Le Dernier Appel (photograph by Prudence Upton)

The sweet sound of Ngaiire singing her own songs calms the mood, and each dancer sinks into a quieter state, but it is one that cannot last. Promises made and broken, racist threats, reams of news clippings, edicts, and civil war images have already turned our attention to Nicolas Molé’s tall video screen. It opens benignly enough, with images of pale green leaves, but following the images of struggle and deception they turn crimson. Molé’s other set element, a wide, three-dimensional painting in grey, blue, black, and white, has been the show’s only constant element of grace, until, close to the end, it too turns red. Le Dernier Appel, the actual last cry, emerges in a classical denouement. As both protagonist and chorus, the dancers gather upstage waiting for a sign. Swiftly, beneath the weight of massive, apocalyptic music, they rush as one across the space, their arms thrusting into golden light, racing to release their silent cry, leaving the audience in stunned silence before they can begin to applaud enthusiastically.

This new production has a long history. Twenty years ago, Marrugeku was invited to perform its first production, Mimi, at the opening of the Centre Culturel Tjibaou in Noumeá, New Caledonia. Designed by Renzo Piano, the centre was built to honour the memory of Kanak independence leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou and his ambitions for the cultural expression and emancipation of his indigenous people, Gens de la Terre.

Le Dernier Appel (photograph by Prudence Upton)

Tjibaou was assassinated in 1988 by one of his own people, enraged that Tjibaou had agreed to an accord with the French government and New Caledonia’s Francophone political class, on a date for a referendum for independence. That date is 4 November 2018. Not unintentionally, Le Dernier Appel will be performed during Centre Culturel Tjibaou’s twentieth-anniversary celebrations in September.

In true Marrugeku style, Le Dernier Appel draws together creatives and dancers from countries colonised by the French or British. Director-choreographer Serge Aimé Coulibaly is from Burkina Faso; his co-choreographer and dancer, Dalisa Pigram, is a Yawuru/Badi woman from Broome. Amrita Hepi is a Bundjulung and Ngaphuhi (New Zealand) dancer–choreographer. Stanley Nalo, Krilin Nguyen (of Vietnamese descent) and Yoan Ouchot (Kanak/Indonesian), all from New Caledonia, span hip hop, contemporary and neoclassical dance. Sydney dancer Miranda Wheelan, like dramaturg Rachael Swain, lighting designer Matthew Marshall, costumier Mirabelle Wouters, singer–songwriter Ngaiire, and composers Nick Wales and Bree van Reykjavik, is Causcasian. The designer, leading Kanak artist Nicolas Molé, is well known here for his work with Opera Australia. Their collaborative efforts have delivered for Marugekku a triumphant production. And not just for Marrugeku, unparalleled in Australia in its intercultural and trans-indigenous dance theatre-making, but also for the family of Jean-Marie Tjibaou, whose son Emmanuel and the Caledonian dancers presented the traditional elders and people of Sydney with gifts and a welcome to New Caledonia.

Carriageworks (Sydney) and Marrugeku presented Le Dernier Appel on 15–18 August 2018. Performance attended: 15 August. Future performances are 6–8 September at Centre Culturel Tjibaou Noumeá, New Caledonia; 11 December at the Theatre du Manege, Maubeuge, France; 13 December at the Concertgebouw, Brugge, Belgium; 14 December at the Theatre Les Quinconces l’espalier, Le Mans, France.