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Actor hopes to expose Australian racism

15 April 2004 - Actor Aaron Pedersen says racism is rife in Australia and he hopes to expose the problem internationally on a federal and state government sponsored trip to the United States.

"I don't want to go around tiptoeing anymore," Pedersen told AAP.

"We've tiptoed for too long in this country and it's gotten us nowhere."

Pedersen, who says he has suffered racism in Australia because he is Aboriginal, will perform a play about Aboriginal deaths in custody at the United Nations in New York next month.

One of Australia's best known actors after roles in television series Water Rats, Secret Life of Us and Wildside, Pedersen said, "We have to get this message out".

"Well, there is that element.

"But there is also the element that indigenous people have to put up with every day, and that is the blatant ignorance and the blatant immaturity of Australia."

Pedersen will perform Conversations with the Dead, a play written by Richard Frankland, at the UN on May 18. Frankland will accompany Pedersen to the US.

The play is one of a series of performances written by Aboriginal playwrights to be staged in various New York locations in coming weeks.

The topics tackled include the stolen generation and land rights.

After the performances, audiences will be encouraged to take part in discussions.

The federal and Victorian governments will pay for the Aboriginal artists to fly to the US for the performances.

Pedersen said he would also visit schools in the New York area to discuss Aboriginal issues.

"Growing up in Alice Springs for me was a really, really hard thing. It was a really racist country," Pedersen said.

"I knew straight away from a very young age that things were very unbalanced.

"I knew I was Aboriginal because everybody kept categorising me as Aboriginal."

The actor is not concerned if he offends or embarrasses the federal and Victorian governments while he is in the US.

"Not at all," he said.

"My major concern would be to change this country (Australia) and to change attitudes.

"... there's a massive percentage who are ignorant and there's a massive percentage that have no understanding of this country and that's not going to be a healthy environment for the next generation to be brought up in.

"So I think it's important."

New York's The Immigrants' Theatre Project, the Australian Aboriginal Theatre Initiative and Melbourne's Playbox Theatre have organised the performances.

Native American actors and directors will be involved in the productions, including Conversations with the Dead.

The first performance in the series, Yanagai! Yanagai!, written by Andrea James, was staged last month.

On April 20 at New York's New Group Theatre, Box the Pony, written by Scott Rankin and Leah Purcell, will be performed, and on May 4 Stolen, by Jane Harrison, will be staged at the Drama Bookshop.

Source: AAP

Spotlight on Racism

How old are you?   • 30 years old. Where were you born?   • On a plane. Where did you grow up?   • Alice Springs. Describe your cultural/religious/ethnic family background   • Arrente/Arabana man (indigenous). Do you know any other languages? If so what are they?   • Arrente/English

What is your favourite place in the world and why?   • Alice Springs, because it is my people's country. Have you ever experienced or witnessed racism? How did it make you feel?   • Yes! All the time! I felt like I didn't deserve it! What did you do about it?   • Totally ignored it. They (racists) don't like that. What advice would you give kids experiencing racism?   • Remember, it is not your problem. They (racists) have the problem. What kind of Australia would you like to see for our children?   • A united one.

Aaron Pedersen as Det. Michael Reilly in Water Rats, shown in Australia on the Nine Network and seen throughout the world

Source: Racism, no way!

Spring Festivals Coming into Bloom
Aboriginal Originals

By Leonard Jacobs

16 April 2004 - The New York-based Immigrants' Theatre Project and two companies from Down Under -- Australian Aboriginal Theatre Initiative and Playbox Theatre -- have joined forces to produce "New Indigenous Voices From Australia," a festival of readings and events currently running through May.

Marcy Arlin, artistic director of The Immigrants' Theatre Project, says the goal of the project is to "expose mainstream and academic theatre audiences to Aboriginal culture and to create an ongoing artistic and international exchange between indigenous Australian and American theatre artists."

Arlin added that she has worked with Karen Oughtred of the Australian Aboriginal Theatre Initiative on several other projects in the past, "but when she came to me and wanted to know if I wanted to be involved in this kind of artistic and theatrical exchange, I immediately said yes. She got piles and piles of plays, mostly from the Melbourne region, but also from Sydney and Adelaide. She then selected four plays that would deal with important issues that Aboriginal writers are interested in."

Here at home, Arlin "contacted colleagues at New Dramatists and New Group, and got a New York Council for the Humanities grant to pay for the panel discussions that take place after each play is read."

