Bad Ancestors - Limping, Lamenting & Singing Home Whiteness in Times of Trouble

For the past several years, Danika Nesbitt, (Mongrel Selkie Milk), has been steeped in the question of just how best to be ‘an ancestor worth claiming’ in these troubling times we find ourselves in.

Because such a question could never be ‘figured out’ without leading to more of the same mess that got us here in the first place, she was answered instead by some Old Songs. A few ancestors it seemed, responded to her call in the form of music, and this show is the overflow of that conversation, brought to you by her and them alike.

Supported by the rich, equally old-world informed music of the O'Hanlon brothers, this part workshop, part musical performance and part stand-up tragedy undertakes the ambitious task of metabolising even a smidgeon of our Modernity-trouble in an attempt to echolocate ourselves in the times and countries on which we live.

A willingness to be publicly troubled, resourced by diaspora-carried Irish ancestral songs and a smattering of Work That Reconnects-inspired facilitated group interaction; this convergence seeks to counter, even minutely, the amnesia and anaesthesia that plague us now.

Bayo Akomolafe asks, 'what if the ways we are responding to the crisis, are part of the crisis?' 

How are the ways we feel, or don't feel, remember, or don't remember our ancestors, and ourselves as ancestors becoming, contributing to this malaise too?

Here, gratefully on Bunurong and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung country of the Kulin Nation, we will turn towards some of the forgotten threads of our Settler-ness, touch the complexity of Coloniality that stokes our burning world, and perhaps learn something about what it might require to become Ancestors Worth Claiming.

With decided indecision, complexity, and equal parts reverence and irreverence, this experience will be a unique offering from the old world to a new one in need. 

If you feel drawn, we hope you'll be a part of it.

THE WHERE & WHEN:

The Body Voice Centre - 50 Wolverhampton St, Footscray

Sunday, 30th July, 5pm - 8pm. 

Please arrive by 4.45pm for a 5pm start :)

* Please bring a snack/dinner for yourself (with the option to share if you like, depending on dietaries etc), your water bottle and whatever you require to be comfortable and warm - some stools, pillows, blankets and basic kitchen appliances are at the venue.

No one turned away for lack of funds - to arrange an alternative payment option, or for any other questions, please contact Danika on 0438 179 020 or mongrelselkiemusings@gmail.com  

"We live in a kind of dark age, craftily lit with synthetic light, so that no one can tell how dark it has really gotten. But our exiled spirits can tell. Deep in our bones resides an ancient singing couple who just won't give up making their beautiful, wild noise. The world won't end if we can find them."

- Martín Prechtel