Pemulwuy Dream Team
05 August 2009
For this community-driven interdisciplinary project, collaborative duo You Are Here (Zanny Begg and Keg de Souza) worked closely with local Redfern community members to develop an animated boxing game.
Begg and de Souza conducted animation workshops with people who access the Redfern Community Centre, and worked with software developer Andy Nicholson, to develop the ideas, animation and the interactive Wii-remote game itself. In close consultation and collaboration with Indigenous and non-Indignenous community members, the artists created the boxing game filmed in the Tony Mundine Gym. Each game is unpredictable: viewers can choose to play as one of the Pemulwuy Dream Team or their opponents to fight for the future of Redfern.
The project was inspired by the story of Pemulwuy, a member of the Bidjigal clan of the Eora people who lead an Indigenous resistance to the European settlement when the First Fleet arrived in 1788. Pemulwuy was chosen as the name for a proposed housing project which the community wants to build in Redfern on land owned by the Aboriginal Housing Company. In this art project, participants were inspired by Pemulwuy to create a ‘Dream Team’ for a ritualised boxing match, to continue the fight for justice in a contemporary context.
Pemulwuy Dream Team was developed during a Performance Space residency at the Redfern Community Centre. The game was presented as part of the There Goes The Neighbourhood exhibition addressing gentrification in the local Sydney and international context, which was curated by Begg and de Souza at Performance Space in May 2009. The artists have also been invited to present Pemulwuy Dream Team as part of NAIDOC Week celebrating the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. View further information here.
This project was supported by the Australia Council for the Arts through the Inter-arts Projects grant round.
Pemulwuy Dream Team, You Are Here, 2009 - introductory video clip
CREDITS
Pemulwuy Dream Team, You Are Here, 2009
Video editing and design: Zanny Begg and Keg de Souza
Software development: Andy Nicholson
Music sampled from Wire MC, Gadigal Records
The Twins – Wasana and Naryma Dixon
The Dealer – Alice Williams
Ted - Ted Rudduck
The Wrecker - Shane McGrath
Danny - Danny Nykolyn
The Crown – Lucas Abela
Voice overs - Marley Dixon, Nadeena Dixon, Ted Rudduck, Keg de Souza, Zanny Begg
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