Conclusion

Abstract

This chapter concludes our study of health education works produced by Australia’s Ilbijerri Theatre Company and led by Yuggera and Butchulla theatre maker Kamarra Bell-Wykes from 2006 to 2019. We draw together the findings to conclude that the works Chopped Liver, Body Armour, Viral – Are You the Cure?, North West of Nowhere, and Scar Trees represent a significant and innovative contribution to both First Nations contemporary theatre and applied theatre for health education and equity. Looking back on this important body of work has also informed the development of future projects for Kamarra, including the most recent work, The Score, which addresses sexual health for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through a community-engaged, participatory model. We conclude by acknowledging the creative teams who contributed to these works over 13 years, recognising that the success of these works was built on their talent, dedication, and commitment.

We embarked on this project with the goal of critically examining the health education works produced by Ilbijerri Theatre Company and led by Kamarra between 2006 and 2019, while also documenting and honouring the legacy of this important yet underreported body of work. Reaching over 26,000 audience members and garnering numerous awards, the works have contributed to the continuing tradition of cultural storytelling, performance, education, and healing ceremonies practised by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities for millennia. In bridging contemporary Australian First Nations performance with applied theatre, an analysis of the plays offers valuable insights into global health promotion and education through theatre from a unique perspective. Throughout the book, we have examined the creative processes, cultural significance, and educational impact of these works, situating them within a holistic framework that extends beyond health messaging and social impact and into dramaturgies community wellbeing, strength, and resistance.

Summary of Findings

We acknowledge that this study had some limitations, given that we commenced work in 2020, long after the performances under examination had finished touring. This meant relying on the recollections of creative team members, as well as incomplete archival documentation and incomplete audience survey data that was collected with a different purpose in mind (i.e., to demonstrate the short-term impact on audiences to funders and stakeholders). Nevertheless, we identified three central themes within the data that, although separated here, interact with each other in a holistic sense to tell the story of a powerful body of culturally led, community-engaged performance practice—one that offers significant lessons regarding arts-led approaches to health and wellbeing, applicable not only to First Nations communities but also to a broader context.

• 1. Culturally led, culturally safe performance making

The findings emphasise the importance of First Nations cultural leadership throughout the creative process, privileging diverse lived experiences and foregrounding community engagement and cultural safety for creative teams and audiences. This approach was seen as foundational to working ethically and relationally, achieving educational objectives, and advancing contemporary First Nations theatre as characterised by themes of community wellbeing, strength, and resistance.

• 2. The ‘gripping dramatic yarn’

The works are framed as captivating narratives that incorporated cultural storytelling, authenticity, engaging characters, humour, and strong performances. They artfully blended entertainment and education, engaging audiences and conveying health-related messages, while also speaking to the wider social and political contexts and empowering First Nations audiences through reflecting the strengths, complexity, and diversity of their communities.

• 3. Stigma-free spaces for healing, empowerment, and self-determination

The works facilitated culturally safe spaces for conveying health messages, challenging stigma, and fostering community empowerment and capacity building. They went beyond individualised notions of behaviour change to embrace a holistic notion of wellbeing that includes resistance to colonial structures and self-determination. This contributed to personal growth and transformation among various stakeholders, including audience members, health professionals, performers, and creatives. We suggest that this approach, in some cases, contributed in a holistic sense to community wellbeing.

Key Learnings

The findings summarised above can be seen as foundational principles to adopt in theatre for health education projects in First Nations communities—perhaps translatable to other arts-led approaches and community contexts as well. We do acknowledge, however, that some key learnings have also emerged around how to promote the long-term sustainability for programs and to further strengthen and extend their impacts in communities.

• 1. Deeper and more extensive community engagement in the lead up to touring

The experience of teams turning up at a venue only to find one or two people in the audience illustrates the need for meaningful and sustained community consultation and engagement at every stage of the project. This includes finding a range of different people in the community from the grassroots level to community-controlled organisations and local Elders so that the project is not dependent on the recommendations of just one person. In a sector that is known for its high turnover and overworked staff, this will also help to mitigate against projects failing if that one key person is away or has moved on by the time of delivery. This may be supported by theatre companies employing producers who have interest and experience in community development practices. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the challenges of working to develop and sustain relationships over the longer term, given that this is often in tension with the demands of mainstream Western health promotion delivery and funding models. However, by continuing to foreground the importance of this approach through studies such as these, we hope that it may be possible to educate mainstream partners and funders to expect that this is a legitimate and vital process that will improve sustainable impacts and outcomes.

