Regional // Regional Tasmanian gathering

March 2024

Much more than a conference, it was five days of conversation led by and in consultation with Palawa, the First Peoples of Tasmania, and local Aboriginal community members. Arts workers and producers from across the Asia-Pacific and Australia came together for knowledge exchange, artist-led workshops and reflections.

Lutruwita is a site of deep time and deep story, but dark legacies of settlement on the island often feel insurmountable. Yet through considered programming, these shadows were addressed early in the week by a joyful yet contemplative welcome by local mob. Beginning with three days at the repurposed Spring Bay Mill–its connection to logging evoking the island’s troubled history of land and people clearing. Yet as the bus took participants to one hour north east of Nipaluna (Hobart), there was a level of camaraderie in the air, with Regional // Regional members who have communicated online, meeting in person, some for the first time. Palawa man Dewayne Everettsmith facilitated a Welcome To Country through song and ceremony. It was a moment for the group to ground on Country, listen to its voice and heal as the smoke of the welcome fire curled up from peppermint eucalyptus leaves. The ceremony swung between light and dark, humour and pride mixed with sadness, as the local mob shared their stories of deep connection to the land. Moments of pause sprinkled throughout the Welcome, as we were invited to reflect on our connection to the place, and First Peoples among the group invited to share story if they felt inclined.

The slow, considered beginning to the conference was emblematic of things to come.

Over the week, lengthy conversations about arts producing and practice blended with moments of walking on Country with its custodians, pauses for swimming in the bay or artist-led movement sessions to shift participant focus out of the head and back into the body. Regional // Regional developed this format, distinct from most conferences held in dimly lit theatres or event spaces, with blue light of powerpoint presentations, tapping of laptops or phone screens creating disembodied, disconnected people who are being talked to not engaged with. Here, participants rose up out of theoretical dialogue, as individuals who care about how they do what they do, and want to do better and more sustainably.

Two key themes guided program discussions: responsibility and cultural exchange. These topics threaded through the week and were approached from many different angles. On the first full day Selena de Carvalho warmed up the room with an activity that dropped everybody back into their bodies, with insights from her arts practice about ecology and trees providing a framing that ‘systems are dynamic’. From there, Emma Porteus and Travis Tiddy facilitated a session that spoke to context and responsibility. While introductions had already been made, this allowed each participant to reiterate the context they work in, current concerns and how these shift and change each festival year or per piece of programming. Afterwards, the group was led around the Spring Bay Mill site with First Nations owners and introduced to fire practices of the local area, and smaller groups formed to either plant trees or participate in a sauna and swim session. Flowing between conversation and reflection meant that participants could shrug off the pace of everyday life, shifting gears into a contemplative space.

Day three was led by Ruth Langford, a Yorta Yorta woman with deep family connection to Nipaluna and Lutruwita, whose organisation Nayri Niara is a social enterprise platforming First Peoples knowledges through workshops, training and festivals. After a morning of song, sharing and story, the group split to participate in drawing, meditation or snorkelling workshops, all led by First Peoples. After lunch, the group convened in the tin sheds at the Mill, wind rattling its walls as the group–comprised as it was of few First Peoples–reckoned with questions around how to authentically elevate, support and program First Peoples from Australia and beyond. The ominous wind seemed to echo discomfort within the group: while the non-Indigenous participants have understanding and sensitivity, that can only take them so far. However, with the connectivity and grounding that had taken place since the conference began, First Peoples and other diverse voices steered the conversation. Because the group had shared moments beyond just words, it became possible to have awkward or uncomfortable conversations, or at least start laying the groundwork for them.

This flow between ease and resistance continued after the group moved to Nipaluna for day four. Second Echo Ensemble led the morning’s session at Theatre Royal on campus at the University of Tasmania. In pairs, a piece of spaghetti was passed around the room, becoming a convenient metaphor, applicable in many contexts. ‘If it breaks, it’s just spaghetti’, or don’t take it too seriously. Their director asked: how much pressure is enough to maintain the connection? How do bodies negotiate space around the piece of spaghetti? After the morning of activity, conversations turned to difficult topics, prompted in the conversation session led by Jude Anderson and Sarah Parsons, around the interplay between context and community. Among the group, participants shared projects or instances of working with communities in their area. How they currently do what they do, musing about how to do it better, with a subtle tension thread of frustration emerging in the room. Everybody wants to be inclusive and respectful, but they have the constant sense they are underperforming or making mistakes. Change can be uncomfortable, but the collective energy was strong enough to withhold difficult topics around who has the right to speak.

While best described as a panel, the afternoon session was more deconstructed conversation as Dewayne Everettsmith and Selena de Carvalho rejoined the group to ask Regional//Regional participants questions about partnership and understanding. Cross-cultural symmetries and differences were highlighted as the group heard from David and Dely Nalo from Vanuatu, Shay Vigona-Goudge from Northern Territory, Masoom Parmar from Bengaluru, Jeannie Park from Jogjakarta and Alex Wisser from NSW. As the panel shared more about past projects and methodologies, others from the floor chimed in, and relationships between places emerged in spite of scale, as Jogjakarta echoes Vanuatu, Philippines relates to Cairns, or the festival in regional NSW town Kandos has connection to projects a member had put on in London.

To close proceedings on the Friday, Tony Yap led a final meditative movement session. The group sleepily followed his instructions as shared energy in the room quietened. Afterwards, Asialink Arts' Manager, Jala Adolphus invited members to share reflections on the week, and an interesting point was raised by M. Aan Mansyur from Makassar International Writers Festival. Although much had been done across the week to break down barriers of language and hierarchy between members and enable safe spaces for dialogue, there were still voices who had not shared much across the week. To this he shared an expression from home, that in Makassar, they have to ‘arrive before we go’ and that sometimes words don’t do enough justice to the action.

As members considered how cross-cultural programming will inevitably always contain an element of translation, the week concluded with a song circle and moving farewell from Palawa community. Returning to the ideas of responsibility and slowness, to breathe and be in the body, to acknowledge and relate to the people and things you encounter. The blend of modes across the week had disrupted fast-pace rhythms the participants were used to: rushing from one thing to the next without debriefing, without listening to what will be a nourishing environment for participants or allowing people to show up as themselves. The week created a sense of possibility that perhaps the work could be done another way.

Written by Susie Anderson

Susie Anderson is a writer of poetry and nonfiction whose work reflects on the hidden layers of culture, memory and place. She is a proud Wergaia & Wemba Wemba woman from Western Victoria whose poetry and non-fiction writing has been published in a variety of publications in Australia and abroad, including Meanjin, Rabbit Poetry Journal, Cordite Poetry Review, Suburban Review, Portside Review, Archer Magazine and more. She has also written extensively about visual art from a First Nations lens for galleries such as National Gallery of Victoria and publications like un Magazine, Artist Profile, Artlink and Art Monthly. Her debut collection of poetry, the body country, was published in 2023 and shortlisted for the Victorian and NSW Premier's Literary Awards.

www.susan.fyi

All photos by Jillian Mundy, www.jillianmundy.com.au

Video by Troy Melville, troymelville.com.au