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Abstract
Broadly framed in terms of performance theories by Turner and Beeman, this paper weaves together the historical, mythical, ritual and performative aspects of a 1997 encounter in Sulawesi between Yolŋu (an Aboriginal people of northern Australia) and Macassans (people from southern Sulawesi, Indonesia). The focus of the paper is an indigenous opera called Trepang, which is based on the centuries‐long history of trading relations and family connections between the two groups, and the way its performance was used by the Yolŋu and Macassan cast members to renegotiate their often turbulent shared history, along with the contemporary social and ritual order. In this light, Trepang can be understood as a restorative social process, a means of pursuing a common path and a way of ameliorating the discrepancies of the past—bringing the parties finally together as one. Analysing the social context in which the performance of historical ‘truths’ was negotiated, I unpack key events in the staging of this ‘play within a play’ and demonstrate the need to transgress the dualism of ritual and spectacle.
Notes
1. Acknowledgments: This paper is dedicated to the memory of Steve Yunupi░u who passed away in 2005. I wish to acknowledge and thank Andrish Saint Clare and the cast and production crew of Trepang, the anonymous referees of this paper, and Ian McIntosh for his encouragement and assistance in the writing of it. Michael Christie's assistance with the Yolŋu matha orthography and Gillian Hutcherson's careful editing are also gratefully acknowledged. All errors and omissions remain the responsibility of the author.
2. The production staff, led by the artistic director and visit organiser, Andrish Saint Clare, consisted of an Indonesian language translator, a camera person and a production assistant (me). All these people were based in the Northern Territory capital city of Darwin.
3. At the time, the city was known as Ujung Pandang, but in 1999 it reverted to its former name of Makassar (sometimes spelt Macassar).
4. Although lacking Macassan mythology, Dhuwa clans nonetheless have rich narratives of oral history relating to the Macassan trepanging period.
5. McIntosh has written extensively about Yol░u/Macassan history and relationships, particularly from the perspective of the Warramiri and other Yirritja clans that he refers to as the Murrnginy collective (Citation2006).
6. During this period, Yol░u women from both moieties were taken. The conflict and tensions bound up in these relationships are perhaps the reason why for much of the twentieth century there was, for some Yol░u, a sense of shame attached to a person's Macassan heritage (see McIntosh Citation2004, 157).
7. This lingua franca was used not only in dealings with Macassan trepangers but also between the diverse Aboriginal populations that came together under the employment of the Macassans.
8. In Yolŋu matha the term is Marrigi.
9. In Yol░u social and ritual life, a comedy element is often central even to the most serious of ritual dances (e.g., see McIntosh Citation2004, 154–55).
10. While many of the dances in the Dreaming Macassan repertoire are drawn from Macassan movements, the meanings are different.
11. These included the kecaping (lute dulcimer), gendang (double headed drum), suling (flute), pui‐pui (double reeded instrument), ana'barcing (metal castanets), gong and kannong kannong.
12. The prau was constructed in the traditional padiwankang style.
13. In one song, the Macassan crew sing about a place called Takarena, the Macassan name for Elcho Island.
14. As Palmer and Jankowiak (Citation1996, 251 cited in Edensor Citation1996, 69) write, performers in social events rely on contingent invention, which varies as ‘actors and audiences reinterpret the script, either incrementally or radically, with each performance’.
15. When Trepang was later performed at the Darwin Festival of Arts in 1999, this scene change was, to some extent, incorporated. For an account of this performance, see Palmer (Citation2000).
16. It should be added that the non‐Yol░u production crew's criticisms of these drinking practices were not appreciated by certain members of the Yol░u cast, either.
17. This event, which was also organised by Andrish Saint Clare, featured a series of Yol░u/Macassan community workshops in the local school, culminating in a large buŋgul at the beach performed around the set of a Macassan prau. Rather than involving a preordained cast, an array of Yol░u participants jumped in and out of the onlooking crowd to participate in the buŋgul.
18. See also Southon (Citation1995) for a discussion of the religious significance of boats in the wider Sulawesi region.
19. Mattjuwi's name also means ‘mast’ in Yolŋu matha (McIntosh Citation2004, 156).