By Marilyn Miller, Jasmin Sheppard and Katina Olsen
Image by Matt Cornell, Simon Woods & Sam James.
What the world calls climate change, First Peoples call colonisation.
Preparing Ground, co-directed by Marilyn Miller, Jasmin Sheppard and Katina Olsen, is a powerful new language that dances the weight of history and the fire of resistance. It holds the warmth of family voices, quiet moments of care, and the heartache of displacement.
This is a call to join First Peoples’ care of Land - an urgent act for our shared future.
Three women share the stage - their bodies carrying stories through cycles of resilience and reclamation. Projections reveal a landscape that is both sacred and stolen, while sound and movement entwine to evoke a connection to Country for the audience, and for the performers one that cannot be erased. Over 60 minutes, Preparing Ground shifts between past and present, tradition and disruption, asking us all to listen, to witness, to remember.
Developed over six years through collaboration with the performers’ communities on their Countries, Preparing Ground embodies First Nations storytelling sovereignty.
This world premiere is an invitation to consider, what does it mean to belong to a land that remembers?
DIRECTORS’ NOTES
Marilyn Miller
Country is everpresent in every part of my arts practice.
Fauna, flora, colours, smell. Elemental differences are all from which I draw inspiration, in the hope of being able to express the beauty of my origins. The Daintree rainforest, Great Barrier Reef and the Quinkan rock art offer magic and wonder unparalleled around the world.
I share this journey with two incredible practitioners, Jasmin Sheppard and Katina Olsen, whose work and professional careers I’ve been fortunate to witness for several years. This has enabled the process of creating a dance piece embedded in significant and important community engagement of members of family from each our respective Countries. This has been an integral premise on which we base Preparing Ground.
As an act of reciprocity we look forward to sharing this seminal work close to each of our homes, as well as to the corners of the continent and around the world.
Jasmin Sheppard
Over the six years from seed concept to premiere, what Preparing Ground has shown me is this work is always relevant - and by work I do not mean the dance work. The work we do to care for Country, to tend to land and water and remember our place within our ecosystem, on our Traditional Countries. As our world faces a deep reckoning with colonisation, climate change and capitalism, my desire through this stage work is to invigorate audiences to see that First Nations land management practices and ways of being and doing are essential to our entire species.
This work took us back to our own Countries multiple times over the research period, and returning to my Grandmother’s Country, Tagalaka Country in Far North Queensland, was to really and truly contemplate a dichotomy of both devastation and millions-years old Culture and history all in the one moment, the one breath, the one place. As I stood next to mine shafts from the gold mines of the 1800s, the cyanide hills from their waste, the tailings lakes and the drastically changed terrain from relentless digging for minerals, I felt the pain of my people who were brushed aside for the wealth of their Country. I felt the pain of Country having had to withstand that level of interference over such a long time.
And yet, I was in awe of the thousands of ancient fossils, a remnant of when Australia had a giant inland sea. I heard the story that witnesses the flood of when those water came. Stories that stretch back thousands (millions??) of years. I felt my heart burst with pride with the reintroduction of Cultural fire to our Country, the slow and steady rebuilding of my grandmother’s language.
This is Preparing Ground. To know and understand that despite what we have endured, what Country has endured, Country remembers and it teaches us to remember. It teaches us all how we can endure the future as we’ve endured the past - and thrive again in relationship with Country.
To share this collaborative space in both research and creative development with Marilyn and Katina has been special. Holding space for each other's Cultural and creative expression whilst also bringing to the stage strong and poignant messages reminds me that it is natural and culturally appropriate to work in collaboration in an artistic process.
We remember the textures of Country pre-colonisation: vibrant, all working together. We explore and sit in the physicality of the pain of colonialism- overlooking how vital Country and its people are to each other. We mapped out what this looks like for us today and bring in a sense of never-ending hope for the future is bound to the resilience of First Nations peoples choreographically.
Preparing Ground has shown us in a very real potent way that our bodies are Country.
Katina Olsen
Over the gestation of Preparing Ground, researching and creating dance alongside two women that I adore, we have so generously been guided by our family and cultural custodians of our communities.
Observing Country, specifically my own, it showed me the power of its resilience against destruction.
I witnessed waters being drained from sacred springs on Wakka Wakka Country to service the sprawl of bores littering the land.
I was told of the rainforests that were bulldozed for luxury hotels that tower over the Kombumerri coastline, now known as the Gold Coast.
