Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

“Prehistoric Performance in a Postmodern Context: Australian Aboriginal Dreaming in Contemporary Music and Movement” examines Aboriginal performance of the “Dreaming” in its pre-historic form and in its re-imagined manifestation in current theater, music, and dance. The original Australians—the oldest continuously surviving culture in the world—used song and dance to embody, communicate, and preserve the spiritual core of the Dreaming, a collection of creation legends that have long guided the First Inhabitants of Australia. The method of the current study is to briefly describe Aboriginal Dreaming and its traditional expression in music and movement, consider the effect of 200 years of British imperialism on the Dreaming performances, and then examine the renaissance of Aboriginal performance art during the post-colonial period of the last 50 years or so. Indigenous artists have blended traditional music and movement with contemporary Western styles of realistic playwriting, musical theater, and dance-theater. The result restores the prehistoric Dreaming performance tradition, but unified with modern artistic forms in a uniquely postmodern hybrid. The implicit value of this study on how an ancient art form has been re-interpreted for today’s world is a heightened respect for the importance of artistic creativity for cultural expression and continuity.