• 2. Working productively with health partners and stakeholders

Building on the previous point, we suggest that cultivating relationships with mainstream health partners, funders, and stakeholders over time will strengthen opportunities for mutual trust and respect that can lead to stronger artistic freedom. Nevertheless, it is vital for artists to maintain a strong stance when it comes to artistic decision-making and to ensure that the aesthetic and performative elements of a work are not compromised by the need to include specific health messages or scenarios. The artistry demonstrated by the creative teams in the works discussed in this volume suggests that artists need to feel confident in their capacity to make highly engaging educational theatre works and to become leaders in using the arts for social change (as opposed to following the whims and trends of policy and practice in health or other social sectors). This of course extends to standing firm on matters of First Nations cultural leadership and knowledge transmission, which must not be subsumed by mainstream institutional methods and priorities.

• 3. Stronger cultural safety protocols for creative teams

While we identified a strong sense of cultural safety and support for creative teams in many of these works, this was not necessarily consistent across all projects and was dependent on the skills and abilities of those charged with leading or holding space at the time. We recognise the need for theatre companies to adopt detailed and consistent protocols for supporting First Nations artists to deliver this kind of work in communities, where the ‘colonial load’ potentially extends beyond telling difficult stories and into a deeper sense of responsibility to engage ethically with audiences. This could be achieved through policy making and staff training at the organisational level, perhaps to place a higher value on this kind of work that can often be sidelined in favour of the mainstage, as well as developing consistent practices for briefing, debriefing, and supervision for teams at all stages. Attending to the wellbeing of creative teams will enable them to focus on doing their best work without becoming exhausted or burnt out.

• 4. Strengthening community engagement and participation in the plays

The lessons from Viral point towards the power of conducting workshops with communities that directly inform characters and storylines. This strengthens empowerment and engagement for audiences who recognise themselves in the work and can feel a sense of pride and ownership. It also deepens the authenticity of stories and characters for a wider audience, who see themselves reflected in the work. The workshops themselves serve as powerful, reciprocal sites for learning and knowledge transmission, strengthening cultural practices and collaborations towards community wellbeing. The inclusion of non-professional community members in the cast (as in the case of Shannon Hood) brought home the power of presenting an accessible peer on stage who can offer inspiration and aspiration to audiences who may never have previously imagined themselves in such a highly skilled performance and leadership role.

Looking Forward: The Score

As signalled throughout this book, the study’s findings have greatly informed how Kamarra now approaches the work, which has evolved over the course of her engagement with the health education works since 2006. While the health education performances discussed here were successful on many levels, they largely followed a conventional approach—relying on commissioned playwrights, professional actors, and community touring. Through experimenting with community-engaged approaches to making works such as Scar Trees and Viral, Kamarra now recognises the value of intentionally building works with community from the ground up. Particularly through Viral, where the workshops in prisons informed the development of the performance, the return to prison resulted in deeper engagement from those men who had participated in the workshops, as did the inclusion of Shannon Hood in the cast, who had some aligned experiences and connections to the incarcerated community. This “full circle” approach has led to the development of the new model, The Score, focused on sexual health and respectful relationships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people, which, through its reimagining of how to approach health education through theatre, has resulted in the creation of a new participatory model. The model draws together some similar performance aesthetics from the previous works and merges them intentionally with approaches from theatre in education and participatory theatre, contrasting with the traditional “fly in-fly out” method and serving as a promising direction for achieving lasting health and wellbeing outcomes.

As discussed earlier, Victoria’s Department of Health funded The Score to address its concerns around the persistent “gap” between sexual health outcomes for First Nations communities and the broader population. The Department was broadly supportive of taking a new approach and could see the merit in working towards more sustainable impacts in communities via deeper participation and engagement. A reference group consisting of sexual health experts from the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (VACCHO) and Thorne Harbour Health again were invited to contribute their specialist knowledge. With her expertise in applied and educational theatre, Sarah brought the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Fine Arts and Music on board as a partner, securing funding from the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) to develop the model, research the outcomes, and build capacity in communities through professional development training so that the theatre-based approaches could be taken up and used to address local health and wellbeing concerns.

