SKIN

Premieres in 2000 at Sydney Opera House

As you enter the theatre for Skin, you are entering a timeless sacred space. Barely visible in low lighting, a woman and a boy start to unfold a story. The mother heart, the bonding spirit of the women in Shelter lay the foundation for the men of Spear to survive.

Shelter is inspired by the ravishing works of the late Aboriginal artist, Emily Kame Kngwarrye, and draws on the cultural practices of the women of Australia’s Central Desert and Utopia regions, to create images of extraordinary beauty. It is an abstract portrayal of the traditional hunting and gathering process, inspired by living off the land. It begins with the women hunting small animals, gathering berries and bush medicines, using the digging sticks to get nutritional roots from the ground.

Spear marks the first-time collaboration with Bangarra of award-winning indigenous songwriter and performer, Archie Roach. Spear explores the problems Aboriginal men face in urban and remote communities, starting in childhood. Spiritual forces are represented by an elder spirit from a traditional homeland, an urban spirit who has worked through so much that he is cleansed by his own efforts, and a new spirit in the body of a child.