Bennelong (2017)

Excerpts from Bennelong

Bangarra’s Bennelong is presented in seventeen sections that are woven together as a complete production. Each section offers ideas about those who experienced First Contact, and the impact and emotional bearings that colonisation brought to the Aboriginal people, while focussing on the story of one man, Woollarawarre Bennelong. The seventeen sections are:

SACRED Respecting the space

BIRTH OF BENNELONG The birth of the man with five names

WANGAL Eora nation people, living off the land on their Country, hunting and gathering

NATIVE VACCINATE Intuition tells the clan unsettling spirits are coming and they must vaccinate and protect themselves

FLEET The arrival, of which sets a course of destruction for the next two centuries.

OBSERVATION SMELL First Contact, with both cultures observing mind, body and spirit

REWIND 1788 Spirit of the Land and Knowledge, consciously reflecting the spirit of Bennelong, the land and the people

BAIT Governor Phillip sends for the capture of Bennelong

RESPONDING First archetype of assimilation through the wearing of colonial clothing

ONSLAUGHT Small pox wipes out a whole clan; Bennelong survives

RESISTANCE Signs of resistance through the energy of Pemulwuy

REJECTION Spearing of Governor Phillip at Manly Cove in a men’s initiation

SPIRIT OF BARANGAROO One of Bennelong’s wives Barangaroo dies

CROWN Bennelong and Yemmerawanye travel to London with Governor Phillip and are feted as a triumph of assimilation; Yemmerawanye dies in London

REPATRIATION The ongoing battle for our bones and spirits to be returned from London

WIVES Bennelong returns from London and does not belong in either world; the five strong female energies that influenced his life

1813/PEOPLE OF THE LAND The year Bennelong dies questioning what he has left, and mourning his own spirit

In this e-resource, the seven Excerpts from the production Bennelong are:

1. Sacred - Respecting the space
2. Wangal - Eora nation people, living off the land on their Country, hunting and gathering
3. Fleet - The arrival, of which sets a course of destruction for the next two centuries.
4. Rewind 1788 - Spirit of the Land and Knowledge, consciously reflecting the spirit of Bennelong, the land and the people
5. Responding - First archetype of assimilation through the wearing of colonial clothing
6. Rejection - Spearing of Governor Phillip at Manly Cove in a men’s initiation
7. 1813 / People of the Land -The year Bennelong dies questioning what he has left, and mourning his own spirit