home | news l

Dreamtime in the druids' domain

By Annabel Crabb

5 June 2006 - NORMALLY at this time of year, as the summer solstice approaches, the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge is populated largely by mystics, meditators, hippies and people with slightly out-of-tune acoustic guitars.

Tonight, however, it will play host to a culture vastly older than itself.

The Bardi dancers, who live 200 kilometres north of Broome in the north of Western Australia, have accepted an extraordinary invitation to be the first Aboriginal group ever to perform at England's most famous sacred site.

"It's a mind-bending thing, eh?" said Duaine Ah-Choo, as he arrived at Stonehenge on Saturday to examine the site before the performance.

"It's an ancient, historical thing. Like our sacred sites."

The Bardis, saltwater people from the Ardiyooloon community (formerly One Arm Point), comprise five generations within their group.

Duaine, Brent Mouda, Lyle Davey and Frank Moochoo Davey and their elders made the 14,000-kilometre journey from home at the invitation of the Salisbury International Arts Festival, which is staging a selection of Aboriginal cultural events in this year's program.

The performance is also part of Undergrowth Australian Arts UK, a two-year program of Australian cultural events.

The two Bardi performances at Stonehenge - there will be another one on Wednesday - have sold out.

"The Bardi dancers and we at the festival both really like the link between two ancient cultures coming together," says Jo Metcalf, who came from Perth to direct the Salisbury Festival, and is part of Australia's notorious "reverse colonisation" of the British arts scene.

"The fact that Stonehenge was and still is used as a meeting place, is used for ceremony and is one of the world's great cultural icons, really excited the Bardi dancers and they were thrilled when I invited them to perform their Dreamtime stories and ceremonies in this place."

Security guards at Stonehenge barely raised an eyebrow on Saturday morning as the young Bardi men arrived, dressed in body paint, shells and feathers to rehearse their Walkabout dance, which concerns a hunter who becomes disoriented at sea.

The guards, as is customary at this time of year, had spent a long night hauling intoxicated revellers away from the famous stone circle, which has always inspired lavishly conflicting theories as to its provenance and usage.

Public access to Stonehenge is restricted by English Heritage, and visitors are asked to observe it at a distance from behind a rope fence, so the invitation to the Bardis is a rare honour.

"We try to be very respectful of the site and obviously there are certain technical and logistical things we are not able to do," says Metcalf.

"But a performance like this that traditionally does not require sound, lights and a huge stage is perfect."

This year Salisbury Festival is presenting a range of Aboriginal artists; David Page's Company B Belvoir show Page 8 became a festival hit last week, and the author of Rabbit Proof Fence, Doris Pilkington, spoke yesterday.

Metcalf said media and public interest in the Stonehenge performance had been intense, and that tickets had sold quickly for both shows.

Source:The Sydney Morning Herald

Further information: art issues page - includes news index and external links

|| click to go to the top of this page