By Roanna Gonsalves
Here in Sydney, it’s the time of the spring equinox. The city submits to the Southern Hemisphere’s annual movement towards heat, fire, flowers. A large audience has gathered in the courtyard at Old Government House to experience Bhoomi: Woman and Earth. It is the third in a series of annual recitals produced and directed by Arjunan Puveendran and Indu Balachandran as part of the Sydney Sacred Music Festival.
In March 2019, Sydney-based Nautanki Theatre Company invited the world-renowned theatre artist, Danish Husain, to perform live at Riverside Theatre, and to conduct an interactive masterclass at Macquarie University, Sydney. Roanna Gonsalves interviewed Danish Husain, via email, about his chosen artform and his practice as a performer within the broader context of global performance practice.
By Roanna Gonsalves
[This text was presented upon invitation, as a speech at ‘Voice, Agency, and Integrity – Diversity and Inclusion in the Arts’, the launch of the Beyond Tick Boxes report by Diversity Arts Australia, Riverside Theatre, Parramatta, on Friday, Oct 5, 2018.]
Good afternoon everyone. I was going to title this talk “What polyamory can teach us about the Australian arts landscape”, but, I thought, ‘it’s not the right moment yet’.
By Roanna Gonsalves
(This is a reworked version of the summary observations I was invited to present at the conclusion of ‘Beyond Tick Boxes’, a symposium organised by Diversity Arts Australia, or DARTS, at Casula Powerhouse, on Thursday, June 29, 2017)
Good afternoon everyone. I’d also like to acknowledge the indigenous people of this country, the Cabrogal Clan of the Darug Nation, on whose land we have gathered today. I would like to say thank you to Lena Nahlous and Kevin Bathman for inviting me to give you a very short and incredibly opinionated summary of my observations today.
I have three main observations. They are colour-coded: red, black and yellow.