Trading places, 300 years ago

They came for edible sea slugs. They left behind fabric, flags and tales of a vigorous trade under way long before Captain Cook set foot on our shores.

The little-known tales of how Makassans from Sulawesi arrived on Australia‘s northern coast in search of the much-prized delicacy were among those playwright Julie Janson heard as a young teacher in Arnhem Land more than 30 years ago.

"The Makassans traded the slug to the Chinese. To get it they set up this long-term trading relationship with Aboriginal people, especially with Yolngu," she says. "The Yolngu would do the diving, boil it, smoke it and in return the Yolngu got cloth, fabric, rice, knives."

The trade, which began more than 300 years ago, is believed to be the first Muslim contact with Australia. Janson has drawn on some of the stories she heard to create The Eyes of Marege, an ambitious text, music and dance piece that brings together indigenous performers with artists from Sulawesi‘s contemporary theatre company, Teater Kita Makassar.

Janson‘s starting point is a fight between a Makassan trader and an indigenous man, Birramen, over a sacred object. The trader is killed and Birramen must travel to Makassar to face justice. After five years in prison and later marrying a local woman, he returns home. Much of the piece is set on a bamboo boat as Birramen travels between the two lands. The story interweaves elements of a number of tales of a trade that extended through the Kimberleys, Groote Eylandt and Cape York.

"It was a reasonably harmonious relationship, from what I can gather, for many hundreds of years," Janson says. "The Aboriginal people appreciated the fact that the Indonesians did the call to prayer … There was a lot of intermarriage. Some Makassans had wives in [Arnhem Land]. A lot of Aboriginal people went back to Makassar. "

Like much of Janson‘s work, The Eyes of Marege - which was shortlisted for the Patrick White Award and will premiere in Adelaide before transferring to Sydney - ventures across cultures. Her previous works have included Lotus War and Tears of the Poppy, about Asian politics, while Gunjies and her best-known play Black Mary have dealt with indigenous issues.

Janson has been a regular visitor to Indonesia over many years, including in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami when she set up a number of tent schools. She is developing a play about the tsunami and will work with a female theatre company in Padang, Sumatra, later this year when she takes up a residency at Bunghatta University.

Tales of contact between northern Australia and Sulawesi are part of the shared history between the Indonesian island and northern indigenous communities. The ancient trade is remembered in the songs and dances of north -eastern Arnhem Land that songman Djakapurra Munyarryun grew up with.

"I learned the stories from the elders," says Munyarryun. "All the trade, people made a song about that. Flag song, dance, tobacco dance, knife dance, the Yolngu made a song about that. When I was growing I was listening."

Munyarryun will perform in the work and is co-choreographer, with Bernadette Walong. Both have worked together at the leading indigenous dance company Bangarra. For Munyarryun, the trade is more than tales of long ago. His grandfather, who traded turtle shells, is buried in Makassar and had a family there. Munyarryun hopes to eventually meet that extended family.

"I want to document my family. My grandfather, I want to see where he‘s buried, see all his kids," he says.

Source: www.smh.com.au (22 September 2007)
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