Aboriginal dance group finds new stage in Jakarta

Aboriginal dance group finds new stage in Jakarta

By Peter Kerr

JAKARTA (JP): Arriving in Jakarta this week wide-eyed on their
first trip outside Australia were young members of an Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander dance group who will feature at JakArt
2001.

Looking out over the lush rice fields and fish ponds around
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, dancers from the Torres
Strait islands north of Australia were reminded of home.

But those who grew up in Australia's desert communities also
sensed a familiarity with the simple wooden houses, kampongs and
children playing along the route into the city.

JakArt will be an enriching experience for the eight senior
students from NAISDA College in Sydney. None have been to
Indonesia before, and six have never traveled outside Australia.

As well as communicating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
culture to Indonesian audiences, the group hopes to learn aspects
of Indonesian dance for use in its own choreography.

NAISDA, or the National Aboriginal and Islander Skills
Development Association, has for 25 years been training young
indigenous Australians in dance and performing arts.

One of its success stories has been the internationally
renowned Bangarra Dance Company, while a NAISDA graduate
choreographed the indigenous sections of last year's Olympic
opening and closing ceremonies.

NAISDA general manager Robert Jackson, who is supervising the
JakArt tour, said most indigenous Australians would have no such
opportunities without the college.

They were simply not eligible to be accepted into, for
example, the Australian Ballet School. "They just don't fit the
criteria, and yet by the time they graduate they're qualified
enough to be accepted into that," Jackson said.

This struggle for a place and recognition in Australia's
white-dominated society was part of what the group hoped to
convey to Indonesian audiences, he said.

Jackson, who has traveled previously to Sumatra and Bali, said
there was a "degree of similarity" between the way Aborigines and
Indonesians were both striving to maintain traditional cultures
in the face of modern "progress".

"I think that what will happen is that the Indonesian people
and the other visitors to the performances will appreciate what
we are doing and what we are trying to achieve," he said.

Tourism and big events like the Olympics were an excellent
showcase for indigenous viewpoints, Jackson said, and helped
encourage acceptance within Australia's multicultural system.

"But really what happens when we come on smaller trips like
this to overseas countries, ordinary people can get to understand
what we're about as well.

"Too often a lot of the information (about Aborigines) is
sanitized, I guess, in how it gets out to ordinary people.

"It's only by us coming to places like this ... that we're
able to tell other people about what we're actually trying to do
and how we're doing it -- how we're trying to maintain our
culture against the advent of 'progress'."

Jackson said the group hoped to hold workshops in high schools
and communities outside Jakarta, where the "kids" from NAISDA
(aged in their early 20s) could also learn more about Indonesian
culture.

"It would be fabulous if we could go back with the knowledge
of a couple of Indonesian dances, not with any perfection, but to
have an understanding of how the movements are made up," he said.

"You see, it all adds to the knowledge bank of the
choreography, and this is one of the things we try to develop
within the college.

NAISDA's tour here, which also brings principal dance teacher
Paul Saliba and contemporary indigenous teacher Gary Lang, has
been funded by the Australia-Indonesia Institute.

NAISDA will perform at the festival's opening ceremony at the
National Museum on Thursday at 7 p.m.

It has three other scheduled shows: An outdoor performance at
Panggung Terbuka Amerta in Bogor at 1 p.m. on Sunday, and
workshops at the Institut Kesenian Jakarta, Central Jakarta, on
Tuesday at 10 a.m., and at Namarina Studio in Kebayoran Baru,
South Jakarta, on Wednesday at 5:30pm.

Four other Australian artists or groups are taking part in
JakArt.

Mike Nock is a New Zealand-born jazz pianist and composer who
has lived for many years in Sydney while also touring and
recording extensively in the United States.

Nova Ensemble, from West Australia, is joining with members of
Bandung-based Warogus for a series of performances, with well-
known percussion specialist Ron Reeves being the common member of
both groups.

Other Australian participants are Rachmadi Fiedorowicz, a
painter and visual artist who uses sheets of glass as a medium,
and solo guitarist Mira'nda.