Blurring Boundaries

The role of the ar+st in social history, responsibility and ethical choices Blurring Boundaries @IAS_UWA Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander audience members, please be advised that there may be images and voices of departed friends in this presentation. All images in this presentation are my original work, otherwise stated. @mayukanamori www.mayu.com.au mayu@mayu.com.au My name is Mayu Kanamori. Australians used to start their talks with a joke, whilst Japanese start with one big apology, but we are in year 2015, in Perth, Western Australia, so I begin with respectful acknowledgment for the Noongar people of whose land we gather together this evening. I also thank you Susan and friends at the Institute of Advanced Studies, UWA this opportunity. Self portrait, Alice Springs In the program it says I’m a story-teller. I also describe myself as a performance maker – a researcher – a documentary maker - radio producer – oral historian – interviewer - sound editor - video maker - video editor - writer - journalist – content provider… a photographer…. an artist. I am all of those things. And I think this is true for many of us. We no longer live in a world where we are destined to remain in our prescribed boundaries of our professions. So how to do we hear our calling and how do they manifest its self? In my case, one project has lead to another in collaboration with people from many different communities and fields, and through these individuals I come to know, I have recognised my social responsibilities. And these responsibilities keep creating new projects that demand me to blur my boundaries. Lucy Dann, Broome 2000 In 1998 I went to Broome for the first time. I was taking photographs of mixed heritage children between Japanese people and the local Indigenous people when I met Lucy Dann. Lucy is Bardi woman who found out from her Aboriginal father, on his death bed, that her biological father was a Japanese man who had once lived in Broome working for the pearling industry. Lucy is here with us tonight….. One thing led to another, and Lucy and I decided to go to Japan together to find her father. The manifestation of my collaboration with Lucy became a radio feature with ABC Radio National, then made into a performance piece called The Heart of the Journey Here is an excerpt. Excerpt: The Heart of the Journey VIDEO: HOJ 5min 14 secs (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htbwvPP0V5I - unavailable in USA / contact author to view video) by Lucy Dann & Mayu Kanamori 2000 More info: h7p://mayu.com.au/folio/heart/index.html If there had been an imagined border between a documentary photographer and a radio producer or a performance maker – a line that separated a those who dealt in facts and reportage and those who dealt with poetry and emotions, by then I had crossed and blurred its boundaries. #YasukichiMurakami @Performance4a Photo of Arisa Yura by Miho Watanabe Flyer design by Kevin Bathman My most recent performance work Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens is a play. It is a story about Yasukichi Murakami, who came to Cossack WA in 1897 from a seaside village in the Kii Penninsula of Japan called Tanami - which incidentally is less than 35 kilometers south of Taiji where Lucy’s father was from. Project blog h7ps://aboutmurakami.wordpress.com/ Image: Self portrait montaged with Theresa Shigeno Murakami & Kathleen Masuko Murakami Original photographs by Yasukichi Murakami, Courtesy, Murakami Family Archives Murakami had a colorful life as a shop-keeper, banker, publican, entrepreneur, inventor of the modern day diving suit, advisor, leader of the Japanese community – and like me – a photographer, who set up business in Broome, then in Darwin. The story-line of the play follows Murakami’s life, but it is also about a modern day search for his missing photographs by a contemporary photographer - a character based on me. Although Murakami had a thriving business as a photographer since the turn of the century his life-time worth of photographs went missing —— because, like all Japanese in Australia, WWII found him and his family interned as enemy aliens and he died whilst interned in Victoria. As with my previous works, using oral history interviews as part of performance was an integral part of this work. Here is a segment of the play which used oral history interviews. Voice of Pearl Hamaguchi, Broome 2011 Photos by Yasukichi Murakami, Courtesy Hamaguchi & Masuda Family Archives. Video design by Mic Gruchy VIDEO: Pearl Hamaguchi 51 secs (contact author to view video) Arisa Yura and Kuni Hashimoto in Yasukichi Murakami - Through a Distant Lens, Griffin Theatre Company / Stables Theatre, Sydney 2015 Video by Michael Park VIDEO - 3 mins Documentation, Yasukichi Murakami - Through a Distant Lens, Stables Theatre, Sydney 2015 (contact author to view video) Real people, real words, but unlike most of my previous works, this time I was dealing with a subject – a man who had died 70 years before. I couldn’t really interview a ghost. Or can I? I saw a channeller… I’d never seen a channeller or clayavoiyant before… sure, I’ve occasionally indulged in horoscopes and such, but not a channeller… but I thought it may help me to… blur my boundaries… it kind of made it… a documentary… I suppose… I was writing what the channeller said Murakami was saying. I also worked with actors for the first time. Kuni Hashimoto played Murakami’s ghost… who spoke to me… which meant that unlike any of my previous works, I didn’t narrate my own work. Instead I had an actor - Arisa Yura - play the part of me. That’s Arisa. I got a lot of mileage out of that one. She’s a lot prettier and younger than me. Here is some of what the ghost of Murakami had to say to me through a channeller. The scene is set at the Japanese War Cemetery