Finally, to ensure the festival's sweeping feel, Arlin and Oughtred leveraged relationships across the city to book a variety of spaces for the readings, from New Dramatists to the United Nations.

For example, on Tues., April 20, 7:30 pm, at the New Group Theatre (part of Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd St.), there is "Box the Pony," a one-person show by Scott Rankin and Leah Purcell about growing up in a champion boxing family on the outskirts of an Aboriginal mission. Purcell, who portrays all the roles in the play, may be familiar to American audiences through her film "Black Chicks Talking," which appeared in the 2002 Tribeca Film Festival.

Next month are two more events. First, on Tues., May 4, 7:30 pm, at the Drama Bookshop (250 West 40th St.), is "Stolen" by Jane Harrison, featuring Kylie Belling, which Oughtred is directing, about Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their families by the government and raised in a repressive children's home. Then the festival ends on Tues., May 18, 1 pm, with Richard Frankland's "Conversations With the Dead," directed by the legendary Muriel Miguel. The piece, being read at the U.N., is a "response to an investigation of deaths in custody of indigenous prisoners in the Australian penal system," which involved Frankland.

Some roles in the three remaining readings still need to be filled. Arlin asks that headshots be mailed to The Immigrants' Theatre Project, 44 Douglass St., Brooklyn, NY 11231.

Source: backstage.com

Beginning in  March 2004 ITP will co-present, with the Australian Aboriginal Theatre Initiative, and Playbox Theatre (Melbourne, Australia) staged readings of new plays by Australian Aboriginal playwrights. Panel discussions with indigenous artists and academics will be presented on the theatrical portrayal of the social and political issues affecting indigenous people: re-settlement, genocide, abduction of children for assimilation into non-indigenous society, the disappearance of cultural traditions, urban vs. rural adaptation, government education policies. The playwrights will attend the readings, speak about their work and the issues in the play. They are very interested in working, while they are here, with other playwrights and theatre artists, conferences, schools, arts organizations.

For more information call: 212-533-0889. Admission is FREE, suggested donation of $5.00

Thursday, March 11, 2004  *  3:30pm - 6:00pm:  Symposium on the Arts and Indigenous Peoples.
Venue: Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, Battery Park, NYC.
Sponsored by the Smithsonian and the New York Council for the Humanities.

Wednesday, March 17  *  7:30pm:   Crowfire written by Jadah Milroy  ~  directed by Kaipo Schwab.
Venue: American Indian Community House, 708 Broadway, 8th floor. Phone: 212-598-0100 .
Post-show discussion w/ Jadah Milroy, John Scott, UN representative from Australia on Indigenous Affairs.  Crowfire is a play about an Indigenous social worker and how the urban environment has played havoc with culture and identity.

Tuesday, March 30  *  3:00pm:  Yanagai! Yanagai! written by Andrea James (Yorta Yorta)  ~  directed by Marcy Arlin.
Venue: New Dramatists, 424 West 44th Street, NYC. Phone: 212-757-6960 .
Post-show discussion with Andrea James, John Scott, Mark Bazzone.  Yanagai! Yanagai! is an expressionistic play about the effect on a family by the Australian government's denial of native land rights.

Tuesday, April 20  *  7:30pm:  No Sugar written by Jack Davis  ~  directed by Terrell Robinson.
Venue: New Group Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street. Phone: 212-244-3380 .
Post-show discussion with Leah Purcell (indigenous actor), John Scott.  No Sugar is one of the first "aboriginal" plays and is about the re-settlement of indigenous communities off of their traditional land into prison-like "missions".

Tuesday, May 4  *  7:30pm:  Stolen written by Jane Harrison  ~  directed by Karen Oughtred.
Venue: TBA
Post -show discussion with Jane Harrison, John Scott.  Stolen is a play about the Stolen Generation, children who were abducted from their families by the government and raised by white families. Written by a woman who is of the Stolen Generation.

Tuesday, May 18  *  1:00pm:  Conversations with the Dead written by Richard Frankland  ~  directed by Muriel Miguel (Kuna/Rappahonak).
Venue: TBA
Post-show discussion with Richard Frankland, John Scott, and Muriel Miguel. The play was written as a response to an investigation, led by Mr. Frankland, of deaths in custody of indigenous prisoners in the Australian penal system. A dramatic inquiry into the physical and psychological damage wrought by government injustice.

Source:Immigrants' Theatre Project

related links :

• Aaron Pederson at Internet Movie Database

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