The Indigenous ARt and Craft of Black Power

The ground on which I stand. — August Wilson

Thus at every step we are reminded that we by no means rule over nature like a conqueror over a foreign people, like someone standing outside nature — but that we, with flesh, blood and brain, belong to nature..."
— Friedrich Engels

Bundanon Arts Center, Australia
2017

Knowing that the Black Panther Party started the Black Power movement in support of Australian Native right, I am embarked on a journey to creatively discover what remains of this connection. These photographic works created by Gina Kalabishis are documentation of my work which was a multi-national, multi-disciplinary collaboration. The work posits that Australian foraging traditions and African American performance practices are cross-cultural, multi-national concepts that—like craft practices—are shared and practiced globally.

Various Australian artists, notably Ralph Dixon and Australian visual artist Gina Kalabishis, were instrumental in helping to learn about Australian foraging crafts as a manifestation of a transcendental connection to the land.

While in Australia, my studio practice was based in African American vernacular movement and sound making as an expression of the foraging practice. The photographs Ms. Kalabishis created represent our collaboration and my performances in the Outback.

Twinning the exploration of the natural world with the Black Power movement, I foraged for bark and danced in the bush in the dark of the early morning outback with a nature visual artist. This collaboration reveals the relationship between indigenous Australians foraging practices and the community service program run by the Black Panther Party, who brought the Black Power movement to Australia.

This collaboration of live performance and photography was an inspiring way to celebrate a shared relationship to the land.

Photos by Gina Kalabishis. Costume Designed by Kristine Doile. All images subject to strict copyright. Images are available to purchase and tour.