Case Studies
MIDDAR

| Kwillana Dreaming | Wardan Cultural Centre | Maali Mia | Southern Aboriginal Corporation |
| Waljin Consultancy | Bunbury Cultural Centre | Middar | Kepa Kurl | Yirra Kurl | Kodja Place |

Middar“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