Mr Brian Joyce

Ngarrama, a lakeside dialogue between Birabahn, Threlkeld and & the performance at the centre of the Birabahn/Threlkeld Research Project tells the story of contact and cooperation between Threlkeld and Birabahn, explores the dialogic relationship between missionary and Aboriginal, archive and repertoire, history and memory, then and now, through contemporary CCD practice and site-specific performance. Johnston(2006) notes Threlkeld, a prime source for the revisionist view of early Aboriginal and white contact, wrote extensively of a different history of settlement to that commonly presented. In returning to Threlkeld's writings, Ngarrama engages directly with these History Wars not only in terms of the archive, but updating the dialogue by placing this alongside material from oral traditions of local Aboriginals. The dramatic presentation of their relationship allows a rethink about their roles in developing their invaluable Dictionary of Aboriginal Language. They were not only academic linguists but also aware social commentators and activists. The play not only deals with the development of their seminal language work, it revitalises this dormant language by including it in the performance. Subsequent work with linguists develops this in further performances at an International Conference in Exeter, UK (2008). In performing this event at a point of significance for local contemporary Aboriginals, and site of original settlement, the engagement with the history of place and relationship to such becomes manifest. The audience reflection component of the performance reinforces this. A continual process of consultation embedded this process in current PAR methodologies and places it at the forefront of such.

Ngarrama, a lakeside dialogue between Birabahn, Threlkeld and & the performance at the centre of the Birabahn/Threlkeld Research Project tells the story of contact and cooperation between Threlkeld and Birabahn, explores the dialogic relationship between missionary and Aboriginal, archive and repertoire, history and memory, then and now, through contemporary CCD practice and site-specific performance. Johnston(2006) notes Threlkeld, a prime source for the revisionist view of early Aboriginal and white contact, wrote extensively of a different history of settlement to that commonly presented. In returning to Threlkeld's writings, Ngarrama engages directly with these History Wars not only in terms of the archive, but updating the dialogue by placing this alongside material from oral traditions of local Aboriginals. The dramatic presentation of their relationship allows a rethink about their roles in developing their invaluable Dictionary of Aboriginal Language. They were not only academic linguists but also aware social commentators and activists. The play not only deals with the development of their seminal language work, it revitalises this dormant language by including it in the performance. Subsequent work with linguists develops this in further performances at an International Conference in Exeter, UK (2008). In performing this event at a point of significance for local contemporary Aboriginals, and site of original settlement, the engagement with the history of place and relationship to such becomes manifest. The audience reflection component of the performance reinforces this. A continual process of consultation embedded this process in current PAR methodologies and places it at the forefront of such.