Always was & Always Will Be Aboriginal Land - Nadina Dixon Performance
It's important to recognise & pay respects to the people, lands & cultures that were the genesis for a country.
Songwoman and artist Nadeena Dixon @nadeenadixonart (Wiradjuri, Yuin and Gadigal) performs songs from and of Country. Nadeena’s cultural practice includes dance, song, weaving, contemporary theatre storytelling and contemporary ceremony.
Powerful, emotional, spiritual & confronting performance of (Always was & Always Will Be) Aboriginal Land at the Australian Museum.
Nadeena said she wrote the song during lockdown when she was unable to perform & had to introspect. We talked about the need for more people to feel a deep connection with nature for we are nature & must treat ourselves with respect.
She also talked about the lack of ritual, ceremony, song, dance & storytelling in Western culture. I agreed & mentioned that most places of congregation tend to revolve around consumption. There need to be more places in society that encourage cross cultural exchange.
We also talked about what it means to be an advanced culture. For me, it is easier to achieve typical technological & material progress rather than a deep understanding of the interconnection of all life.
It is much more impressive to be able to live for almost 100,000 years in harmony with hundreds of other mobs & nature, than it is to develop modern technology.
The philosophy of living in community, spirituality & harmony is at odds with the typical individualistic, materialistic, consumptive culture pushed on to those in the West. Native cultures question this paradigm which is likely why they have been attacked throughout history.
Australian First Nations Cultures have been caring for Country for over 60,000 years. Spend an evening learning how the most ancient knowledge on earth around water and land-care management is the key to the future. This night of talks, music, weaving circles and more has been curated by multi-disciplinary theatre maker, choreographer and artist Jacob Boehme and features renowned artists including Nadeena Dixon, Henrietta Baird and Aunty Karlene.
We need to honour & embrave the survival of the world’s oldest living culture, the Indigenous Australians, who have been in Australia between 50,000 - 120,000 years.
Survival Day, Invasion Day or Day of Mourning is observed as a counter-observance, with calls for the date of Australia Day to be changed or abolished.
The 26th of January marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port Jackson in NSW.
British colonists incorrectly labelled the land as terra nullius, or wasteland & thus without owners. They thought there were few 'natives' along the coast & deduced that there would be fewer or none inland. Nonetheless, they did not amend the terms of British sovereignty. In fact, there were between 300,000 - 950,000 Aboriginal people, approximately 260 distinct language groups & 500 dialects in Australia when they invaded in 1788.
They lived in small family groups & were semi-nomadic, with each family group living in a defined territory, systematically moving across a defined area following seasonal changes. Groups had their own distinct history & culture.
Emphasis was placed on the social, religious & spiritual activities. The environment was controlled by spiritual means & religion was based on a philosophy of oneness with nature.
According to their beliefs, the physical environment of each local area was created & shaped by the actions of spiritual ancestors who travelled across the landscape. Living & nonliving things existed as a consequence of the actions of the Dreaming ancestors.
Boundaries were fixed & validated by Dreaming creation stories. Each individual belonged to certain territories within the family group so land was not owned; one belonged to the land. Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples of the Australian mainland & Tasmania & the Torres Strait Islander peoples from the seas between Queensland & Papua New Guinea.
Songwoman and artist Nadeena Dixon @nadeenadixonart (Wiradjuri, Yuin and Gadigal) performs songs from and of Country. Nadeena’s cultural practice includes dance, song, weaving, contemporary theatre storytelling and contemporary ceremony.
Powerful, emotional, spiritual & confronting performance of (Always was & Always Will Be) Aboriginal Land at the Australian Museum.
Nadeena said she wrote the song during lockdown when she was unable to perform & had to introspect. We talked about the need for more people to feel a deep connection with nature for we are nature & must treat ourselves with respect.
She also talked about the lack of ritual, ceremony, song, dance & storytelling in Western culture. I agreed & mentioned that most places of congregation tend to revolve around consumption. There need to be more places in society that encourage cross cultural exchange.
We also talked about what it means to be an advanced culture. For me, it is easier to achieve typical technological & material progress rather than a deep understanding of the interconnection of all life.
It is much more impressive to be able to live for almost 100,000 years in harmony with hundreds of other mobs & nature, than it is to develop modern technology.
The philosophy of living in community, spirituality & harmony is at odds with the typical individualistic, materialistic, consumptive culture pushed on to those in the West. Native cultures question this paradigm which is likely why they have been attacked throughout history.
Australian First Nations Cultures have been caring for Country for over 60,000 years. Spend an evening learning how the most ancient knowledge on earth around water and land-care management is the key to the future. This night of talks, music, weaving circles and more has been curated by multi-disciplinary theatre maker, choreographer and artist Jacob Boehme and features renowned artists including Nadeena Dixon, Henrietta Baird and Aunty Karlene.
We need to honour & embrave the survival of the world’s oldest living culture, the Indigenous Australians, who have been in Australia between 50,000 - 120,000 years.
Survival Day, Invasion Day or Day of Mourning is observed as a counter-observance, with calls for the date of Australia Day to be changed or abolished.
The 26th of January marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port Jackson in NSW.
British colonists incorrectly labelled the land as terra nullius, or wasteland & thus without owners. They thought there were few 'natives' along the coast & deduced that there would be fewer or none inland. Nonetheless, they did not amend the terms of British sovereignty. In fact, there were between 300,000 - 950,000 Aboriginal people, approximately 260 distinct language groups & 500 dialects in Australia when they invaded in 1788.
They lived in small family groups & were semi-nomadic, with each family group living in a defined territory, systematically moving across a defined area following seasonal changes. Groups had their own distinct history & culture.
Emphasis was placed on the social, religious & spiritual activities. The environment was controlled by spiritual means & religion was based on a philosophy of oneness with nature.
According to their beliefs, the physical environment of each local area was created & shaped by the actions of spiritual ancestors who travelled across the landscape. Living & nonliving things existed as a consequence of the actions of the Dreaming ancestors.
Boundaries were fixed & validated by Dreaming creation stories. Each individual belonged to certain territories within the family group so land was not owned; one belonged to the land. Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples of the Australian mainland & Tasmania & the Torres Strait Islander peoples from the seas between Queensland & Papua New Guinea.