'Hot Brown Honey' Celebrates Women Of Colour Decolonising The World One Stage At A Time

28 November 2016 | 5:27 pm | Maxim Boon

"It's a way of processing the oppression that we've all dealt with, but it's also an expression of the joy of life."

As necessary as it may be, looking a grim colonial past in the eye is never a comfortable experience. Around the world, a litany of enduring consequences for many first nation communities - in Australia, America, Africa, Canada, the Pacific Islands and New Zealand - is a shameful reminder that much of our contemporary society is built on stolen land; ours is a culture forged in the violent crucible of empire building. Given the injustice and pain of this history, a hip hop-meets-burlesque comedy revue might not immediately spring to mind as an apt vehicle for a piercing satire, but for Lisa Fa'alafi, director of the brassy, brazen and brilliantly brash Hot Brown Honey, using comedy to explore such a difficult subject matter was a no-brainer.

"Partly, satire lets us process and tell this story in a way that isn't overwhelming - we have to make light of that reality in order to face those issues head-on," Fa'alafi explains. "But if there's one thing that has been abundantly clear while we've been touring this show, it's that you can break down barriers if you can laugh with someone. People don't like being talked at, but something that connects us all, across cultural boundaries, is laughter, and in this show you don't just laugh, you cackle. It's a way of processing the oppression that we've all dealt with, but it's also an expression of the joy of life."

It's evidently a winning formula. Since premiering last year, Hot Brown Honey has had audiences and critics alike rolling in the aisles, during sell-out seasons at the Edinburgh Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Sydney Opera House, Adelaide Fringe Festival and Brisbane Festival. Starring six first nation women of Australian, South African, Tongan and Samoan descent, its irreverent send-ups of ethnic stereotypes defiantly wrestle with a range of the pop-culture tropes around women of colour, via a disarmingly fearless brand of 'oh-no-they-di'int' humour. Co-creator, Musical Director and stalwart of Australia's hip hop scene, Kim 'Busty Beatz' Bowers, believes the familiarity of the show's urban music parodies is key to its success. "It's a core principle of our manifesto: there is open access to what we do," she notes.

"If we're going to celebrate ourselves let's really go there, let's celebrate all the lumps and bumps and things that we all deal with every day."

"There's actually a very close proximity to the ethic of hip hop and the idea of indigenous reconciliation, when it comes to hearing voices from a marginalised group and bringing those voices to the fore. Obviously, things have evolved a fair bit over the years - we're in 2016 and a lot of that original hip hop ethic has been mixed up with capitalism and materialism and bunch of other stuff. But at its heart, it's still about the radical process of putting your voice out there. In this day and age, where people try so hard to conform and fit in, the most radical process of all is just being brave enough to be yourself and expose the truth of yourself. That's why making comparisons between those stereotypes and our experiences as women of colour is such a powerful way for us to use our voices."

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If hip hop has offered a means of challenging racial caricatures, then burlesque has offered the 'Honeys' a way of confronting the sexualisation of women of colour as exotic trophies. Using the body as a pathway to empowerment is a well-established precedent, Fa'alafi says. "We've stepped in the footsteps of so many amazing women before us, for instance, the incredible poet and playwright Maya Angelou. One of her first jobs was as a burlesque dancer, and there are a number of extraordinary women of colour who also used burlesque to empower themselves. Their stories aren't always that visible, but we've found them, we've seen that we come from a history of these women, making fun of the barriers and limitations they faced in their lives."

Part of this show's defiant gender politics is about challenging the body-shaming of women, so alarmingly prevalent in social media culture. "We're a group of six women who have all experienced self-consciousness and body issues, so it was really important to use burlesque as a way of empowering ourselves, and that's also a part of the trickery involved. Burlesque is so 'in', it's had a real resurgence, but we weren't seeing a lot of brown bodies involved in that world. So for us, it was an interesting form to play with in the show, to highlight all the different shapes and sizes that we are. If we're going to celebrate ourselves let's really go there, let's celebrate all the lumps and bumps and things that we all deal with every day," Fa'alafi reveals. "I'm 40 now, I'd never been on stage dressed that way, and coming from a Pacific Islander background via colonisation and the missionaries, there were a lot of social stigmas connected to covering-up the body, so it was interesting to pull that apart, almost like a decolonisation of our thoughts and inhibitions about our bodies."

Of course, beneath the fun, games, and giant fake boobs (yes, you read that correctly) is a serious message, and it's one that Fa'alafi feels is becoming ever more relevant given the rise of anti-inclusive fear mongering in global politics. "We have an amazing time, but this show is actually about change in the world and what we can bring to that change, because change is coming - the revolution is coming! There's such a powerful sense of urgency in the world at the moment," she observes. "So I am humbled, but not surprised by the positive reception the show has had. So many people - not just first nationers, but all kinds of people - are ready and want this change, and want to be advocates for these stories. You can feel it in the air, in the way global politics has become so frightening. But there are cultural shifts already underway - people want to feel able to speak out, and in our small way, this show allows us to do that. We want to decolonise the world, one stage at a time."

Arts Centre Melbourne presents Hot Brown Honey 6 — 11 Dec.