Dance in Contested Land

Rachael Swain is a settler director, dramaturg, and researcher of intercultural and trans-disciplinary dance and performance. She was born on the lands of the Ngāi Tahu in Aotearoa/New Zealand and works between the lands of the Gadigal in Sydney and the lands of the Yawuru in Broome, Australia. Rachael is co-artistic director of Marrugeku with Yawuru/Bardi dancer and choreographer Dalisa Pigram.

“Swain’s book will undoubtedly make a robust and timely scholarly contribution. It is because I myself write from the perspective of an immigrant to Australia, and in many ways as an outsider … .” (Australasian Drama Studies, Vol. 77, October, 2020)

• 1. Chapter One: Introduction.- 2. Chapter Two: The Dramaturgies of Listening to Country.- 3. Chapter Three: Gudirr Gudirr—Culturally Situated Neo-Expressionism.- 4. Chapter Four: Cut the Sky—Dramaturgies to disrupt the Anthropocene.