Values statement for the gathering and beyond?
The organising committee has drafted a values statement that reflects what is driving us in developing this gathering. As we gather around the theme of Playing it Forward the committee offers the statement to the broader community to consider.
‘Community, connection, creativity, ancestral engagement, sensuality, energetic boundaries and joy all combat colonial practices and mentality.’ - Jennifer Mullan
As colonial settlers and more recently arrived Australians and Aotearoa/New Zealanders, we recognise that the lands we inhabit are marked by the unhealed wounds of racism and colonialism, wounds that continue to be inflicted on our First Nations peoples today. We recognise that those practices are intimately connected to other forms of social, economic and political injustice that are themselves marked on the bodies and carried in the hearts of oppressed people everywhere, and in the soil, air and waters of our planet.
As Australasian Playback Gathering organisers, our goal is to create a space where the stories shaped by those legacies are welcomed, honoured and amplified, as a contribution to the elimination of all forms of oppression and in support of efforts to achieve social justice in the wider world. That goal sits alongside our existing commitment to honour the personal narratives that we already welcome in our Playback Theatre practice.
We acknowledge that individuals might have different views about this topic. We offer this statement on social justice with genuine curiosity about how to move things forward. We will offer opportunities at the Gathering for conversations about this goal, and about what we can do individually and in our companies in support of bringing it to life.
Looking beyond the Gathering, we know that it will take time to develop an active, meaningful long term engagement with these issues, but also know that it starts with centering the voices of those most affected by injustice, and by making spaces that are safe, diverse, equitable and as accessible as possible. We acknowledge that as organisers, we do not yet meet that standard.
We invite Australasian playbackers and companies to share this commitment, and to grow their awareness of what it might mean to them and to their Playback Theatre practice. We have many questions about how to move this project forward. We, the organisers of the Gathering, invite you to begin travelling with us in this same direction, and to share the challenges and answers that you uncover as you go.