Artists

DESCENDANCE (Australia)

The idea to form Descendance came into existence out of necessity to protect the cultural heritage of the Native Australians. By presenting performers from different tribes and from Theresa Island, the group fosters and promotes traditions of the Aboriginal people. This is a crazy, hilarious, yet at moments moving display of a culture, which has found in Descendance possibly its only shelter.

The traditions of six tribes from North Eastern Australia are the inspiration for this group. All its members have learned the dances in the family, or from the tribal elders. Traditional dances are not taught in any dance school. The dancers are accompanied by live music. This is a traditional music that has been passed from generation to generation.

Descendece was formed from the ashes of started in 1993 Ngaru Aboriginal Dance Company, the first professional group that performed traditional Aboriginal dances. Ngaru (which can be translated from Aboriginal as “shake your leg”) is a dance style, which is popular on the Cape York Peninsula in the Northern part of Queens land.

In 1999, when the group was joined by a number of performers from various tribes that occupy different territories across Australia, it changed its name to Descendance. The words “united in the fight for the common cause” became the motto of the group.

Nowadays, the group assists in finding work many Aborigine artists, who work in areas other than dance and include, but are not limited to: painting, music, writing and acting

Meanings of Songs and Dances

1.Jalima: Jalima means welcome, and it’s a song we use at the beginning of our performance to welcome the audience into our corroboree or meeting.

2.Ugadangi: this word means Kangaroo, the song pays respect to the Kangaroo, who provides the tribe with meat to eat, fur to wear, bones to use as tools, and the sinew in the tail as string, the blood was also drunk.

3.Injida Bagan: a Mosquito song , when the hunters went to the mangroves to collect there food, they were not scared of crocodiles, but mosquitoes who ate their flesh, to overcome this they would smoke them out burning eucalyptus leaves, and covering their bodies with mud (ochre) so the insect could not smell their blood.

4.HoneyTree : this dance tells the story of hunters collecting bush honey from the native bee; this bee does not sting, unlike the introduced European bee. They catch the bee cover it in white mud and follow it to its nest, there they cut the trunk of the tree and eat the nectar inside it.

5.Gegabe: Gegabe is women’s fruit picking dance, picking the wild apples from the trees, women were the gathers of food and produced about 80% of the diet, while the men hunted for game.

6. Bulliye this tells the story of the Sea Eagle and the Fish, how they need each other in the cycles of nature, the eagle devours the fish, but the two spirits become one.

7. Waddama this is music for a style dance, during courtship time, the dancers show their style to attract the opposite sex, it’s a celebration dance.

8. Jidigi :This song pays tribute to the Willy Wagtail, who is a messenger bird for the tribes of far North Queensland, when they see him, he is an omen.

9.Macanbe : not all hunting journeys were successful, sometimes the hunters spent hours trying to catch an animal, this is one of the many failed hunting expeditions, and the tribe goes to bed on an empty stomach.

10.Ika sometimes the incoming tide would bring thousands of pipy shells; this tells the story of the tribe collecting the shells and throwing them to the women who are gathering them.

Workshop:
Their workshops are interactive; group explain the history of aboriginal dance and music, with demonstrations and audience participations in didgeridoo, dancing and singing with some performance.
The workshop will be conducted in English and Polish.

number of places available: 20