iLandscape
...in search of the white Dreaming
PROJECT INTRODUCTION
Kombumerri elder and cultural educator, Mary Graham said in a recent interview:
“You hear elderly Aboriginal people say that white fellers haven’t got a Dreaming, and all that really means is that they don’t realise that they have a Dreaming, and it hasn’t occurred to them yet, and I’ve heard that quite often. So when they do, then they’ll have a truly, deeply, fundamental sense of themselves, in a deeper Dreaming sense and then we’ll have something to talk about, then we can really communicate, because both peoples will have truly belonged to the place, in-sync, you know… we’ll both belong to the place.”
Extracted from ‘Mary Graham speaks…’ an Indigenous World View video produced by Teone Reinthal in 2007
Draft question: How does a non-Indigenous Australian artist read an imprinted landscape, and in making personal narrative response, generate accessible new pathways between identity, environment and relationship?
The nominated research and subsequent film studio projects (proposed documentary and narrative drama) seek to produce a body of works responding to various locations of culturally. historically and creatively imprinted landscapes. Developing production-based methodologies explored in my MA Hons studio project and research, the question seeks to further investigate theories of renowned theatrical director Peter Brook in a filmed series of experimental dramatic works. (One of the locations is Peel Island, Moreton Bay).
The proposed Peel Island documentary seeks to provide cohesive reporting on the relationship between the Island’s natural environment and its social and historical phenomenology, whereas the proposed dramatic outcomes will range in scope from a series of short films of immediate, in situ responses, to development of a narrative script and drama.
“What initially struck me when I read some small accounts of patient's experiences of being taken to Peel Island was their losses; loss of loving touch, loss of freedom, loss of identity. I knew the pain of being pushed away, I remembered the hurts of being rejected and outcast by people's reactions to my own physical differences of missing fingers and toes, and I quietly slipped in under the wire of what separated me emotionally from patients of Peel, I had my own scars of being painted a 'leper', it was a stigma applied by ignorance, with as broad a brush as any might choose to use.
The social consequences of being affected by Hansen's Disease are deep and ancient wounds, made more tragic by the ignorance of the times; mistaken and misdiagnosed cases, lack of knowledge, lack of resources and hysterical misunderstanding. I caught glimpses and shadows of patient’s lives on Peel, and I felt a hypnotic sense of familiarity.” - Excerpted from a journal of initial responses to Peel Isl. - Teone Reinthal May 2008
“What initially struck me when I read some small accounts of patient's experiences of being taken to Peel Island was their losses; loss of loving touch, loss of freedom, loss of identity. I knew the pain of being pushed away, I remembered the hurts of being rejected and outcast by people's reactions to my own physical differences of missing fingers and toes, and I quietly slipped in under the wire of what separated me emotionally from patients of Peel, I had my own scars of being painted a 'leper', it was a stigma applied by ignorance, with as broad a brush as any might choose to use.
The social consequences of being affected by Hansen's Disease are deep and ancient wounds, made more tragic by the ignorance of the times; mistaken and misdiagnosed cases, lack of knowledge, lack of resources and hysterical misunderstanding. I caught glimpses and shadows of patient’s lives on Peel, and I felt a hypnotic sense of familiarity.” - Excerpted from a journal of initial responses to Peel Isl. - Teone Reinthal May 2008
videographic stills from Peel Island ©2008 Teone Reinthal
Preliminary responses -
The PEEL ISLAND shorts and an excerpt from MARY GRAHAM speaks...
PEEL ISLAND - EXPERIMENTS & MUSINGS...
What
creative outcomes emerge when a group of artists gather on Peel Island
to research significant historical and environmental issues? 
PROJECT BACKGROUND
- Queensland Parks and Wildlife,
Queensland College of Arts & Griffith Film School recently
commenced a collaborative, experiential arts project, placing a small
group of postgraduate visual artists on the historic Peel Island to
reflect, research and respond to the environment.
Many fascinating features of the Island's checkered history (including it's quarantine station, sanitorium for inebriates, and the Lazaret for the patients suffering Hansen's Disease)
will no doubt emerge in the works to come forth, but Peel Island also
captivates imagination through it's raw, natural beauty.
Sincere thanks are due to the
Queensland Parks and Wildlife rangers, particulary to Roland Dowling
for stimulating us with such a comprehensive induction into the
island's most notable features.
We're all very curious to discover what will arise from the experience...
Photographs using a pin-hole camera by Dacchi Dang ©2008
