Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) will present the debut Queensland season of new First Nations contemporary dance company Karul Projects in February 2020 with a double bill of works, mi:wi and CO_EX_EN.
As Mother Nature’s fate hangs by a thread, we find ourselves scrambling for a lifeline. Though sometimes tangled, does the connection to our ancestry reveal a way forward?
mi:wi (pronunciation: mee-wee) refers to the invisible ties we have to our past and future, people and country. In this dance theatre work, choreographer and performer Taree Sansbury thoughtfully re-connects three Indigenous women through the practice of Ngarrindjeri weaving.
Looking back and moving forward with growing sense of urgency, mi:wi speaks to the impacts of climate change while emphasising future lineages’ passage in continuing cultural knowledge. With one eye on the future and the other on the past, Sansbury interweaves time and bodies in an attempt to reveal the messenger bird’s warning cry in the present.
The word ‘mi:wi’ translates to stomach, inner spirit. Old medicine people could meditate on their ‘mi:wi’ to gain future visions and any impending danger. The urgency I feel for the future of my country and people highlights the need to look to our past and remember.
“mi:wi proves that you don’t need a big performance to fill a big space, you only need a big idea.”
David Collins, Arts Review
“mi:wi is a weaving together of past and present not just as an expression of identity but as a means of survival into the future.”
Michael Brindley, Stage Whispers
mi:wi
QPAC, Brisbane
5 to 8 February 2020
www.qpac.com.au
