Old and ancient stories told with 21st century technology for Eurobodalla's River of Art

A creation story and a tragedy from the 19th century are being told using cutting-edge technology for the River of Art festival. Baranguba will premiere at the Bay Pavilions in Batemans Bay on 4 October. It combines traditional cultural dancing, singing and storytelling with animation, video projections and motion capture technology.

Baranguba is the work of Narooma’s Sharon Mason, creative director Scott Baker of Bermagui, award-winning animator Duncan Irving and Ms Mason’s multigenerational dance group, the Djaadjawan Dancers.

Mr Baker said having access to the Bay Pavilion’s state-of-the-art theatre was important, especially in a regional area.

“Access to a theatre space of that calibre allowed us to set a high bar for the production standards,” he said.

Ms Mason brought the concept to Mr Baker.

“I had seen what Scott was doing with large-scale video projection mapping and wanted to do something with him and the dancers.”

Baranguba is about a tragedy that happened off the coast of Narooma sometime between 1820 and 1860. The story was handed down through oral storytelling in the Aboriginal community. Years later though, an unidentified person told the story to an author, Reginald Barlow. He wrote about the incident in an article Wagonga: From an Aboriginal Tradition that was published in the Moruya Examiner in February 1892.

Mr Baker’s interest was piqued because there is a European version and a version handed down through stories.

“It is this interesting intersection between the culture of storytelling and the European way of writing it down,” he said.

After speaking with Ms Mason’s mother, Aunty Vivian Mason, he was hooked.

“Reading Reginald Barlow’s article and listening to how Aunty Vivian tells the story you can see direct linkages between the story and the wording,” Mr Baker said. “Reginald Barlow was told the early story so there is a beautiful intersect between the two different storytelling methods.”

Given relations between the settlers and the Aboriginal people back then, Mr Irving was surprised that the article was published while Ms Mason pointed to the high regard that the author expressed for her people in the article.

The article said there was a man on the headland who saw 80 to 100 canoes going by.

“There are parts of the article where he is full of admiration for the people of Narooma going out in these bark canoes and doing this sea journey from the mainland to Baranguba,” Ms Mason said.

The production also interweaves an ancient story.

“One of our creation stories is in it, coming to life,” she said.

Ms Mason is keen to share their stories using techniques such as animation.

“It is moving with the times, so let’s do it and get the story out there.”

With funding from the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal, they workshopped two scenes to see if they could combine animation, videos and dance.

Mr Irving said it was “a real experiment, capturing the dancers’ performance and having an interactive component and using technology to have images on the screen reflecting the dancers’ movements”.

The result is a hybrid theatre experience with film, interactive animation and dancers performing on the stage.

Visumotus provided the motion tracking and motion capture technology and applied that to the graphics and animation.

That “hugely successful” creative development with “beautiful imagery” secured them funding from Create NSW to develop the full production. “River of Art was very supportive and took a chance on us,” Mr Baker said.

Candelo-based producer Sam Martin recorded the songs and narrative with his mobile recording studio, Sam’s Caravan. He is also the voice of Reginald Barlow.

Baranguba is a huge buzz for Ms Mason. It is the first Aboriginal production to be performed at Bay Pavilion’s Yuin Theatre and her 14-year-old daughter Arwyn created two of the Dhurga language songs and two dances.

“I think about it every day, visualising it and feeling very proud doing this with my mum,” she said.

Aunty Vivian is almost 80 years old and is performing alongside two of her granddaughters and a great-granddaughter.

Ms Mason wants the audience to leave with a better understanding of her people and their strength, and to feel confident connecting with local Koori people.

“That would make it a better place by learning about our culture, the places we come from and our special areas.”

Baranguba will premiere at the Yuin Theatre, Bay Pavilions in Batemans Bay at 6 pm on Friday 4 October. There will be two further performances at 2 pm and 7 pm on Saturday 5 October. Tickets are on sale now. The 20th River of Art Festival will be held from 27 September to 7 October and extends from Durras to Bermagui.