Looking for new forms of circus with Na Djinang

A season of Of The Land on Which We Meet at Arts Centre Melbourne continues critical and audience interest in emerging circus and physical theatre group Na Djinang Circus. Harley Mann, founder and artistic custodian of Naarm based Na Djinang Circus, says, “We started when we were at University, at NICA.” It was a hobby, something to do to pass the time. “It kind of went like that for the first few years; it was a mechanism for making work, haphazard and accidental. Tripping uphill. We did that for the first four years of the company’s existence.”

Na Djinang means hands and feet in the Wakka Wakka language. “We use circus, dance and physical theatre — anything that uses the body to tell stories,” says Mann. “There’s a lot of dance in our work.”

“Of The Land on Which We Meet deals with what is an acknowledgement of country,” says Mann. “It is a relatively recent phenomenon. We researched acknowledgements. This idea of acknowledgement of country is dependent on the frame of reference you view it through. It is awkward. This work asks, is it more insulting to not do it? A lot of people don’t have the language training to say the country right anyway. When we began, we were making this work in a really homogenous way of working. It isolated us from different audiences. We have matured as makers.”

The company have developed their maturity in part through regional, national and international tours. “I have been reflecting on the work that we are making,” says Mann. “I’m interested in what First Nations or blak circus forms might be. Traditional circus takes place in the round. Contemporary circus does not. Contemporary circus is more white, than traditional circus. In moving away from that traditional form, we pull on other types of designs. We have done alchemy and mixed together things that sometimes have a European history. There are bits of First Nations circus in our early work. We are using that to figure out what the other elements of blak circus might be.”

What is next for Mann and Na Djinang Circus? “We have just taken a gap year from making new work,” he explains. “We have started to dream about the work we will make over the next five years. We don’t premiere anything new until 2026. A bunch of new works are filling me with joy. In terms of not making stuff that is the same, and going on a journey about what this form thing is.”

Mann looks to theatre directors and writers Peter Brook and Ariane Mnouchkine for inspiration. “I believe or I hope that one day I will figure out what the magic of theatre is. It is not consistent. Not explainable. I have felt it in circus pieces. I recently watched The Blak Ensemble perform Pina Bausch’s Rite of Spring. That was extraordinary.”