in Cowra where Murakami is buried. VIDEO: Murakami Cowra grave scene 3 min 50 secs Satsuki Odamura & Wakako Asano in In Repose Japanese Section, Belgian Gardens Cemetery, Townsville 2007 What actually lead me to make Yasukichi Murakami - Through a Distant Lens goes back to 2007 when my colleagues, dancer, Wakako Asano, koto virtuoso Satsuki Odamura and sound designer Vic McEwan and I went around Japanese Cemeteries and gravesites all around Australia in a multi arts project called In Repose. We created site specific performances, gallery installations and finally a theatre performance all to do with Japanese Cemeteries in Australia. What we set out to do was to engage with those local communities that looked after these century old graves, to thank them for looking after our people. We also wanted to ask the traditional custodians of this land: -“Hey, our mob is buried on your land. In so far as you are custodians of this land, who you look after the spirits of our mob too?” In Repose Name Callings by Nikky Akune, Mayu Kanamori & Vic McEwan Broome Japanese Cemetery in Broome (currently exhibited at Lustre: Pearling & Australia, WA Maritime Museum) If you’ve been to the Maritime Museum’s Lustre Exhibition, you may have seen the video work with all the names of those buried at the Japanese Cemetery in Broome. The names were called out by Nikky Akune, a former Japanese pearl diver. He married a local indigenous woman and still lives in Broome. That was one of the gallery installations we made as part of our project In Repose. VIDEO: Akune name calling 32 secs We held performances at Japanese Cemeteries in Townsville, Broome and Thursday Island. We wanted to blur the boundaries between our current notion of dance and music as entertainment, and its origins as part of community ceremony. Here is a short documentation of the one on Thursday Island. In Repose on Thursday Island, 2008 by Wakako Asano, Satsuki Odamura, Vic McEwan, Mayu Kanamori Welcome to Country by Joseph Wasaga VIDEO: TI Documentation 2 mins 4 secs (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPVl4QvSwXY) What was so important to us was that Elder Joseph Wasaga delivered his Welcome to Country, not facing the audience, but facing the graves of the Japanese who were buried in his country. In one sense, our mob was finally able to rest in peace. St Mary’s College student performance as part of In Repose, Broome Japanese Cemetery 2008 Photo by Katy Fitzgerald By 2010, we’d been to more than a dozen Japanese gravesites, talked with Elders, communities… in Broome we had a gallery installation, a cemetery performance, dance workshops with a local high school, and a local student performances in the Japanese Cemetery, yet what has transpired is that the local Japanese community after we did this art says to us, well, that was all very nice, thank you, but what we really want is not art, but a proper Buddhist ceremony for our deceased in our cemetery. Artists… you know, we think we are making these meaningful works with communities…. Researchers, we think we are publishing important and little known social histories… Curators, we think we are showing and interpreting for the world important cultural informations… Journalists, we think we are doing good by shedding light on an underdog or a David and Goliath story… But if we are working with people and communities, asking for their time and their stories, then just walk away when we finish our art or research paper or exhibition or book or article or whatever… because that is all that we do - staying within our professional boundaries, well something is very wrong. We have social responsibilities and we are part of social history and we are taking part of our emerging futures. Obon Ceremony, Broome Japanese Cemetery, 2012 It was time I blurred my boundaries from being an artist to becoming a fundraiser and organizer for a Buddhist ceremony. So we held an art auction in Sydney and raised enough money for a Japanese Buddhist priest to go to Broome to conduct an Obon ceremony. In Japan, Obon is a time when spirits of the deceased are said to return. Obon ceremonies were held in Broome before WW2, and was reinstated after the war when the Japanese returned to the community, and it then ceased with the decline of pearling. It was the first time since 1968 that a Buddhist priest held an Obon ceremony at the Japanese Cemetery in Broome. http://nikkeiaustralia.com @NikkeiAustralia The In Repose team worked in various remote cemeteries but despite us all living in Sydney, we had not worked in Cowra NSW. This is because the Japanese cemetery in Cowra has a very different history. It is a war cemetery, and our team… we all had different views of the war dead. After all, the Japanese Imperial Forces did a lot of terrible things to Australians… not to mention other peoples from Asia… Cowra is well known for the mass breakout by Japanese POWs and naturally, it is often thought that the Japanese Cemetery there houses those 234 POWs who died during the breakout. But it had been a little known fact the out of the 524 Japanese graves in Cowra, 1/3 of them belong to civilians who had lived in Australia prior to the war, who were interned– and if they had died whilst interned, they are now buried there. As you saw in an earlier video —- like Yasukichi Murakami. So Dr Yuriko Nagata from Queensland University and Dr Keiko Tamura from the ANU, both historians, and I formed a group called Nikkei Australia. Nikkei is a term used for those of Japanese diaspora. Former civilian internee Evelyn Suzuki & Cowra Mayor Bill West Unveiling Civilian Internment interpretive board, Cowra Japanese War Cemetery 2014 And we decided to work towards erecting an interpretive board at the Cowra Cemetery to tell the story of Japanese Civilian Internment in Australia during WWII. We also organized