Ngapartji Ngapartji was an Australian Indigenous language maintenance/revitalisation and community development project that ran between 2005 and 2010. One of its spin-off projects, a stage production of the same name co-created by Scott Rankin and Trevor Jamieson, toured Australia extensively in between 2005 and 2008.
Ngapartji Ngapartji was produced by the Australian arts and social change company Big hART, and conducted in various locations across the APY lands (South Australia), Central Australia and in Alice Springs (Northern Territory). The project ran from 2005 to 2010, with spin-off projects and related performances. The project was structured around an experimental and reflexive arts-based community development program which included the creation of an online interactive language and culture learning website by Pitjantjatjara-speaking young people, elders and linguists; a bilingual touring theatre work and a media campaign promoting the development of an Australian national Indigenous language policy.
Objectives Ngapartji Ngapartji main objective was to effect a sustained positive change in various disadvantaged, struggling Indigenous communities by offering local individuals opportunities to engage with their cultural capital in arts-based practice. Through the creation of art in various forms, Big hART sought to maintain and revitalise the Pitjantjatjara language and thus to preserve cultural knowledge, to improve general literacy levels (defined as both the ability to read and write as well as the ability to engage in a culturally meaningful manner with new media and modern technology) and to promote social cohesion as a crime prevention measure.Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 14-20 It was part of the project's aim to "positively [profile] the strength of culture at a time where health and social issues [were] dominating […] media [accounts of the region and its people]".
On a global scale, the project aimed to raise awareness, interest and appreciation of Aboriginal Australian languages in general and to provide a model for Language revitalisation of endangered languages.The online language course created as part of the project [was] "to encourage audience interaction and introduce people to a language and culture they may not have experienced before" as well as to generate interest among Indigenous communities themselves to maintain their cultural capital. Compare and Sometimes, Beth et al: "Ngapartji Ngapartji; Indigenous Languages in the Arts", in: Hobson, John et al: Re-Awakening Languages. Theory and Practice in the Revitalisation of Australia's Indigenous Languages, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2010. p.89
Background Between 1955 and 1963 the British military was given permission to conduct a number of nuclear tests around Maralinga in the South Australian desert. After initially downplaying the environmental and social impacts of those tests, the Australian and UK governments conceded in 1994 to a payment of million in compensation to the local Maralinga Tjarutja people.
The research for a planned theatre show on actor/dancer/singer Trevor Jamieson's family brought him and Big hART's creative director Scott Rankin and producer Alex Kelly to the APY Lands where many of the displaced Maralinga Tjarutja people found shelter. Consultations with community elders and the Jamieson's extended family about the regions' history and contemporary challenges brought forth first ideas about the project's focus and structure. In 2002, the play Career Highlights of the Mamu represented the first stage in the theatrical exploration of the family's story.Grehan, Helena: Performance, Ethics and Spectatorship in a Global Age, Basinstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. p.63-92
The project The project was conducted in various locations across the Anangu, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in Central Australia and in Alice Springs. It ran from 2005 to 2010, with spin-off projects and related performances. The project was structured around an experimental and reflexive arts-based community development program which included the creation of an online interactive language and culture learning website by Pitjantjatjara-speaking young people, elders and linguists; a bilingual touring theatre work and a media campaign promoting the development of an Australian national Indigenous language policy.
In 2005, Kelly moved to Alice Springs and started to establish further contacts with community members, organisations and institutions across the APY Lands. The objective of this early stage was to meet locals, to listen to their stories and their first-hand accounts of issues facing their communities and to learn about local ideas on how to tackle those problems. At the heart of the issues people repeatedly identified in the consultations lay two causes: alienation between the generations and an imminent loss of the Pitjantjatjara language and culture.
A challenge for Big hART workers and community members involved was to find a suitable framework that would capture the imagination of both old and young and would bring them together in a meaningful exchange.Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p.45 The development of a second mainstage theatre production taking place in interaction with the Ernabella (SA) community provided one possible field of interaction. To allow for a more targeted approach in language maintenance, the development of an integrated online language course based on short film-clips proved to be another: The technological aspect and fun of creating film and digital media appealed to a large number of young people, while elders were able to pass on language and cultural knowledge in a setting which fostered respect for their wealth of experience. In a series of workshops, artists associated with Big hART developed short film clips on country with a group of youngsters from town camps and remote communities, while elders were providing and advising on the content of the language lessons.
