Marrugeku amazes Canadian performers

The young indigenous stars of Marrugeku Theatre Company’s play Buru had only ever performed their show outdoors, under Kimberley stars in the middle of the bush.

But in the past month the nine Broome performers, aged between 12 and 22, found themselves on glitzy stages in the USA and Canada as part of indigenous exchange workshops in Phoenix and Winnipeg.

Conceived by Dalisa Pigram-Ross, Buru is a physical performance bridging the cultural gap between older and younger indigenous generations with stories connecting land, environment, culture, social life and “allowing country to speak”.

The work is inspired by six seasons observed by the Yawuru traditional owners and uses rap and hip-hop, acrobatics, stilt dance and storytelling with original songs and music by the Marrugeku Mongrel Band.

Brandon McCarthy, 19, said stories told to performers by their elders made up the narrative in Buru.

The traditional story of Janyju: Red Lizard was told by Karajarri elder and Yawuru language specialist Doris Edgar, while the Walmanyjun: Greedy Turtle story was told by Yawuru /Jabirr Jabirr elder Cissy Djiagween.

“Stilts are pretty easy after doing it for two years beforehand,” McCarthy said. “But our performances have usually been done under the stars, where we feel at home – a theatre was something new for us kids.”

Another young performer, Maddy Binswani, said their Aboriginal contemporaries at Canada’s Manitoba Theatre for Young People introduced them to significant sites and recounted their own stories.

They went to a Powwow, a gathering of North America’s Native people and shared theatrical practices during an intensive workshop exploring cultural stories from both nations. The Canadian locals also dished up a feast of their own traditional tucker, including bison, moose, deer meat and pickerel – a hit with the fish starved West Australians.

The performances could possibly be the last of Buru, which premiered in Broome in 2010 and toured the Kimberley region in 2011.