Comedy survival skills
MELBOURNE — Often the best humour comes from cultures that have been oppressed and persecuted. Laughter is a means of survival, of striking back at the oppressor, and a way of mocking those who adopt the ways of the dominant culture.
Koori performer Andrea James describes humour as "one of our community's most important resources". James and fellow performers Tammy Anderson, Hank Kerr and Pauline Whyman make up the Oogadee Boogadees, a Koori clowning troupe that mixes these comedy survival skills with traditional clowning to create street theatre that both challenges and entertains.
James, a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts School of Drama, had a long history of involvement in Koori theatre before founding Oogadee Boogadees at the beginning of 1997 as part of a Melbourne Workers Theatre project.
"I'd been thinking about the idea of a Koori clown troupe for a couple of years", she told Green Left Weekly. "I wanted to raise Koori issues without guilt-tripping the audience or making them feel depressed, while at the same time not trivialising the issues. Humour is a really good way to create empathy among non-Kooris."
The name of the group comes from a Creole term for shoes. "I really liked the way it expressed the fact that the idea of wearing shoes was an alien concept which seemed ridiculous to indigenous people", says James, "and I thought it was a great example of how oppressed people treated colonialism in a comic way."
In the Oogadee Boogadees' performance, the many Aboriginal peoples gather for the Oogadee Boogadee Olympics. The theme gives the performers the opportunity to satirise the European concept of competition and the concept of "one nation", and contrast Australia's historical neglect and ill-treatment of indigenous people with the hype and massive spending surrounding the 2000 Olympics.
At the same time, James stresses, it's a light-hearted and entertaining show that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.
The Oogadee Boogadees will be performing as part of the Melbourne International Festival, November 1-22, at the Spiral Staircase, Southgate, weeknights, 7pm and 9pm, and Saturdays, 4pm, 7pm and 9pm.<>><>41559MS>n<>255D>