Training Indigenous actors in Australia

Abstract

For Indigenous students in Australia who aspire to a career in acting there is a diverse range of formal institutional training opportunities available. Whatever institution they choose to attend, the way in which Indigenous acting students make sense of their training does not depend so much on the specific content or structure of classroom and studio-based learning activities; rather, it is essentially defined by the much larger cultural and pedagogical frameworks within which these learning activities are embedded. This article is based on a postgraduate research project on the diversity of cultural experiences Indigenous students encounter during their training to be an actor. Becoming an Indigenous actor is, the article suggests, more than just mastering the technical aspects of training. It is also about an understanding of the day-to-day negotiations of the social, cultural, and artistic practices and processes involved in making Indigenous theatre. It involves navigating these entangled social and cultural traditions in institutional contexts.

Keywords::

• Indigenous
• actor-training
• Australia
• education

Notes

^1. Throughout this article ‘Aboriginal’ and ‘Indigenous’ are used interchangeably. Both terms are usually acceptable to First Australian people, though most individuals will prefer one or the other term. It is accepted practice in Australia to capitalise ‘Indigenous’ and ‘Aboriginal’ when it refers to the original inhabitants of Australia. It needs no capitalisation when used in a general sense to refer to the original inhabitants of other countries.

^2. Syncretic doubleness is a term used by Andrew Orta (1999, p. 866) to describe an identity that is emergent from a long history of entanglements within a dominant system.

^3. Aboriginal activist and academic Marcia Langton (1993, p. 28) argues that understandings about what and who is Aboriginal in Australia is located somewhere between the individual and the state. In state legislation, as in the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983, ‘Aboriginal’ means a person who: ‘(a) is a member of the Aboriginal race of Australia, (b) identifies as an Aboriginal, and (c) is accepted by the Aboriginal community as an Aboriginal’. The Commonwealth in the 1980s included this definition in the Aboriginal Development Commission Act 1980, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984, and the Aboriginal Land Grant (Jervis Bay Territory) Territory Act 1986. As a member of the NSW Aboriginal Metropolitan Land Council I am legally recognised as being Aboriginal.

^4. I interviewed graduates rather than students to draw on their ability to reflect on their experiences at drama school, and to also relate those training experiences to a working knowledge.

^5. Protocols, as outlined by the Australia Council for the Arts, are appropriate ways of using Indigenous cultural material, and interacting with Indigenous people and their communities. They encourage ethical conduct developed within and across communities over time. http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/32353/Performing_arts_protocol_guide.pdf

^6.http://www.waapa.ecu.edu.au/courses-and-admissions/our-courses/disciplines/aboriginal-theatre

^7. A term used by Andrew Orta (1999, p. 876).