji, in Namatjira / Ngapartji Ngapartji, Currency Press: Sydney, 2012. <http://www.currency.com.au/product_detail.aspx?productid=2516&ReturnUrl=/search.aspx?q=ngapartji>.

Sometimes, Beth et al.: “Ngapartji Ngapartji; Indigenous Languages in the Arts”, in: Hobson, John et al.: Re-Awakening Languages. Theory and Practice in the Revitalisation of Australia's Indigenous Languages, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2010. p. 84-89

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