The Score commenced production in 2021 where an ensemble of six young performers and the creative team worked with theatre maker Stefo Nantsou from Zeal Theatre Company to devise a high-energy performance that would surface the issues for a young audience. Pongjit Saphakhun and Richard Barber from Free Theatre contributed their insights from delivering their brand of “dialogue theatre” in communities in Australia, Thailand, and Myanmar. For Kamarra, who places a high value on continuous learning and creative collaborations with other artists and practitioners, the new model has provided an opportunity for an interdisciplinary team to form around the work, strengthening its performative outcomes and theoretical rigour. Working through three iterations of development, the team established a model that consists of four phases and is, at the time of writing, currently being rolled out in Victorian metropolitan and regional communities:

• Phase one: The “kick-off” performance of The Score: “A short play with big energy about footy, friends, dancing and hookups” (Ilbijerri n.d.) follows the adventures of two protagonists, Sam and Billy, as they navigate the after-party of the local football carnival. Running for only seven minutes, the play is facilitated by the “Coach” who acts as an intermediary between the action on stage and the audience, facilitating dialogue around the issues raised. The kick-off performance serves as a hook to draw in young people so that they then hopefully sign up for the residency that follows.

• Phase two: A workshop residency that invites young people in the community to unpack the issues surfaced by the kick-off performance through yarning, drama, and experiential methods. Through the residency, young people are also rehearsed into The Score and invited to contribute their own characters, perspectives, and approaches to the performance. Some of this work takes place through a culturally safe frame of gendered yarning circles, where men’s business, women’s business, and “rainbow” (or gender diverse) business can be discussed in a closed circle before returning to the whole group.

• Phase three: A “grand final” performance where the young participants perform The Score alongside the ensemble to an audience of invited friends, family, and community members. This is again facilitated by the Coach, who invites responses from the audience around the barriers and enablers to sexual health in their community.

• Phase four: Members of the team and ensemble train up local professionals in health and social care to use the theatre-based and experiential methods featured in the model and adapt them for their own needs and purposes.

The Score kick-off performance retained several of the aesthetic elements that were successful in previous health education performances, such as the ‘world’ of the regional footy carnival and after party that is highly recognisable to many First Nations communities; strong, identifiable character archetypes of Brotha-Boys, Sista-Gals, Aunties, and Uncles, which place the responsibility for young people’s sexual health beyond the individual and into the community’s hands; humour and playfulness in the dialogue; and high energy music and choreography that includes a culturally informed ‘courtship dance’ that fuses with contemporary dance floor energy. These elements contribute to depicting the issue (sexual health) as grounded in fun and joy rather than shame and stigma and serve to demonstrate the complexity of making healthy choices in the context of a highly charged social moment. The ensemble of six performers plays across gender throughout, with the Brotha-Boy and Sista-Gal characters providing the audience-participants an opportunity to embrace queer representation within the world of the play through a cultural frame (if applicable to the group).¹ The protagonists, Sam and Billy, serve a similar function to those found in most educational theatre that draws from Theatre of the Oppressed (Boal 1985), enabling the audience-participants to project their own experiences onto them and invest in their choices and decisions through the protection of the fiction. The “Coach” character draws heavily on the legacy of the Joker in Boal’s Forum Theatre, facilitating dialogue with the audience that unpacks the issue and delves into its complexities and nuances.

The Score model also embraces and extends some of the principles that have underpinned the health education works throughout, for example, by adopting a holistic approach to health and wellbeing that moves beyond individual behaviours and aims to contribute to empowerment, self-determination, and community wellbeing. The model extends the community engagement processes used in productions like Viral to adopt a place-based approach centring First Nations knowledges, young people’s experiences and stories, and those of their communities. This includes identifying localised risk and protective factors to sexual health and healthy relationships and working to create stronger links with local health and youth services and organisations. With funding from AIATSIS, we have also had the opportunity to engage in a more intentional, holistic research process from the start that centres culturally informed methods such as yarning and performance (Woodland et al. 2023). A key part of this design is the capacity-building phase, which aims to further strengthen outcomes in communities. This research is still underway; however, early indications suggest that moving to a participatory model has successfully engaged young people in culturally safe, stigma-free yarning around sexual health and healthy relationships, has increased skills and capacities in performance and community engagement for The Score ensemble, and has deepened the engagement and investment from community members in both the creative process and the health issues being explored, which we hope will lead to more meaningful and lasting impacts.

