“The thrust behind setting up Middar was the belief that
Aboriginal culture and Nyungar culture in particular had been marginalised
and it (Nyungar culture) was something that people wanted to study
but didn’t believe actually existed”. (Dr Richard Walley)
The Story of Middar. The Middar Aboriginal Theatre was formed in
1976 by Dr Richard Walley, Ken Buckskin, John Kelly, Theo Kearing,
Louis Collard and Ernie Dingo. As long as the Anthropologists,
doctors and other people who study Indigenous culture and in particular
Nyungar culture, as long as they were the one’s in the limelight
and being well marketed, well “they were the keepers of stories” as
far as the western world was concerned. We needed to take that
back off them, we really had to say we as Nyungar people that “we
are the keepers of our own stories”, we don’t need
a non-Nyungar person to interpret them for us.”
Richard said he realised the importance of his culture and wanted
to do something positive to give Nyungar people back their sense
of pride and identity and to educate the wider community on the respect,
strength, dignity and community spirit that are the founding stones
of Aboriginal culture. He saw the potential for this through the
theatre combining Nyungar music, vocals and dance.
So to do that we (the group) went to the two areas that were very
prominent at the time, one of them was through the Education system.
Going to the schools and public events, like the country and western
festivals, the other festivals that took place in Nyungar country
and perform to general public there. That did two things, the first
one, it really pricked the conscience of the white fullahs to let
them know that Nyungar culture is alive and very vibrant and the
second one, really reinforced and motivated a lot of Nyungar people
to look at their own heritage and embrace their heritage a bit more.
That to me was the most important thing. So that was the education
side of things. The second one was in the tourism area. The tourism
sector became important because they were an audience that were bursting
for a unique experience and by coming to Perth at this time, apart
from looking at the view there was river trips, there was things
like excursions like El Cabello Blanco operating a horse show, there
were the wine tours.
All these things they could get in Europe but the one unique thing
we offered them was an Indigenous experience through dance. That’s
why I think Middar was really accepted and embraced and I think the
benefit from that flowed on to the non-Indigenous sector. I dare
to say the two prominent links into cultural tourism in those years
of the 1970’s was Middar down here in the South in Nyungar
country and Sam Lovell in our North. If you go and look at the Indigenous
cultural tourism here in Australia you will find that Sam Lovell
and Middar are still very prominent in the history of tourism, we
have both won tourism awards. Middar won the Sir David Brand Tourism
Award and won Swan Gold Small Business Award, both prominent Awards
here in this State (Western Australia). So the recognition came not
only from the Nyungar sector but the non-Nyungar sector as well in
recognising the achievements of Middar.
Since their formation in 1976, the Middar group have toured extensively
both nationally and internationally and are recognised as one of
the leading Indigenous dance groups of Australia. The original members
of Middar learned the dances by watching animals in the surrounding
bush, observing their movements and why they make these movements.
They also listened to the elders who told stories about the animals
and used these stories in their dances. Some of the dances include
yonkga or kangaroo, waitj or emu dance, brolga or crane dance.
CONTACT:
Dr Richard Walley
Bindjareb Middars Dance Group
Hampton Road Pinjarra Western Australia
PO Box 273 Pinjarra Western Australia
Telephone: +61(09)5312222
Facsimile +61(09) 5312120
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