Papakō: The Journey
Joseph heads to san marcos to see the springs
This week I attented the Papako: The journey at planet Texas 2050, this is my reflection of that experience.
The performance was set at the black box theatre at the William c powers building, and followed two cousins Juan and Joseph. Sparked by a mysterious message from their deasced uncle to a path that leads to them to both rediscover their heritage and their ancestors. Theyre trip leads them to white shaman rock, where they meet their ancestors who give them a mission : “return our bodies back to mother earth”. After the performance there was a formal discussion on the importance of honoring indigenous traditions, and cultural inheritance.
The white shaman mural
1. Summary and key themes
This performance gave me a window into indigenous perspectives on identity and history as well as spiritual identity. Themes that balanced between life and death resonated through the performance, echoing the importance of legacy and memory. This play outlined the importance of inheritance and how the passage of songs and stories plays a key role in keeping a culture alive. Papako also pushed a narrative of division. Two sisters divided between their cultural identity, two cousins following their journey, and two people one dead one alive, hatching a plot to bring everything into union. This coincides with the stories’ overall theme to inform the audience of the reparation efforts in the indigenous community. The play’s depiction of the white shaman mural as a bridge between the past and the present highlights the significance of preserving sacred places and cultural narratives.
2. Immersion experience
The storytelling of papako connects with the haiku horizons project through its use of immersive experience by demonstrating the power of storytelling in cultural preservation. The theatrical performance effectively used cameras, videos, and sounds to allow the audience a first-hand perspective, felling as if they had autonomy in the story itself. I do have to critique, however, that this was all the performance had to give in terms of immersiveness. The audience did not interact at all with the actions in the play except for some expected laughing and deep sighs here and there. Papako could ask questions to the audience or use a medium other than just sound to connect with the audience. There were stops in the story that felt like one of the actors was speaking to the audience. Why not add that in the plot to allow for more audience interaction? During the creation story, they could have played with the lighting to make the audience feel as if they were swimming through the waters of the lower world.
3. Personal reflection
This play invoked feelings of destitution and hope, as well as longing and cultural connection. I felt a special connection to Juan, a character who has been raised to embrace his indigenous culture and who experiences great loss that inspires him to go on a personal journey. I could connect to his desperation in going through the journey to get closer to his granduncle. The performance used sound as a medium to express many of their important events. This catered to its audience of young students who use music to express themselves increasingly. The music did a great job of telling the story, getting louder at essential moments (banging of the drums during the creation story), and even having comedic bangs (during the bus ride). If they had used music as their main way of telling this story, this play would have been perfect.
4. What I left with
Papako was created to share the story of the repatriation to a young audience, a concept with which I am very familiar. I was not, however, aware that institutions like the University of Texas at Austin were keeping the bodies of the deceased indigenous ancestors hostage. This is in breach of many Bio ethics laws, and frankly is disturbing to hear. The play does an excellent job of telling us why it is essential to their beliefs and their culture that these bodies be returned, and I left very informed and privileged to take classes that allow me to attend plays like papako.
