“My son said to me “ How did you become human ?” I said “So that you could be born.”
My son said “No, I dreamed that once upon a time you were something else; a snake crawling through rock…”
Our three part recreation of Persephone’s story ( Dog, Heart and Wake ) has seen 12 variation performances since the Alice Springs quarry events, 2015 – she has told her stories in Santorini, Sydney, country Victoria, Portland Oregon, Perth, Canberra College of Drama, ANZSJA’s 2022 Congress, and the Gaia Then and Now/Climate series for the San Francisco Archive for Research into Archetypal Symbolism. We are continuing to carefully develop this Australian hybrid cultural work.
Jung’s symbolism of individuation and transformation drew upon his European sanctioned imagery traditions, ok – but why not reform our notions of ‘individuation’ in an Australian light. A light of many cultures, old and older still.
Persephone’s Heart is a transformation drama of female creative skill, generative genius, muscle, heart and brain, with shocks of desire and enduring compassion. Its conception owes much to our personal experiences in Central Australia and the effect of Australian realities upon some women we know who lived in remote and arid zones.
In this event we map the making of Persephone – we tell how, a ‘force of nature’ gathered a human body by crossing the country, a long time ago. We tell what we learned from taking an unusual shift in perspective on this myth; then open discussion with Dr. Anne Noonan and others.
“Well then – I will tell you the story of how I became a woman, and who is your father – so that you can be happy in the dark night and the hard light of day”