Moving in the 'aftermaths' of colonial violence, we are weathered and awake to bring a wero (challenge) to social discourses where histories ripple through us as embodied knowledges (Wanhalla et al 2023).  19th century liberal humanism created the conditions for British Captain Robert FitzRoy (1805-1865) to claim authority over the weather in inventing the ‘forecast’.  But knowledge of the weather persists beyond the quantifications of science and metereology in the stories we tell and the performances we make.   In 'We-atherlands Sky & Bones' we embody weatherscapes as cultural memory work (Robinson, 2008) by peeling into the fragilities of environmental health through a dance of relation.   For the dancer their body is a Whare tupuna (genealogical house), a carved vessel of gestural traces and muscle memories (Williams, 2015). In this experimental performance we explore dance as a ‘practice of freedom’ (bell hooks), resisting the (in)corporeality of a humanity that persists in colonial-settler infrastructures. Through breath, voice, body and atmosphere, the cyclic rhythms of the taio (environment) locate us in movement, inviting thinking-with the ‘breath of life’, hau, hauOra.  Activating the air between us as a medium of exchange and contemplation we resist the mastery of the ‘man of reason’ (Brown & Reihana, 2019; Raymond, 2016).  Relational forms re-appear that reject identity politics in favour of affinities and alongsideness responsive to Vā-kā (the ignited and actioned space in between) (Smith & Wolfgramm-Foliaki, 2022). As such History gives way to geostories, ancestral story work and activā-tions of whakapapa.

References:
Brown, Carol, and Reihana-Morunga, Tia. 'Hau: Living Archive of Breath'. Performance Research, vol.25,no.2, 2020, pp. 69-78.
Paraha, Tru. 'Astrochoreography', Choreographic Practices, 2022  https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/chor_00020_1
Wanhalla, Angela, Ryan Lyndall, Nurka, Camille (Des) Colonialism, Violence and Memory in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Dunedin: University of Otago, 2023.