'Serpent Dreaming Women' dance drama, woman through the ages

Serpent Dreaming Women explores contemporary struggles of Indian and indigenous Australian women, finding common threads in their folklore

What does one get when Indigenous Australian, Indian and Non-residential Indian (NRI) women meet on the same platform to share experiences and folklore? A surprisingly prominent common thread, if performance artiste Priya Srinivasan and Chennai-based dancer Priyadarshini Govind are to be believed.

The duo recently conceptualised, choreographed and presented Serpent Dreaming Women , a performance that brought together dance, poetry, mythology and a somewhat political outlook, in an attempt to explore the feminine experience of these three seemingly disconnected communities. Staged at the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Melbourne, Serpent Dreaming Women , the performance aimed to open Australian eyes to the Indian and aboriginal experience in the country: six particular experiences, to be precise. The six who portrayed these were Vicki Couzens, Yaraan Bundle, Gina Bundle, Uthra Vijay, Priyadarsini Govind and Priya Srinivasan

Srinivasan describes it as “an offering of contemporary personal and political stories that deal with personal loss, death, the stolen generation and racism against Indian migrants that intertwine with these older mythological stories”. The intertwining of these varied worlds was not as difficult as one might imagine, she explains, “In the rehearsal process, the mythologies and stories we shared showed how connected we are,” adds Srinivasan.

 

The fascination doesn’t end there. The artistes made it a point to take these discoveries, these stories, the entire aboriginal and Indian mythological experience and immerse the audience in it. Govind, a trained Bharatanatyam dancer herself, choreographed the performance and kept the audience in mind while doing so. “Somehow they felt very part of the whole process and not alienated... Drawn in to the piece through their senses,” describes Govind. “We took them on a journey to make them think and feel right up to the end, into the smoke/fire ritual of the Gunditjmara women, with the mixing of our flowers with theirs. The audience was not just witnessing something but as part of it. They felt connected to everything.”

It was the sharing of stories that brought forth the commonalities. For Srinivasan, the creative trigger was personal. “As a migrant Indian to Australia, I felt that our connections to Indigenous Australians was far greater than mainstream Australians. We look like them, we both have old cultures, we have similar relationships to the earth, Nature, and spirits, we have both been colonised...” she points out, “For me personally when I arrived in Australia as a young child from India in the 1980s I was often mistaken for an Indigenous Australian and this mistake has played on my psyche in all these years as I have discovered myself in relation to Indigenous Australia rather than mainstream Australia.”

The title, Serpent Dreaming Women, also stems from this sense of connection. “In Indigenous Australian cosmologies, the ‘Rainbow Serpent’ is a powerful force that helps us understand creation and destruction — as well as non-linear time (past/present/future co-existing simultaneously) in cyclical patterns — much as Indian cosmologies have. Hindu Indian mythologies also have the Nagas as a main metaphor in our creation myths, whether it is as Adi Sesha, or Vasuki.”

These are just some of the mythological motifs used in the performance, others being the Eagle and the Whale. The latter, in particular, really spoke to Govind, who sees it as “The one that I feel has most relevance to the present day. The whale dreaming story is from an ancient past of how humans can be in tune with whales, to the present, when we are losing touch and therefore the destruction and pollution to the oceans are happening.”

However, she also adds, “I identify with the piece as a whole. There are different emotions in it. Different complex layers in it. It is a lovely blend of ritual music, mythological stories, profound messages that are personal and contemporary messages that are relevant to all of us.” Which is why she is eager for the performance to come to India as well. “We would definitely like Indian audiences to see it. It’s important to see how we can meet another culture, an ancient culture.”

The department of foreign affairs and trade, Multicultural Arts Victoria, and Arts Center, Melbourne, commissioned and supported this performance.