Bangarra prepares to cross the ditch with bold new project
By Chantal Nguyen
As a child, Moss Te Ururangi Patterson would submerge himself in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Lake Taupō, dancing underwater to the singing of his mother and aunts as they sculpted volcanic pumice boats on the lakeside.
Decades later, Patterson – a proud mokopuna (grandson) of the Ngāti Tūwharetoa Māori tribe – is a New Zealand Arts Laureate, and one of the country’s most influential artistic leaders and choreographers. His accolades include choreographing for the 2011 Rugby World Cup opening ceremony.
The Light Inside has been created with Bangarra alumna Deborah Brown of the Waikad clan and Meriam people.Credit: Daniel Boud
Patterson is in Sydney creating a new work, The Light Inside, for the award-winning Bangarra Dance Theatre. It is Bangarra’s first main-stage international collaboration, created with Bangarra alumna Deborah Brown of the Waikad clan and Meriam people.
Rising to prominence during the Indigenous political-legal upheavals of the 1990s, Bangarra is now a powerful advocate for Australian Indigenous identity. Opening to a choreographer of another country is a bold new direction, one that Frances Rings (Bangarra’s artistic director and descendant of the Wirangu and Mirning tribes) finds exciting. “I’m actually beside myself. It’s taking all of me not to go over to the theatre right now.”
The collaboration has been years in the making. After finishing her performing career as a Bangarra dancer, Rings travelled the world.
“I went to Turtle Island, to Canada … and that’s where I first met other Indigenous choreographers . That really opened my eyes up to the way other Indigenous people across the globe were telling their stories.”
The Light Inside is about “honouring Indigenous knowledge and our matriarchs”.Credit: Daniel Boud
She was soon invited to New Zealand’s Atamira Dance Company, where Patterson was then Artistic Director.
“I just admired him as a leader – the incredible work he does and the respect he’s given across the industry.”
Māori choreographers, she says, produce work of enormous “power”, informed by their kapa haka (ranks of dancers in rows accompanied by singing or chant) and connection to culture.
Patterson also holds a reputation for choreographing these expressions for non-Indigenous artists, such as the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
“He had these experiences of how you work with people unfamiliar with your style – how you translate that and break it down.”
The Light Inside, Patterson explains, is about “honouring Indigenous knowledge and our matriarchs. [We have] a very strong matriarchal line as I was talking about before, growing up with my mum and aunties on the lake shore.
“That whole kind of upbringing is a light inside us. I carry that story and I carry that love.”
As prominent First Nations leaders, Patterson and Rings are adamant cross-cultural collaboration has huge socio-political impact. Top of mind for Patterson are current land rights claims and protests surrounding New Zealand’s Waitangi Treaty.
“It’s really concerning,” Rings says of proposals to redefine the Treaty. “We’re in solidarity with [the Māori] because we know they are in solidarity with us.”
“My role is to really speak to the hearts and minds of our young people, of our elders – to let them know I am thinking of them,” Patterson says.
“I’m remembering this history, I’m remembering the beautiful moments that we share, the stories that we want to keep telling.
“It keeps our communities strong, it keeps us resilient, it keeps us inspired. It keeps us returning home as we have a vision of building into the future.”
Rings says the recent past has been a disappointing time for Indigenous people in Australia.
“The disappointment of the referendum, but also truth-telling,” she says. “That’s something Indigenous people face globally.”
She has just returned from another international symposium. The Indigenous worldwide collaboration, she says, is like the new work with Patterson: “a vibrant dialogue…a way of amplifying this and saying: it’s not just us that are facing this.”
The Light Inside is part of Horizon by Bangarra Dance Theatre, June 12 to July 13, Sydney Opera House.