A Meeting of Nations: Trans-Indigenous and Intercultural Interventions in Contemporary Indigenous Dance

This essay discusses a series of Intercultural and trans-Indigenous Choreographic Laboratories that took place in remote and urban Australian and New Zealand locations between 2009 and 2011. The labs introduced the practice of a range of leading choreographers from Australia, New Zealand, West Africa, and Indonesian Papua to a group of participant dance artists from Australia and the Pacific. Indigenous choreographers working with experimental processes and forms navigate complex and sometimes conflicting expectations from local communities and national agendas and movements within the international contemporary dance market, itself a global conversation. The structure of the labs and the work of the guest choreographers discussed in the essay together present the emergence of a global trans-Indigenous choreographic experimentation, developed within distinct cultural locations. Trans-Indigenous and intercultural exchange among Indigenous dance artists and other dance artists working in postcolonial contexts can equip choreographers with a broader set of strategies and references to help them expand understanding of contemporary Indigenous dance and how it functions within the multiple frameworks it is required to navigate.