Several of our interview subjects for this study into the health education works from 2006 to 2019 were keen to see the work develop in this direction, agreeing that it would be a positive step in evolving the work. Melodie Reynolds-Diarra saw it as a natural return to more traditional kinds of storytelling:

It’s not any one person’s story then because it’s many people’s stories and, as soon as you’ve put more voices in there, more ears are going to listen. … In giving the voice to the people - the community, as soon as you’re getting a voice, it’s like learning how to use a muscle. So, if you haven’t had the chance to use that muscle and you haven’t had a voice for so long, you need to be taught how to do that once again. … It feels like that natural thing of, you know, all sitting around the fire and all having turns to talk. (Interview, 2021)

Isaac Drandic highlighted the capacity-building potential of such a model, “You’re actually kind of leaving the communities with something, with some kind of valuable skills and valuable tools that they can then kind of continue to use long after the circus has left town” (interview, 2021). Nazaree Dickerson also spoke about how many projects are “flash in the pan” and that a model like this has the potential to leave behind a legacy. Nazaree went on to describe the potential for empowering communities through this approach: “A show that they’ve seen is great, but if there’s a show they’ve been in and it’s their story or their mob’s story, that’s even better” (interview, 2021). Similarly, Isaac suggested, “To be … in control of your own stories and to have input into your own stories is just such a kind of important part of growing confidence and feeling valued and valuable and creating theatre … it’s a powerful practice.” Shannon Hood, the only inexperienced community performer to be cast in this body of work, suggested, “I think creating something like that and then if you were to go out and perform it, I think I’d be a lot more passionate about it” (interview, 2021). This has been borne out by some of the early feedback we have received from young people participating in The Score residencies so far, who have expressed how the work clearly connects to them because it represents “real” life and integrates their own stories and perspectives.

Conclusion

Throughout this book, we have articulated the creative processes used to develop the health education works, explored their cultural, aesthetic, and educational dimensions, and assessed their impact on creatives, audiences, and communities. In examining the work from a unique First Nations Australian perspective, we have gained invaluable insights that might contribute to understanding theatre for health education and promotion globally, where the liveness, immediacy, and interactivity of such performances continue to be valued as an alternative to more traditional ‘dry’ approaches. Further, our findings provide a set of principles and approaches that practitioners might adopt in working towards the artful integration of education and performance aesthetics, advancing the notion of applied or educational theatre as a legitimate art form in its own right. Beyond their focus on health messaging and education, we argue that through considered practices of culturally led, culturally safe, community-informed performance making, the works assert sovereignty for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples over the structures and institutions that inform such projects, contributing to decolonising health education, health promotion, community development, research, and theatre. By situating the works within the canon of contemporary First Nations theatre in Australia, we argue that they contribute to dramaturgies of community wellbeing, strength, and resistance that are integral to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander self-determination and survival in this country.

There exists a strong legacy of leadership and creative contributions within Ilbijerri and its partners and stakeholders that have supported the health education works in their Social Impact stream since 2006. Successive members of Ilbijerri’s leadership and Board have recognised the importance and value of these works and participated in their artistic development. In addition, each of the works has had a team of key creative and production personnel and government and non-government partners whose talent, dedication, and commitment have been integral to the works’ success. We would like to conclude our study by acknowledging them here and thanking all who have participated in creating this powerful body of work.

Production Teams

Chopped Liver (2006–2009)

• Writer: Kamarra Bell-Wykes

• Dramaturg: John Romeril

• Director: Kylie Belling (2006–2007), Rachael Maza (2008)

• Designer: Destiny Deacon, Virginia Fraser (2006–2007)

• Sound Designer: Steph O’Hara (2006–2009)

• Visual Designer: Destiny Deacon, Virginia Fraser

• Tour Manager: Lisa Maza (2007–2008), Lisa Parris (2009)

• Stage Manager: PJ Rosas (2006–2008), Lionel Austin (2006, 2009)

• Performers: Isaac Drandic (2006–2009), Melodie Reynolds (2006–2008), Nikki Ashby (2008), Cy Fahey (2009)

Chopped Liver (2017)

• Writer and Director: Kamarra Bell-Wykes

• Dramaturg: John Romeril

• Set and Costume Designer: Darryl Cordell

• Sound Designer: Richie Hallal

• Tour Facilitator: Richie Hallal

• Stage Manager: Ari Maza Long

• Performers: Gregory J Fryer and Nazaree Dickerson

Body Armour (2010–2013)

• Writer: Kamarra Bell-Wykes

• Dramaturge: John Romeril

• Director: Margaret Harvey

• Set and Costume Designer: Alison Ross

• Sound Designer: Anna Liebzeit

• Tour and Stage Manager: Bronwyn Dunstan (2010), Caitlin Chessell (2011), Bec Cooen (2012), Jessica Smithett (2013).

