OKAGE SAMA DE: SHIROI 白い

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posted on 2025-06-16, 04:56 authored by Julie Ann MinaaiJulie Ann Minaai, Kimball Wong, Max Bowyer, Natalya Shield, Noriko Tadano, Toshi Sakamoto, Junko Azukawa, Pauline Pham, Billy Keohavong, Melissa Yvonne Pham, Tai Platania, Lara Gabor, Jenny Le, REMUSE Designs, David Trí, Yoshiya Mori, Yukiko Shoya, Akiko Tezuka, Sayaka Ohno, Katja Petrovic

OKAGE SAMA DE (I am what I am because of you) journeys into the unknown in search for self and reconnection with one’s past. Shiroi 白い refers to the shade of white - when all the colours come together creating possibility and the potential to write your own story, pathway and journey.

Funding

City of Melbourne;Annual Arts Grant 2023;

History

Add to Elements

NTRO Output Type

Live Performance of Creative Work

NTRO Output Category

Live Performance of Creative Work : Dance

Place

Melbourne, Australia

Venue

Long Room, Immigration Museum

Start Date

2023-02-14

End Date

2023-12-03

Medium

Live performance of dance, music and projected art work

Research Statement

OKAGE SAMA DE: SHIROI 白い explores Japanese culture in Australia through an interdisciplinary collaboration of traditional and contemporary practices of dance, art, music, spirituality and folklore, and storytelling of intergenerational immigrant and migrant live experiences. This work was a new collaboration of four Japanese artists (Noriko Tadano, Toshi Sakamoto, Junko Azukawa and Julie Minaai) who each offered different lens to ancestral memory and cultural evolution. 16 co-collaborators from migrant, culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds contributed to the creative process and end production. OKAGE SAMA DE: SHIROI, funded by the City of Melbourne’s Annual Arts Grant 2023, premiered on Saturday, 2 December 2023 in the Long Room at the Immigration Museum (IM), Melbourne. The project culminated in two 60 minute performances with 15 minute pre-show Taiko drumming performance by community taiko drumming group Wadaiko Rindo. OKAGE SAMA DE: SHIROI 白い explored immigrant experiences and diasporic journeys in Naarm / Melbourne through researched stories from 20 co-collaborators. It weaves the lived stories of intergenerational and diasporic communities and questions the complexities of maintaining cultural rituals and identity while navigating integration and cultural evolution in the Australian cultural contexts. This work offers another lens to what it means to live and possibly be Australian in 2023. The performances, held in the historic Long Room, symbolize the journey of integration, self-discovery and possibilities, which reflect the duality of shiroi (the shade of white). The project team considers the project a success based on our goal of connecting to a target audience including IM’s typical patrons as well as new arts audiences. Solicited and unsolicited post-performances feedback was extremely positive, noting the awe-inspiring physical presentation and individual performances, the novelty of the content and overall production quality. Specific feedback came from members of the Japanese immigrant community, Japanese music community and the Japanese consulate general’s wife, as well as through our follow up meeting with Immigration Museum who solicited their own feedback.