To unpath’d waters, undream’d shores: Shakespeare, language and learning in Oceania
In this session, two presenters from Australia – Joanna Erskine, Head of Education at Bell Shakespeare, and actor, director and cultural consultant Kyle Morrison – and two presenters working in Kanaky-New Caledonia – Dr Florence Boulard and Dr Claire Hansen – speak to the ways that Shakespeare is being used as a vehicle for transformative learning and cultural connection in marginalised Australian communities and Oceania.
Joanna Erskine will speak to the power of Shakespeare as an educational tool in regional, remote and socially-disadvantaged Australian schools. Bell Shakespeare is Australia’s national theatre company specialising in Shakespeare, founded in 1990. Since its inception, the Company’s vision as set by Founding Artistic Director John Bell, is to ensure access to Shakespeare and high-quality arts experiences for all Australians, regardless of socioeconomic challenges or geographic location.
A key feature of Bell Shakespeare’s education program is engaging with schools and mentoring teachers in regional and remote Australia. This takes the Company into schools and communities experiencing myriad challenges including geographic isolation, environmental disasters, trauma, industry closures affecting employment, lack of resources, low levels of attendance, low value of education, and more. In addition to student engagement programs, the company also provides specialist training for teachers via the renowned National Teacher Mentorship program.
Next, actor and director Kyle Morrison will speak about the intersection of Shakespeare’s works with Aboriginal Noongar culture and language, from south-west Western Australia. He will explore these ideas and themes as he speaks to the journey of creating, rehearsing and performing Noongar sonnets (based on Shakespeare’s sonnets) and how we are still learning the best ways to situate and connect Shakespeare on and to the dreaming of this country.
Morrison, the former Artistic Director of Yirra Yaakin Theatre, has an extensive history working with Shakespeare including translating Shakespeare’s sonnets into Noongar language, presented at the World Shakespeare Festival in London at Shakespeare’s Globe. The Noongar Sonnets project broke ground on the cultural collaboration between Noongar language and Shakespeare’s texts by creating six of Shakespeare’s sonnets fully adapted into Noongar worldview and philosophical paradigm through Noongar language.
Dr Florence Boulard and Dr Claire Hansen will then extend this session’s focus from Australia to Oceania. Their presentation will explore the adaptation of Shakespeare’s works in Kanaky-New Caledonia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, Kanaky-New Caledonia is the native island home of Kanak families, whose descendants first arrived on the archipelago over three thousand years ago, after travelling from Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea. Colonised by the French in 1853, Kanaky-New Caledonia’s theatrical histories may historically have favoured Molière over William Shakespeare, however the country also enjoys a vibrant history of Shakespearean theatre and has witnessed a revival of Indigenous art and theatre. This paper will explore the work of a contemporary New Caledonian playwright, Pierre Gope, including the 2007 production of his adaptation, La nouvelle et sublime histoire de Roméo et Juliette. This production facilitates a shared exploration of Kanaky-New Caledonian cultural exchanges around race, gender, politics and place.
Joanna Erskine, Bell Shakespeare
Shakespeare as a vehicle for transformative learning in regional and remote Australian communities
What value can Shakespeare have to young people in regional and remote Australian communities, and how can teachers in these settings meaningfully engage with his works?
In this paper, Bell Shakespeare’s Head of Education Joanna Erskine will share how Shakespeare’s plays are used as a vehicle for transformative learning in regional and remote Australian communities. From Christmas Island to Arnhem Land, farming communities to mining centres, Erskine will detail how an active engagement with Shakespeare’s plays can enhance social, emotional and academic outcomes for young people in geographically-isolated Australian communities, and transform teacher capacity via the National Teacher Mentorship program.
Kyle Morrison
Aboriginality in Shakespeare
What are Shakespeare’s stories when told through a ‘classical’ Aboriginal lens? How do we connect the classical text to the world views of Australia’s first peoples and are there synergies which facilitate these creative collaborations?
In this session Kyle Morrison will speak about the intersection of Shakespeare’s works with Noongar culture and language, from south-west Western Australia. He will explore these ideas and themes as he speaks to the journey of creating, rehearsing and performing Noongar sonnets and how we are still learning the best ways to situate and connect Shakespeare on and to the dreaming of this country.
Dr Florence Boulard – James Cook University
Dr Claire Hansen – The Australian National University
Shakespeare in Oceania: Adapting Romeo and Juliet in Kanaky-New Caledonia
In this paper, we explore planetary or ‘global’ Shakespeare by looking to the French and Kanak language adaptation of his works in Oceania – specifically, in Kanaky-New Caledonia. We will focus on the work of Pierre Gope, a director and theatremaker, offering an exploration of his French and Kanak language adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, titled La nouvelle et sublime histoire de Roméo et Juliette. The paper will offer insights from an interview with Gope and analysis of his script and a 2007 production of the play. In this adaptation, we find a reimagining of Shakespeare that enables a playful exploration of community tensions – social, political and environmental – in Kanaky-New Caledonia through an enmeshing of Shakespeare’s symbolism with contemporary, local concerns.