• Performers: LeRoy Parsons (2010–2013), Maurial Spearim (2010–2013), Sandy Greenwood (2010, 2011, 2013), Uraine Mastrosavas (2012).

Viral – Are You the Cure? (2018–2019)

• Writer: Maryanne Sam

• Director/Dramaturg: Kamarra Bell-Wykes (2018–2019)

• Choreographer: Carly Sheppard

• Set and Sound Designer: small sound

• Costume Designer: Jacinta Keefe

• Producer: Davey Thompson (2018), Lisa Parris (2019)

• Associate Producer: Emily Anypa Butcher

• Production Manager: Caleb Thaiday (2018–2019)

• Stage Manager: Mary Quinsacara (2018)

• Community Consultation Facilitators: Shiralee Hood and Kamarra Bell-Wykes (2018)

• Facilitation Consultation and Training: Free Theatre (2018)

• Community Engagement Manager: Richie Hallal (2019)

• Performers: Laila Thaker (2018), Jesse Butler (2018–2019), Blayne Welsh (2018–2019), Nikita Tabuteau (2019), Shannon Hood (2019).

North West of Nowhere (2014–2016)

• Writer: Kamarra Bell-Wykes

• Dramaturg: John Romeril

• Director: Rachael Maza (2014–2015), Eva Grace Mullaley (2016)

• Set and Costume Designer: Emily Barrie

• Sound Designer and Musician: James Henry

• Choreography: Carly Sheppard

• Tour and Stage Manager: Ruth Maloney (2014), Brock Brocklesby (2015–2016)

• Performers: Shaynee Brayshaw (2014), Carly Sheppard (2015), Ian Michaels (2014–2015), James Henry (2014–2015), Jack Sheppard (2016), Brandi Nelson (2016), Jesse Butler (2016).

• Health Worker: Tarneen Onus-Williams (2015), Lenka Vanderboom (2016)

Scar Trees (2019)

• Writer: Declan Furber-Gillick

• Dramaturg and Director: Kamarra Bell-Wykes

• Performers: Dion Williams, Maurial Spearim, Racheal Oak Butler

• Set and Sound Design: small sound

• Costume Consultant: Jacinta Keefe

• Social Impact Producer: Lisa Parris

• Associate Producer: J-Maine Beezley

• Stage and Production Manager: Brock Brocklesby

• Family Violence Support Coordinator: Nazaree Dickerson

The Score (2021–)

• Ensemble Members: Baydon Clayton (2021), Nazaree Dickerson (2021–2022), Axel Garay (2021), Monique Grbec (2021), Lisa Maza (2021), Jerrika Pevitt (2021), Andrew (Balaneba) Toby (2021), Zerene Webster (2021–2023), Zane Webster (2022–2023), Zach Blampied (2023), Kimmie Lovegrove (2023), Corey Saylor-Brunskill (2022–2023), Taeg Twist (2023).

• Devising Facilitators: Stefo Nantsou, Kamarra Bell-Wykes, Free Theatre

• Social Impact Producer: Kim Bennett (2020–2021), Laura Harris (2022)

• Community Coordinator: Della Bedford

• Associate Producer: Lauren Sheree (2020–2021); Theo Cassady (2022)

• Stage/Tour Manager: Jenny Le (2023)

• Researcher and Facilitator: Sarah Woodland

Partners and Supporters

Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council (AHMRC)

Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)

Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society—La Trobe University

Bendigo and District Aboriginal Co-operative (BDAC)

Bunjilwarra Koori Youth Alcohol and Drug Healing Service

Centre for Excellence in Rural Sexual Health (CERSH)

Creative Victoria

Dandenong and District Aboriginal Cooperative

Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)

Department of Justice and Community Safety, Victoria

Family Planning Victoria

Gandel Foundation

Helen Macpherson Smith Trust

Hepatitis New South Wales

Hepatitis South Australia

Hepatitis Victoria

Hepatitis Western Australia

Institute of Koori Education—Deakin University (NIKERI)

Korin Gamadji Institute

Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, Melbourne

Odyssey House

Rumbalara Aboriginal Co-operative

Star Health

University of Melbourne

Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA)

Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO)

Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS)

Victorian AIDS Council (Thorne Harbour Health)

Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth)

Women’s Health West