Henrietta Baird

We were able to film the reactions of many people I walked passed in Edgecliff Shopping Centre. It was quite confronting but none the less opened me up to a way of working from making processes to inform the choreography - this certainly was an interesting process of seeing how people react to me and putting it into choreography.

Looking Back

Looking back at the Residency/Mentorship with Vicki I learned about how to create processes to inform the choreography. I learned how then I could apply themes in order to convey a message. Vicki would always ask me - “what are you trying to say?” - she pushed me to articulate what I wanted to say in my movement.

Looking back at my period of learning my language and stories I feel I have gained knowledge related to my people through learning the language. I still feel I have a way to go with articulating some of this in dance. I can say confidently though that this first stage did reflect the idea of wakaymali - I learned 3 songs from recordings of my great grandfather, I learned Ngiyampaa pronunciation and I learned 2 stories and how to say them in language.

In the future I wish to explore more of these processes I have explored with Vicki to create material. I also wish to delve into the thematic content of the recordings as an impetus for dance using the processes I have discovered with Vicki. I was offered an Indigenous mentorship through Critical Path. It was broken up into stages: firstly in the Wujal Wujal community (in Cairns) learning from my elders about native plants and how to make food and natural medicine, secondly at Critical Path with Marilyn Miller which gave me the time and space to create a showing based on the information collected from the Wujal Wujal community, time with Ausdance learning administration skills, finishing at Critical Path learning more administration skills, grant writing skills and looking to the next stage.

The time I worked in the studio with Marilyn Miller, was spent putting all the ideas on butchers paper and then moving them in the space. I had never worked this way before myself, but as the weeks went by the butchers’ paper began to fill up with a lot of information. I had the experience and opportunity to work with two collaborators, Paul Osborne and Lisa Duff. Paul helped with sound and lighting and Lisa Duff helped with multimedia. Lisa edited the films that were taken from Wujal. Both collaborators were great to work with and helped me realise the ideas I had been developing.

As an Indigenous artist I would recommend Critical Path to any artist or Indigenous artist out there. I believe Critical Path is a place where you can research, whether it’s signing up to the workshops or just applying for their responsive applications. As an artist at Critical Path, I felt I had the opportunity to be in a place to meet new people, learn, explore, create and share my experiences with other artists out there and receive constructive criticism to help me on my next journey of creativity.

Critical Path is an initiative of Arts NSW, with program funding from the Australia Council, the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body.

Indigenous Mentorships are funded by the Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development Strategy of Arts NSW.

Critical Path’s Responsive Program is extended through our partnership with the Creative Practice Lab (CPL) at the School of Arts and Media (SAM), University of New South Wales.

The Research Room Residency Program is supported by Woollahra Municipal Council.

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