an international symposium and a corresponding arts program on this subject. Blurring boundaries in meant working with academics, lobbing governments for signage, liaising with venues, picking delegates up at the airport, designing flyers, creating websites, getting quotes, making a budget, and finding the money to do all this. Former internees at Civilian Internment Symposium Cowra Civic Centre 2014 The symposium included academic papers and panels pertaining not only to the Japanese, but other nationalities like the Germans and Italians. It included papers on political prisoners from now Indonesia who fought against the Dutch government and were interned in Cowra. Former internees and their families came and told us their stories. Community members who hold memories of internment camps from Tatura in Victoria, Hay in NSW and Loveday and South Australia also spoke. Murakami family members: Melissa Yoko Murakami, Julie Murakami, Reiko Ruruka Minami Murakami, Calvin Murakami and Sandra Seiko Murakami by Yasukichi Murakami’s grave Civilian Internment Commemoration, Cowra Japanese War Cemetery, 2014 On the concluding day of the Symposium and related events we unveiled the interpretive board and held commemoration service for civilians buried there. It was the first time in history when civilian internment of Japanese in Australia during WW2 was publicly acknowledged. That is the Murakami family by Yasukichi Murakami’s grave. The Murakami family are here tonight. I also would like to acknowledge another former internee family who is with us tonight. Dr Elfie Shiosaki from Curtin University. The Shiosaki family were very successful business family in Broome before the war. Gamelan Man by Jumaadi & Rio Soemardjo Cowra Civic Centre as part of Civilian Internment Arts Program, Cowra 2014 In the civilian internment arts program we worked with visual artist and puppeteer Jumaadi and musician Ria Soemardjo. They are both Indonesian Australian artists. They worked together with local musicians and school children and created a contemporary shadow puppet theatre about the Indonesian political prisoners – some of who are buried in the Cowra General Cemetery. Weizen Ho & Alan Schacher, During creative development as part of Civilian Internment Arts Program Japanese War Cemetery, Cowra 2013 We also worked with Malaysian Australian voice artist Weizen Ho and Jewish Australian movement artist Alan Schacher. Weizen had interest in working on appeasing the spirits of the dead and Alan had personal interest in civilian internment because some of his family members are holocaust survivors in Europe. They created a performance with youths from Cowra and they performed on the day we held our commemoration service. They worked with a local Japanese farmer and Shinto Sho player and Ria Soemardjo. They directed and walked the audience – audience? Commemorators – more blurring of boundaries – directing the audience from the Indonesian graves to the Japanese graves through music and dance. They merged with Buddhist priests chanting for the service and ended with guiding the commemorators to give water to the graves as it is done in Japan. Here is a short documentation from the day. Weizen Ho, Alan Schacher, Rio Soemardjo, Shigeki Sano & Cowra community youths As part of Civilian Internment Arts Program, Cowra General & Japanese War Cemeteries, Cowra 2014 Video by David Hansen, Bruce Ryan & Jack Warren VIDEO: Ceremonial Performance 2 min 2 secs (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38rjafIV_1M) Commemoration for Civilian Internees, Cowra 2014 Often I wonder if the commemorators on the day would have preferred a traditional Japanese dance or taiko drumming or something similar. But it was important to me as producer of the arts program to blur those boundaries. That it wasn’t just about Japanese by the Japanese for the Japanese. Because we need to go beyond that. Beyond our imagined borders - of nations, ethnicities and those heritage that we identify ourselves with – to work and to create together for the sake of humanity. More info: http://museum.wa.gov.au/museums/maritime/lustre-pearling-australia @wamuseum #lustrepearling #WAMaritimeMuseum And this is why it has been so important for me to collaborate with Sarah Yu, Bart Pigram, Maya Shioji, Nyamba Buru Yawuru and the WA Museum on projects like Lustre; Interviewing and editing voices of many different people from different backgrounds, who’s lives had intertwined and have been destined to coexist with those of Japanese diaspora in Australia. I had the pleasure of seeing the Lustre exhibition on Sunday for the first time at the Maritime Museum in Fremantle. I went with Melissa Murakami - Yasukichi Murakami’s great great grand daughter - who lives in Perth. That’s Melissa. And that’s a photo of Yasukichi Murakami himself. Although the research for the Murakami project is finished, the script written and the play presented in Darwin, Adelaide, Broome and Sydney — it was important to me that I was able to contribute Murakami’s story for the exhibition for a wider audience. And it was important to me that I was able to share seeing the exhibition with Melissa. When you have art, you have a voice. When you have voice, you have freedom. When you have freedom, you have responsibility. ‐ Richard Frankland Australian Theatre Forum 2015 I will end with this quote from musician, composer, film maker, theatre maker performer, poet, TV director and Indigenous activist Richard Frankland. We all have our own callings. We hear differing and often confusing messages everyday. But within the flux and chaos, it is our individual responsibility to endeavor to listen. And to remember that we too are part of social history. Together we take part in our emerging future. We blur our boundaries because we are part of the whole. Thank you for listening.