About
The Other Side of Me
About the Project
The Other Side of Me (TOSOM) is a multidisciplinary practice-based research project led by Northumbria University Assistant Professors Dr Laura Fish and Liz Pavey. It explores ways to translate the life of a young Aboriginal man, whose story is inseparable from the Australian Government’s policy to wrongfully remove Aboriginal children from their parents – the Stolen Generations, into a narrative that expresses experiences of indigeneity in the contemporary world. His life poses questions about relationships between country of origin, identity, adoption, displacement, space and place, and confinement.
At the project’s core is a collection of approximately 30 letters written by him to Fish between 1990–1994. These offer insights into the conflicts of an individual as he re-evaluates his life and tries to come to terms with his Indigenous Australian origins.
Adapting his story into dance offers one way to negotiate the challenges of cultural appropriation. This iterative process of adaptation creates space for multiple voices and bodies to retell and reinterpret a story of personal trauma that sits at the limits of linguistic expression.
The primary output of the research is a new dance theatre production – a duet combining contemporary and First Nations dance, literature and physical theatre.
Transforming Perceptions of Indigeneity
The research, development and performances of The Other Side of Me aims to contribute to the wider public’s social awareness of Australia’s Indigenous and cultural heritage.
In addressing issues of ‘race’ and empire, The Other Side of Me speaks to the global BLM movement and ensuing conversations within Australia and the UK about ‘race’ and identity, both in society at large and in writing, publishing and the arts.
The story is based, in part, upon actual events. However, names, and in certain cases incidents and timelines, have been changed for dramatic purposes, and some characters are composites, or entirely fictitious. Any similarity of those fictitious characters, composites, incidents to the name, attributes, or actual background of an actual person, living or dead, or to any actual event, is entirely coincidental and unintentional.
Enhancing Young Disadvantaged People's Lives
A key aim of the project is to engage with vulnerable and disadvantaged young people within the criminal justice system.
We have delivered short intensive cross-artform sessions at Aycliffe Secure Children’s Home, a residential youth detention centre in the UK for young people aged 10 – 18 (2018, 2020, 2023).
The Other Side of Me: Moving Words into Motion
The Other Side of Me: Moving Words into Motion reflects on how the project’s iterative process of adaptation creates space for multiple voices and bodies to retell and reinterpret a story of personal trauma that sits at the limits of linguistic expression.
Fish, Laura & Pavey, Liz; The Other Side of Me: Moving Words into Motion, Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance, Volume 14, Number 1, 1 March 2021, pp. 109-123(15) Publisher: Intellect, https://doi.org/10.1386/jafp_00045_1
Film
Goodworthy created a short film about how the dance production is exploring the questions and issues central to the project.
The Other Side of Me has benefitted from international exposure and profile raising through inclusion in the British Council and Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s UK/Australia Season.
