Solace + Yearning – Poetry of Dance and Belonging

Book excerpt: ‘Solace + Yearning’ layers landscape, poetry, eco-art and contemporary dance to create an immersive space for many voices: yearning to connect to country, grief for what is absent, and reaching towards an understanding of indigenous language and culture. “Along the edges, voices call softly, softly... the past speaking to the present.”' This multi-arts collaboration explores ‘settler guilt’ and ‘solastalgia’—a sense of loss caused by environmental change—in a small rural community. The work unravels contradictory and complicated feelings about Australia’s stories, the assumed advantage of non-indigenous Australians, and yet our deep longing for the wisdom and connection intrinsic in indigenous cultures. “It is beneath the bark where stories are whispered and life rises to stitch together this river with this sky.” Performed in Denmark, Western Australia in 2012, and again as a solo performance by Annette Carmichael in 2014, these images and reflections portray a complex relationship between people and place. “Sometimes, sometimes I make the mistake of thinking that what has not been written down has been forgotten.” With gratitude to Joey Williams, Wayne Webb, Toni Webb, and Harley Coyne, who walked the trail with us and generously shared their Noongar culture and stories.