I am a direct impact of how the Aborigines Protection Act interrupted the knowledge of our languages.
But through all of this, I see my Country and my communities’ strength, continuing the legacy of our important work. Our responsibilities to our oldest ancestor - Country.
We continue to fight for water protections and the safeguarding of our sacred sites.
We are replacing invasive plants and returning our native grasses so that the necessary cultural burns can take place.
My people are remembering language and passing that on to future generations.
We are always repairing and healing the impacts of colonialism, and I’m so proud to share and dance the continuation of Preparing Ground.
MAKE YOUR IMPACT
This is a list of links to First Nations organisations and groups who are reviving First Nations land management practices and Culture, they rely on donations to continue their vital work.
We urge you to contribute what you can and share far and wide.
Muru Mittigar - Support cultural education, land care and economic opportunities for First Nations people on Dharug Country.
Kombumerri Cultural Experience - Experience and support Kombumerri knowledge-sharing through dance, stories and tours.
Muurrbay Aboriginal Language & Culture Co-op - Help revitalise First Nations languages across NSW through community-led programs.
Firesticks Alliance - Invest in Indigenous-led cultural fire management to care for Country and reduce bushfire risk.
Country Needs People - Donate to support Indigenous rangers protecting land, culture, and biodiversity across Australia.
Walkabout Cultural Adventures - Support Kuku Yalanji-led tours sharing culture, bush tucker, and connection to Country in the Daintree Rainforest.
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The Art House Presents
World Premiere - Preparing Ground
By Marilyn Miller, Jasmin Sheppard and Katina Olsen
One Show Only - 16 May, on Darkinjung
CREATIVE TEAM
Co-Directors: Marilyn Miller (Kukuyalanji, Waanyi), Jasmin Sheppard (Tagalaka, Kurtitjar) & Katina Olsen (Wakka Wakka, Kombumerri)
Performers: Marilyn Miller (Kukuyalanji, Waanyi), Jasmin Sheppard (Tagalaka, Kurtitjar) & Katina Olsen (Wakka Wakka, Kombumerri)
Collaborative Understudy: Audrey Goth-Towney (Wiradjuri)
Dramaturg: Victoria Hunt (Te Arawa, Ngati Ohomairangi, Ngati Kahungunu, Rongowhakaata Maori, English, Irish, Finnish)
Lighting Designer: Karen Norris (Moriori Maori)
Set and Projection Designer: Samuel James
Sound Designer: Samuel J Pankhurst
Costume Designer: Aleisa Jelbart
Costume Maker: Sally Steele
Production Manager: Simon Cook (Mamu), BlakDance
Production Coordinator: Emma Holgate (Mandaburra), BlakDance
Stage Manager: Zara Thompson
Executive Producer: Merindah Donnelly (Wiradjuri), BlakDance
Senior Producer: Nicole Reilly (Wiradyuri), BlakDance - previously Tom Pritchard and Emily Wells (Kamilaroi)
Associate Producer: Luke Peacock (Samsep/Meriam), BlakDance
Early Collaborators: raymond blanco (Yadhaigana and Erub), Yolande Brown (Bidjara), Tammi Gissell (Muruwarri)
On-Country Collaborators:
Kukuyalanji: Uncle John Hartley and Juan Walker
Tagalaka: Patrick Wheeler and Victor Steffenson
Wakka Wakka: Uncle Max Chapman, Aunty Yvonne Chapman, Shirley Olsen, Natalie Chapman, Corey Appo, Shannon Bauwens, Aunty Lurlene Henderson
Kombumerri: Uncle John Graham, Shirley Olsen, Justine Dillon, Maxwell Dillon, Clinton Brewer
Yuggera, Birri, Bindal and Warranghu: Raelene Baker
Presented by The Art House Wyong.
Produced by BlakDance.
Preparing Ground is co-commissioned by Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), BlakDance and Brisbane Festival, with support from NAISDA Dance College, The Art House Wyong.
It is supported by the Australian Government’s Indigenous Languages and Arts program, and the Major Festivals Initiative, managed by Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body, in association with Brisbane Festival and Sydney Festival, with additional project funding from Creative Australia. Preparing Ground is also supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, Sunshine Coast Council and the City of Gold Coast. Additional support has been provided by Bulmba-ja Arts Centre, HOTA (Home of the Arts), Brisbane Powerhouse and Judith Wright Arts Centre.
