How do you talk to kids about the threat climate change poses to their home? Through the power of dance (2024)

On a makeshift stage in a Torres Strait sports centre, Elma Kris is being stalked by a pantomime goanna while school children and community members try to warn her.

"It's behind you!" the people living on Waiben (Thursday Island) and its surrounding islands yell fervently.

But as Kris fruitlessly scans the stage for her co-star, her message is clear: everything is behind her.

How do you talk to kids about the threat climate change poses to their home? Through the power of dance (1)

It's the first of two shows that bring to life Bangarra Dance Theatre's first dedicated work for children, Waru: Journey of a Small Turtle. Kris plays Aka Malu (which roughly translates to 'grandmother ocean'), alongside fellow dancer Aba Bero, who takes on the dual roles of Migi the turtle and the aforementioned goanna.

Across the day, around 800 local kids and community members will see the show as it's performed in the local Kriol language for the first time.

It was the culminating moment in the 2023 national tour, which began in Bangarra's home studios back on Gadigal Country, Sydney, where the show was co-created by Stephen Page and his son, Hunter Page-Lochard.

The performances on Waiben are also key to the dance company's creative cycle, which sees works performed on the Country from which inspiration was drawn.

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Waru means 'turtle' in the local language, and the show speaks to the totemic significance of waru in the Torres Strait.

Kris knew these shows would be particularly powerful for her, both as a performer and as a Torres Strait Island woman.

"I was born and raised here [on Waiben] … and I knew already, because of the Kriol language, that [the kids] would understand straight away," she says.

Nurturing creative cycles

Although Kris now lives on Waiben, for more than 20 years she was a dancer, choreographer, actor and teacher on the Australian mainland.

Her love of dance started early and eventually led her to Sydney, where she studied at NAISDA Dance College before joining Bangarra Dance Theatre.

More recently, Kris has returned to Waiben to live and work as a teacher's aide at the local primary school.

"It's like I'm a waru myself. I started from here born and raised, then went down south, and came back again. Like I had my own cycle," she jokes.

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However, it was during Kris's time down south with Bangarra that the first sparks of Waru were formed.

"Stephen Page did a beautiful collaboration with one of our senior dancers, Peggy Missi [in 2001] … and because Stephen wanted to tell the story of waru from the Torres Strait, he worked closely with Peggy to combine this with a dance before we turned it into a story," Kris explains.

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Twenty years later, Page returned to the 2001 work, Turtle (Corroboree) — this time with the intention of adapting it as a children's show.

The result was a contemporary saltwater story inspired by the green turtle's significance in the Torres Strait Islander totemic system.

"When you look at the children, they're like the little waru, we say migi, small turtle," Kris explains. "So, obviously, waru has very big significance to us in our culture."

Over the course of the show, Migi the little green turtle faces the challenges of ghost nets, hunters and predators (like goannas) as she grows from hatchling to maturity.

"Our writer was Stephen's son, Hunter … and we also had beautiful cultural advisers Leonora Adidi and Helen Anu and, for the linguistic work, Jenson Warusam," Kris says.

One person Kris doesn't mention is herself, even though she also played an integral role in developing the show.

Speaking with RN Awaye in 2022, Page was clear from the start that Kris would be the storyteller character of Aka Malu, saying Kris so completely embodied the role.

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Bangarra's current artistic, director Frances Rings, is equally profuse about Kris, saying it's a privilege to see her on stage as a senior professional artist.

"When young people see [Waru], particularly young Torres Strait Islander women and girls, it [transforms] not only the way they see and understand the many forms of how their stories can be told, but also what role models exist out there," Rings says.

Meanwhile, Kris believes it's the children themselves that make the show such a magical experience.

"This is their show and they're part of it, and the more they do the actions [for the show] the more they enliven me … so it's a beautiful thing that I can embrace the children and the story," she says.

The art of translation

"In Bangarra, there's nothing more important than returning a story that has been entrusted to us back to the community and the Country from where it came," Rings says.

"This is often probably the most nerve-wracking performance that we'll do but also, absolutely without any question, the most special."

Although Waru is a contemporary story, it was still vital to bring it to "the home ground".

How do you talk to kids about the threat climate change poses to their home? Through the power of dance (4)

As cultural consultant, Warusam played a huge role in this and says he was "magnetised" by the show's themes of conservation and climate action.

As a Saibai Island man himself, Warusam wanted to ensure these messages were fully heard and understood when being shown on Country.

"My island is one of the islands affected by global warming, and I think the overall goal was to get the message to young ones, and even the adults, that if we are not careful things could happen in a way that we do not expect," Warusam says.

"[The children] already know about turtles, so this put the story in a way they can understand," Kris says.

Although Kris speaks Kriol, she says she doesn't use it every day. To ensure the translation of the show was correct, she worked closely with Warusam to perfect her pronunciation.

"When [Warusam] corrects me, it's not a shame thing … he always say: 'You sabe talk langous but when you say it, you have to say it proppa'," Kris says, slipping into a light Kriol.

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Kris and Warusam both recognise precision of language and pronunciation is critical for the show.

As Kris puts it: language is our identity. It's part of us.

"In the past [Torres Strait Islanders] never, especially our parents, were able to speak language. They had to speak English," Kris says.

So even though Waru is for the children, Kris feels the show holds a special appeal for adults and elders on Waiben because it brings back their childhood and their memories.

"And you know [these performances] brought tears, it's a really emotional story … because the knowledge has been passed down to us about this waru," Kris says.

The whole Bangarra team arrived on Waiben confident in the power of their production, but now they've seen the proof that the future of children's programming within the company looks bright.

"I believe Bangarra stories are for everyone," Rings says. "Everybody needs to have access to them, from a four-year-old child to an elder …. so, yeah, this is our first children's show and I'm excited to commission others.

"And maybe next time we can do a redemption story for that goanna," Kris jokes.

Waru: Journey of a small turtle runs October 9-10at Sydney Opera House; October 14 at Bunjil Place, Melbourne; October 17-18at Ulumbarra Theatre, Bendigo; October 23 at HOTA, Gold Coast; October 25at Ipswich Civic Centre, Ipswich; October 29at Gladstone Entertainment Centre; October 31-November 1 at Pilbeam Theatre, Rockhampton; and November 7-9at Playhouse, Canberra.

Rudi Bremer travelled to the Torres Strait in November 2023 as a guest of Bangarra Dance Theatre.

How do you talk to kids about the threat climate change poses to their home? Through the power of dance (2024)

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