Over the course of the project, this kind of working environment fostered mutual learning that allowed participants to experience themselves and others as creative and productive co-workers as well as helping to reduce the alienation between the generations. Beth Sometimes notes that "[by] developing activities that [were] driven by an engagement with Indigenous language such as music recording, filmmaking and travelling to cities to deliver [the] bilingual theatre show, the domains in which the language is used [were] increased. Both younger and older Pitjantjatjara participants engage[d] with broader dialogue concerning language, and in discussion around emerging conceptual realms regarding the experiences that [were] being shared.".
Many of the films were, in addition to being uploaded onto the ninti-website, published on DVD compilations and distributed by the young people across their communities.Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 27 A range of workshops was also offered in other disciplines such as dance, photography, digital storytelling and music. Activities included song writing, performing, voice training, recording and sampling. As well as bringing artists to remote communities to conduct those workshops, Big hART also partnered with the record label 'Tracks of the Desert' to record and publish project material, i.e. the "Ngurakutu Ara" CD in Ernabella (SA) with proceeds going towards purchasing musical equipment for the community. All songs and other materials recorded in the project have been made available to the communities by way of portable storage media and by uploading material onto publicly accessible computers.Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 28
Especial care was taken to afford the young people as much exposure for their artworks as possible to enhance the experience of appreciation and to incite communication and reflection. Participants presented the project and their works at conferences and festivals while a strong media strategy ensured regular coverage on local and national level.Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 25
To afford opportunities for the expansion of professional skills, creative developments of the associated theatre show were organised in Ernabella (SA) to give people the chance to observe working processes, to grow and to participate in various capacities on and off-stage, i.e. by joining the multiple tours of the production to national festivals as paid performers or assisting technicians.Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 25/33
Collaboration with ANU In order to maximise the impact of language revitalisation, Big hART collaborated with the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy and Research of the Australian National University (ANU) whose researchers advised on the literacy elements of the project while conducting a three-year study,Kral, Inge & Schwab, Robert G.: Learning spaces: Youth, Literacy and New Media in Remote Indigenous Australia, Canberra: ANU E Press, 2012 as part of the "Lifespan Learning and Literacy in Remote Indigenous Communities 2007–10" ANU and Fred Hollows Foundation linkage project.Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 53Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 68 Improvement of literacy in both Pitjantjatjara and English was a strong element of the project: As many participants had had negative experiences with formal education settings and shame being a strong inhibitor to participation in Indigenous communities, literacy was playfully integrated into the general workshop activities and 'trained on the job'. This tied in with the asset-based approach Big hART adopted for the project in that the task-focus was laid on the story while literacy skills were imparted by way of accessing this story and supporting the individuals in translating it into art.Palmer, Dave: Ngapartji Ngapartji: The Consequences of Kindness, Perth: Murdoch University, 2010. p. 73/74
Together with the ANU researchers and other experts in the field, Big hART commenced to push for a change in national policy regarding the maintenance of Indigenous languages in Australia as part of the project's legacy which eventually prompted the release of the Commonwealth Government's strategy paper "Indigenous Languages – A National Approach" in August 2009 and the tabling of the House of Representatives Standing Committee Report into Indigenous Language Learning.
Theatre show The two pillars of the project, the Pitjantjatjara language course and the performance piece, kept informing each other throughout the project.
The theatre show Ngapartji Ngapartji premiered at the 2005 Melbourne International Arts Festival as a work in progress.
The play has lead actor Trevor Jamieson recounting his family's story, situating it in the larger context of the British nuclear testing around Maralinga. The show explores themes of dispossession and displacement from country, home and family, yet within this political constellation, the focus remains firmly on the detrimental impacts the events had on the social fabric and cultural life of the Indigenous people of the region.