• Title
  Item 1: Stephen Page interview by Martin Portus, 11 August 2023
• Level of description
  item
• Date
  
  11 August 2023
• Type of material
  Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Oral Histories
• Reference code
  9680256
• Physical Description
  1 audio file (2 hr., 1 min.) - digital, WAV, stereo (48 kHz, 24 bit)
  
• Scope and Content
  This interview follows up on an earlier one with Stephen Page in February 2016, and begins with more attention to 2015, noting the revival of Ochres, a landmark work staged by Bangarra, the celebrated Indigenous dance theatre founded by Stephen as artistic director, with his brothers, music director David and principal dancer Russell. Ochres also included traditional dancer Djakapurra Munyarran, another company stalwart and from the Yirrkala people and country so profound in Stephen’s creative development.
  
  He discusses other innovative Bangarra work, including by other choreographers and his successor as Artistic Director, Frances Rings. Work discussed includes Lore, Terrain, Kinship and Spirit, and the long musical collaboration between David and non-indigenous composer Steve Francis; the making of Stephen’s first and applauded film Spear, with his son Hunter Page-Lochard, about the dislocation of indigenous people living in two cultures. He notes the inequity of racism as a schoolboy more fair-skinned than his nine siblings in Brisbane,
  
  Stephen shares his grief at the death of David in 2016, and with the loss earlier of Russell, his slow return to full leadership in a bereft company. This was followed by the JC Williamson's Award and an AO, as he threw himself into a new triple bill, Our Land, People, Stories, and then another new work in 2017, One Country, all of which showcased a new generation of indigenous dancers and choreographers. He details developing the next in his run of ever bigger, much applauded black/white contact narratives, this time about the ambiguous, ultimately tragic Bennelong; then his next equally successful work inspired by Bruce Pascoe’s book Dark Emu, dismissing the later controversy.
  
  Stephen discusses the role of Bangarra overseas in Australia’s soft and cross-indigenous diplomacy; his making and all-capital touring of 30 years of 65 Thousand, and related immersive installation; developing Sandsong: Stories from the Great Sandy Desert in 2020 as homage to the country of the late Ningali Josie Lawford-Wolf; the impact of COVID on Bangarra; and creating his last and largest white/black contact work, Wudjang: Not the Past, with live musicians, 17 dancers, actors and bilingual songs in English and the language of his father. He talks about projects developing with his son Hunter, and a beach-side installation he’s producing for the 2024 Adelaide Festival. He delights in the opportunities, stories and profile of indigenous artists today, but decries Australia’s inept handling of indigenous concerns, in the context of the coming referendum.
• Language
  English
• Copying Conditions
  In copyright:
  Copyright holder:: State Library of New South Wales
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• General note
  
  Recorded at Forbes Street Studios, Woolloomooloo, New South Wales, on 11 August 2023
• Creator/Author/Artist
  Page, Stephen, 1965-
  
• Subject
  Page, Stephen, 1965---Interviews.
  Bangarra Dance Theatre Australia.
  Performing arts - Dance companies
  Dance, Aboriginal Australian.
  Dance companies--New South Wales--Sydney
  Choreography.
  Film - Film making
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE20851310

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