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 Bangarra’s new show, Mathinna, explores a journey that spans two worlds, an all-too-familiar theme for the company’s queer indigenous contingent. Composer David Page and dancer Leonard Mickelo sat down with Garrett Bithell.
When Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Mathinna opened in Melbourne in May, the Herald Sun raved that it presented ‘some of the most powerful imagery seen on a Victorian stage’. Now, Sydneysiders will get a chance to witness this vivid production for themselves when it transforms the Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House from Tuesday, July 22.
Inspired by a young girl’s journey between two cultures, it traces the history of Mathinna, a young Aboriginal girl captured from her traditional life and people, and crudely assimilated into Western colonial society, only to be ultimately returned to the fragments of her original heritage.
Born ‘Mary’ on Flinders Island, Tasmania in 1835 to the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, Towterer, and his wife Wongerneep, as a young girl Mathinna captured the hearts of Governor Sir John and Lady Jane Franklin, and was adopted into their household at Government House in Hobart.
Mary was renamed ‘Mathinna’. Somewhat an educational and charitable project, she was raised with the Governor’s daughter Elinor and described as a ‘very nice, intelligent child’. But when Governor Sir John and Lady Jane Franklin returned to England, Mathinna was sent to the Queen’s Orphan School in Hobart. She struggled to adjust and left the school to rejoin her people at an Aboriginal station at Oyster Cove, south of Hobart, when she was 16. It was at this settlement that her life came to an abrupt and heartbreaking end – she drowned in a puddle while drunk. She was 21 years old.
This is now an all-too-familiar story, but Mathinna became the archetype of the ‘stolen child’, and in this brand new work Bangarra Dance Theatre recreates her compelling story of vulnerability and loss in an era of uncertainty and intolerance.
“It’s quite tragic,” composer David Page, the man behind the music in Mathinna, tells SX. “But these stories are important. A lot of people know about this girl, but there are many Mathinnas out there – even today, in all cultures.”
David joined Bangarra Dance Theatre as resident composer back in 1990. He has composed scores for major works such as Bush (2003), Unaipon/Clan (2004) and Boomerang (2005). He has also worked for The Australian Ballet and contributed music to the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. He regularly composes scores for the ABC and SBS, and is currently working with the Australian Sound Archives.
David has won four Deadly Sound Awards, and was even nominated for an ARIA for Heartland in 1996. In 2006 he received the Green Room Award for ‘Best New Australian Play’ for Page 8, which he plans to remount in the next year.
Almost miraculously, the cultivation period for Mathinna was only seven weeks. “When you’re a creative person and you’re given a deadline, it can be quite daunting,” David admits. “But then again, if you have no deadline you can go on and on and on and over-produce it and the work never really finishes. So it’s actually good to work under pressure.”
 Mathinna is choreographed by David’s brother, Stephen, and his creative juices show no signs of drying up after being at the helm of Bangarra Dance Theatre for 18 years. The company is renowned for blending traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and culture with international contemporary dance influences to create a very unique, and very Australian, dance language.
“Because we’re brothers, the development process is very honest and organic,” David says. “We get on really well and if we do fight the grudge is never held for long – anything after 20 minutes and it’s serious! But Stephen’s a fucking genius! His mind is more active than mine, but we do have a telepathic thing going on between us!”
While Mathinna reflects a truly horrific period of our history, it has been noted that instead of apportioning blame to the woefully misguided actions of many colonists, Stephen focuses on the spirit of the land as a place of timeless relief and redemption. It is a measured, but still potent, piece of theatre.
“We could have gone in pointing the finger – blaming and victimising,” David muses. “But I think it’s best to leave it general and let the audience make up its own mind.
“However with our representation of colonial white people, it is quite literal, and some media and arts people have been offended by how we portrayed that. But that’s how it was! We weren’t out to make them look nice. It was horrific, and that had to be expressed.”
Bangarra Dance Theatre prides itself on reflecting the lives and attitudes of indigenous people today. Leonard Mickelo, our cover model this week, is one of the young indigenous dancers featured in Mathinna. For him, working for the company has been about discovering a sense of identity.
“It’s affected me a lot,” Leonard tells SX. “It makes me feel like I need to step up and represent my people, because most of my blood is Aboriginal. I was crying through most of the world premiere in Melbourne. It’s really good to feel like that when you’re dancing – it’s not every day you get paid to do something you love while learning about your culture. It’s a beautiful thing.”
What’s perhaps not so beautiful is that Leonard himself often falls foul of bigotry in his everyday life – something he tries hard to transcend.
“It’s cool to be a gay indigenous person and I’ve got a lot of gay indigenous friends,” he says. “But we do get rejected from nightclubs because there might be too many of us or because of our skin colour – so we do get discriminated against still.
“I kind of just get over it and we all just go to another club. I mean it doesn’t happen all the time, but it will happen about once every month. I think it’s just petty, and we try not to let it ruin our night.”
Born in 1987, Leonard began studying tap, modern jazz and classical ballet when he was 10 years old. He has won over 30 championships in the last five years alone, and has been lauded with many awards, including ‘Most Outstanding Male Dancer of the Festival’ in Rockhampton in 2003 and 2004, and ‘Most Outstanding Performer’ at the Biloela Eisteddford and the Gatton Dance Festival.
“I wake up in the morning and the first thing I think about is dancing,” Leonard says. “I suppose when that happens you know that is what you want to do. But then again I have woken up a few times and thought about being a model, so I might pursue that as well!”
 Both David and Leonard hope Mathinna inspires Sydney audiences to contemplate our legacy.
“Do you know any Aboriginal people?” he questions. “But I think this generation is finally waking up. In my generation people would come up to me and ask ‘do you still hunt?’ or ‘do you still eat kangaroo?’ And I’d say ‘Fuck, I just live down the road from you’!
“Some people have said to me after the show, ‘Fuck, I don’t know what it is; I can’t find the words for what just happened’. And I love that – when they can’t explain it but they know they’re feeling something. So it can be a spiritual experience.
“Of course non-indigenous people can relate to the story as well. It’s about who you are and where you fit.”
Mathinna plays the Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House from July 22 until August 23. For tickets visit sydneyoperahouse.com or call the box office on (02) 9250 7777. For more information on Bangarra Dance Theatre, visit bangarra.com.au
Photographs for SX by Myles Formby
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