WHERE WE STAND

performance ritual

Dancehouse (Dec, 2019), VCA DanceOn (Jun, 2018)

Bella Waru - Choreographer, co-facilitator, performer

Choreographer/facilitator - Isabella Wháwhai Waru (formerly Mason) in collaboration with artists

Soundscape - Guy Louis (2019)

Samara Alofa (2018)

Artists - Laniyuk, Aisha Trambas, Ate Chesca(Te), Bella Waru, Pauline Vetuna, Stacey Lake, Ebony Howald (2019)

Janina Asiedu, Ngioka Bunda-Heath, Fallon Te Paa, Hannah Troth, Pauline Vetuna, Kathleen Campone, Jazmyn Carter, Anika De Ruyter, Ebony Howald (2018)

ARTICLES

the guardian

Isabella Whawhai Waru's media response

'These uncomfortable conversations play a necessary role in moving towards greater solidarity with marginalised peoples. Unless we are actively resisting systems of oppression, injustice and discrimination, we are complicit to their continuation. Racism, discrimination and oppression are systemically sewn into the fabrics of our society, and white privilege therefore inherently keeps functioning.'

un projects

'In antagonising the settler colonial status quo and staking claims to the centrality of local and global Indigenous practices, these works destroy the consumptive, extractive, comfortable gaze that has powered Euro-American societies through pillaging and destruction.' - Léuli Eshrāghi

Read review by Léuli Eshrāghi

darkness outside

'For people who aren’t white and living in a colonised and white supremacist society, being able to understand and process feelings of guilt, shame and trauma is an ongoing exercise that requires honest reflection and accountability.

Where We Stand is a dance/ performance ‘ritual’ that facilitates this by inviting Indigenous and other people of colour into a theatre turned into a healing space filled with warm, soothing aural tones and soft places to be in.

In that space, personal stories of the damage of these interlocking oppressive systems are shared amongst us. In being there, feeling the intimacy of relating such experiences, a question arises in my mind:

How do these personal affects, these lifelong traumas shared between us as confessional mementos translate into forms of anti-colonial solidarity and action that might upturn the colonial, white supremacist society that we inhabit?'

Read blog reflection: Where We Stand: processing and transforming racial trauma together

the australian

'Where We Stand was informative, powerful and a useful framing device..'

'Mason’s work is very much on point.' - Chris Boyd

Read review - The Australian