Storyteller’s work bridges racial divide
Sits down with University of Sydney academic and verbatim theatre storyteller Dr Paul Dwyer
Q: So storytelling can allow for meaningful inter-cultural conversations?
Yes! A really important thing for me as a non-indigenous person is that I’m not there to tell the stories of indigenous people, but to tell stories alongside them. But it is important that a little bit – just a little bit – of my story is in there too! People need to see white people carry the weight of representing the story of the oppressors. My story is never the big story – white people get to tell their stories all the time in many ways – but it isn’t invisible. Some of the most important stories in theatre are the ones that don’t even make it into the play. To go on tour with auntie Rhonda Dickson – she’s a local Aboriginal elder in Sydney – to be talking about each other’s families and finding points of connection like what football team or recipes we enjoy … all these things are very important too.
Q: It sounds like a beautiful way of engaging with people and their lives. But it can be powerful, too. Have you found that telling stories allows people to process emotional experiences?
Absolutely. There was a show I worked on called Beautiful One Day with indigenous people from a place called Palm Island, where there was an horrific case of an Aboriginal man who died in police custody. The community had been talked about a lot and they still felt after years that the story had not been properly told. The elders took a lot of heart that the show that toured in Australia and London told a version of the events that finally involved their perspectives.
Q: Your latest show –
Often we think of health workers – particularly doctors – as being incredibly privileged people. And sometimes they are! Actually, though, their training experiences can be really difficult, with high pressure and enormous amounts of bullying, sexual harassment and racial abuse: young doctors are committing suicide at alarming rates. Grace Under Pressure is a project that draws from 40 hours of interviews with health professionals. In bringing those stories to the stage, we’re trying to contribute to the process of culture change from below. You can read more about Paul’s work in Grace Under Pressure here: https://www.thebiganxiety. For more information about the Nal’ibali campaign, you can visit: www.nalibali.org