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Lines in the Sand: (re)making contact by Meredith Elton, Victoria Hunt & Carol McGregor
In this innovative new performance work Lines in the Sand, 15 collaborators explore new possibilities for our relationships with each other and the land.
How can we be deeply at home here, as non-Aboriginal people living in Yugambeh country? How do we face and embrace our colonial history and its living present? Can we make room for our different lineages, stories, feelings?
Presented by Festival 2018 at The Gold Coast XXI Commonwealth Games (2018).
Lines in the Sand is a collaboration between local performance artist Meredith Elton, choreographer Victoria Hunt, installation artist Carol McGregor and an ensemble of 12 local community participants. An open-air ceremony that contemplates a different kind of relationship: with ourselves, with the land and with the ancient sovereignty of Aboriginal peoples.
NOTE: A two-hour workshop was held before each performance. Exploring the themes of the project through painting the leaves of the local cottonwood tree with ochre. Participants were invited to bring ochred leaves along to contribute to the performance.
About the creators:
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Meredith Elton is a Gold Coast based performance artist, creative producer and therapist. Her work has long been engaged with the complexities of our connections and disconnections from the places – inside and out – that we call home. Emigrating from Scotland and England, her ancestors have lived for generations in New Zealand before coming to Australia. Her creative process is collaborative and community engaged, supporting deeply related exploration and exchange.
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Victoria Hunt is a dancer-choreographer and performance maker. Central to her work is the embodiment of female authority, ceremony and protest that reinstates the power of indigenous creativity and contemporary Indigenous politics. Her tribal affiliations are to Te Arawa, Ng?ti Kahungunu, Rongowhakaata Maori, English, Irish and Finnish lineages. Her most recent work TANGI WAI...the cry of water was nominated for several awards and was performed at Liveworks Festival 2015 and Dance Massive Festival in 2017.
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Carol McGregor is an Indigenous artist of Wathaurung and Scottish descent. Through her multidisciplinary artistic practice: from drawing, printmaking, metalwork, photography and digital media, to working with natural fibres, McGregor explores her rich cultural identity of diverse ancestry and lived experience. Her current research Art of the Skins: un-silencing and remembering has facilitated a significant cultural resurgence project - announcing the re-activation of possum skin cloak-making and wearing in South East Queensland.
Creative Team
Co Director/Choreographer/Creative Producer/Performer: Meredith Elton
Co Director/Choreographer/Performer: Victoria Hunt
Installation Artist/Performer: Carol McGregor
Performers/ Collaborators
Jessica O'Rourke
Nicolle Coulter
Renée Subedi
Tess Eckert
Denise Comba
Rena Czaplinska
Vashti Eastern
Laura Diaz-Icasuriaga
Stephanie Honey
Geraldine Balcazar
Collaborators
Lighting Designer: Marion Conrow
Sound Designer/Composer: James Brown
Production Manager: Brent Forsstrom-Jones
Yugambeh Elder, Cultural Consultant : Aunty Mary Graham:
Cultural and Artistic Consultant: Robyne Latham
Acknowledging Place by Carol McGregor is woven into the heart of Lines in the Sand: (re)making contact
Photography by Derek Repchuck
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
I took part in the new performance work 'Lines in the sand: (re) making contact', being created for the 2018 Commonwealth Games Cultural Program "Festival 2018" on the Gold Coast. It was one of my first immersions into Yugambeh Country since moving from Sydney in 2017. A new land, country and its people. It has been a transformative experience being part of this work, getting to know my past and being present in how this holds me today in a new home on the Gold Coast. Throughout the creative process (since February 2018) I had the opportunity to tap into my Chilean family heritage. Having the opportunity to delve deeper into what has been before me. To acknowledge the gifts and tools, skin and blood that has been passed down to me, that which survived and is alive within me today. Blessed and grateful to be in this new world premier with a wonderful creative team Meredith Elton, Victoria Hunt and Carole McGregor and 12 wonderful women. The presence of this powerful rich work was explored by the performers and then witnessed by audience. With gratitude and love Gerrie
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