Sand, Spin & Sin City
by Simone O’Brien
January- February 2019! What a cracking start to the year with the circus boom of Karnidale replacing the WA mining boom. Over east across this parched, flooding, fish-killing and burning continent, the Spin Festival hosted the Australian Partner Acrobatics convention in the stunning Victorian Otways whilst Sydney Festival hosted the Circus Comes to Town at Parramatta.
Climate Crisis
But before we celebrate all things circus, our hearts must go out to those affected by recent intense climate events – to our human and non-human friends, who are literally going up in smoke or dealing with the aftermath of floods – we are thinking of you and offer you our support as a community, which is what we know how to do and to be.
‘The time has come to say fair’s fair, to pay the rent to give our share’ – Midnight Oil
Shut up and listen
So respect must go to our First Nations peoples who knew and know how to look after Country properly. Non-Indigenous peoples could learn a thing or two hundred from our precious resource of First Nation’s people, the longest living culture on earth who had maintained this land on which we now practice and perform circus. As non-Indigenous people we need to shut up and listen if we are going to make it through the challenges ahead together; that we need to give our First Nation’s peoples the rent, resources and respect that is long overdue was a strong theme that arose in conversations about cultural diversity at the recent three day Circus & Beyond: Arts Workers Forum at Parramatta, Sydney Festival, 13 – 15 January 2019.
Lara Croydon, Chasing smoke 2017 Hb McCormick Pic Carnival Cinema
Cultural Diversity in Circus: where does it happen?
Parramatta is the demographic centre of Sydney, home to over 26 000 people: 24.3% born in Australia, 29.8% from India, 12% from China, 2.2% from the Philippines, and 1.5% from South Korea and Nepal. Sydney Festival has made significant effort to reflect the cultural diversity of local audiences through programming culturally diverse works including circus works. In fact, Sydney Festival has consistently programmed circus events in Parramatta for the past eight years. This year it was a delight to see (and later try) the art of climbing the unique wooden poles of Mallakhamb India while the sumptuous visual and aural feast of Shanghai Mimi, inspired by 1930’s Shanghai jazz clubs and directed by Moira Finucane, featured artists from the Tibetan plateau, Cameroon & France.
Although Shanghai Mimi still has a way to go, this did not stop senior and elderly Chinese audiences, who dressed up and sang along to make up a whopping 15% of audiences. This was a significant increase in audience diversity for circus works at the Sydney Festival and was hailed as a success. So how do we increase the cultural diversity in the practitioners, purveyors and audiences of circus?
MallakhambIndia Sydney Festival 2019
Other forum topics
Cultural diversity was one of the main topics for discussion at the Circus/Arts Workers Forum among the thirty professional circus and youth circus practitioners who attended. And of course it would not be a forum without the perennial funding, pay rates and insurance issues being raised, but happily, these were nestled amongst a variety of topics such as support pathways, mentorships, accessibility, education and training, leadership opportunities and sector advocacy.
Circus Forum and Chasing Smoke in Western Sydney
The circus forum is an initiative of Sydney Festival Artistic Director Wesley Enoch in consultation with the Circus Advisory Group. The 2019 version was embraced a wider network of artists and arts workers from other disciplines, with a focus on Western Sydney to come together to share stories, make new creative relationships and set new agendas. It was also inspiring to see Sydney Festival’s support for some of the Indigenous performers from Chasing Smoke (Casus) to attend and represent Black female voices. And they kicked it in the dick, reminding us that while we make circus on Aboriginal land it is stolen land.
Vicki Amedume Pic by Phil Adams
Why only one black, female artistic director of a circus company in the UK?
Another strong, black female role model was international keynote speaker Vicki Amedume, artistic director of UK contemporary circus company Upswing – the only company in the UK to be headed by a black woman. The British Council supported Vicki to deliver the keynote, a stimulating discussion that interrogated circus for its values, popularity and its commodification of difference. Asking how we can enable circus to become more relevant and reflect the complex dynamics of human relationships, Vicki says:
For me as a black artist and maker, one of the most pressing problems we have is to see beyond the surface. Circus creates a democratic space to explore the extraordinary qualities that bind not divide us. *
Challenging White Privilege
The local keynote speaker was Michael Mohammed Ahmad, or ‘Mo’, Arab Australian writer (The Tribe and more recently The Lebs), community arts worker and founder/director of Sweatshop: Western Sydney Literacy Movement. His keynote addressed the topic of white privilege, opening with a quote from Hitler that was scarily reminiscent of another fascist leader of a large and powerful nation that shall not be named. He also illustrated his point about the blindness of privilege with the following joke:
A platypus is sunning itself on a rock and then dives into the creek where it meets two fish. It says to the fish ‘Gee the water is nice’. The fish say ‘What is water?’
Coming to Voice
One of Mo’s inspirations is acclaimed intellectual, feminist theorist, cultural critic, and writer bell hooks. He discussed her notion of Coming to Voice for marginalised people and the benefits of seeing themselves on stage and screen.
Join TNA: the peak body for Circus & Physical Theatre.
While there was much talk, the focus was also on actions. Jamie Lewis from Theatre Network Australia attended, full of advice and shedding light on the benefits of joining a peak body. Another action is to contribute to Carnival Cinema – it is a great way to speak to each other.
Finally, I would like to thank Forum organisers Pippa Bailey and Wesley Enoch from Sydney Festival and the Circus Advisory Group. This kind of programming and consultation plays a vital role in connecting regional, national, international and metropolitan artists to each other and to audiences in the vibrant, multicultural demographic heart of Sydney.
Footnotes:
Simone O’Brien
Simone O’Brien is a contemporary performance maker, specialising in circus and physical theatre for over a million years, all while living under a rock. Most recently, she co-facilitated the Circus and Beyond: Arts Workers Forum with Western Sydney Artist, Nisrine Amine.
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We acknowledge the people of the Bundjalung Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which this Magazine originates and pay our respects to their elders past, present and future.
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