Decolonising moves: gestures of reciprocity as feminist intercultural performance

ABSTRACT

In this article, I think through decolonisation from the place of praxis and cultural artistic exchange in Global South-South encounters. I base my thinking on the concepts of ‘neighbouring’ by the Argentine theorist, [Savigliano, M. 2009. “Worlding Dance and Dancing Out there in the World.” In Rethinking World Dance Histories, edited by Susan Foster, 163–191. New York: Palgrave.] and ‘the gift’ by the French sociologist, [Mauss, M. 2011. The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies. London: Martino Fine Books.]. The paradox of being a ‘good neighbour’ or ‘friend’, lies in its offers of help and its implicit demands for a reciprocal counter-gesture. I work with the Melbourne based carnatic singer Uthra Vijay in a dialogic (auto) ethnography that explores our ongoing performance and collaboration since 2016, including our friendship and how we ‘neighbour’ with various intercultural partners including our ongoing work with Indigenous partners in Australia.

KEYWORDS:

• Colonialism
• nationalism
• carnatic music
• Bharatanatyam
• decolonisation
• global south feminism
• diaspora
• devadasi

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Priya Srinivasan is a dancer, choreographer and scholar. She has a dual career as a researcher based at Deakin University at the Alfred Deakin Institute of Citizenship and Globalization and an independent artist. She prioritises decolonisation, making visible minority women's histories. She is the author of the award winning book Sweating Saris: Indian Dance as Transnational Labour, which looks at the connection between decolonisation, citizenship, immigration and dance. Developing two key concepts from her book including the ‘unruly spectator’ and the ‘dancing body as the labouring body’, her work brings together a critical feminist praxis in unearthing subaltern women's texts through live bodily performance with visual art and interactive multimedia. Her scholarly and performance work has been presented internationally.

Notes

1 Many thanks to Uthra Vijay for humoring me in allowing me to write about our work and to represent her, Vicki Couzens for her prompt attention to this article and support of it, Hannah Schwadron for her timely and critical feedback, and also to Tina K. Ramnarine for her patience and deep engagement with this article.

2 I use ethnography and auto-ethnography here as methodologies because of the capacity for intimacy.

3 We have performed in a wide range of venues such as Hermitage in Amsterdam, Melbourne Museum and the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, Showroom, Typografia, and George Paton galleries in London, Bucharest and Melbourne, historical buildings such as the Centre Civic Besos in Barcelona and Treasury Building Melbourne, experimental and classical theatres like Dancehouse Melbourne, Kalakshetra Foundation and Spaces in Chennai, Shoonya Theatre Bangalore, as well as the Indian Council of Cultural Relations-Indian Embassy Theatre, Berlin and universities such as Kings College, Royal Central, and Melbourne University to mention a few.

4 For excerpts of our work see: ‘Nagarathnammal's Dream’ at https://youtu.be/kcA34OR1alk, ‘Reimagining Andal’ at https://youtu.be/SjtIRNcm_Xc, and ‘Uthra Vijay carnatic Concert’ at https://youtu.be/2l-P0cNop4M (all last accessed 31 October 2018).

5 The rationale for British colonisation became the rescue of Indian women from Indian men. The subsequent Indian nationalist independence movement focused on three main issues of the women's question including widow remarriage, sati (bride burning) and the devadasi as the locus for women's reform.

6 This does not discount the fact that many men from the isai vellalar communities continued their role as gurus (teachers) and as nattuvanars and mridangam players (percussionists).

7 After reading the initial draft of this article, Uthra suggested that she would not be performing if there were not reciprocal and powerful exchanges occurring inside the practice. Therefore I modified my argument to incorporate her perspective (personal discussions with Uthra Vijay, 29-30 October 2018).

8 Personal discussions Raghuraman, 30 October 2018.

9 While I created the dance and text through structured improvisation and from research, Uthra strung together a repertoire of songs from the composer Thyagaraja for ‘Nagarathnammal's Dream.’ For Kannagi and Avvaiyar she used the ancient Tamil poetry and composed music almost effortlessly shifting and changing ragas and the material every time we performed, using structured improvisation. She also painstakingly created the music that had not been done previously for a section of the text from the ‘Radhika Santwanamu’ written by the devadasi Muddupalani in the 18th century (Mulchandani 2011).

10 See ‘Serpent Dreaming Women’ at https://youtu.be/ciPk6d_oq8k (last accessed 31 October 2018).

11 ‘First Peoples’ was co-curated by the Yulendj Group of Elders, community representatives from across Victoria, and Museum Victoria staff. Yulendj is a Kulin word for knowledge, which describes the deep cultural and historical knowledge that the Yulendj group brought to the exhibition. See https://museumsvictoria.com.au/bunjilaka/whats-on/first-peoples/ (last accessed 31 October 2018).

12 Before British colonisation, there were five population groups in South Eastern Australia speaking five related languages. These languages were spoken in two groups: the Eastern Kulin group of Woiwurrung, Boonwurrung, Taungurong and Ngurai-illam-wurrung; and the western language group of just Wathaurung. The chants we were hearing were in the Boonwurrung language.

13 Terra nullius – ‘Nobody's land’ was the justification by the colonial government used to colonise Australia despite the presence of at least 20,000 people of the Kulin population alone in the area of Victoria. This is also a debate about land being settled versus being conquered, culminating in the history wars in the Mabo case in 1992. In 1982, Eddie Mabo and four other Torres Strait Islanders from Mer (Murray Island) started legal proceedings to establish their traditional land ownership. This led to Mabo versus Queensland. In 1992, after ten years of hearings before the Queensland Supreme Court and the High Court of Australia, the latter court found that the Mer people had owned their land prior to annexation by Queensland. The ruling thus had far-reaching significance for the land claims of Indigenous Australians.

14 Honouring Country is a way to acknowledge Mother Earth and her contribution to all our lives. It can be done verbally or through song and movement. It is a form of welcome performed by Indigenous people from neighbouring regions. It is only the tribes who are on their own land who can perform an ‘Acknowledgement to Country’.

15 Dr Padma Subrahmanyam a renowned dancer and scholar visited Australia in 1979 for an Indian Ocean festival in Perth and encountered an indigenous tribe called Gugudja from the Balgo Hills. They found music and words in common but were not allowed to pursue further connections. We were able to pursue these connections much further.

16 Gina shared the story of the Mountain Gulaga from her region with us during the creative development period: 20-30 November 2017.

17 We in turn shared the story of Ananta Sesha the giant serpent upon whom the God Vishnu resides.

18 Creagh (2013); Curnoe (2016); Goodall, Ghosh, and Todd (2008); Macdonald (2013); McRae (2013); Morris (2017); Phillips (2016); Pascoe (2016); and Subrahmanyam (2018).

19 The White Australia Policy known as the Immigration Restriction Act are various historical policies that barred people of non-European descent from immigrating to Australia from 1901 until 1973.

20 Discussion with a former producer Arts Centre Melbourne, 7 December 2017.