A print supposedly showing Captain Cook being entertained by Aborigines performing a corroboree prompted internationally acclaimed dancer , Ted Shawn ,to fly from Perth ,Western Australia , to the Northern Territory capital , Darwin, in 1947 to see Top End dancers in action .
By Peter Simon
Hanging in Shawn's studio in America , the print was described as probably a fantastically distorted picture of the real thing . However , it fired his desire to see and judge the qualities of their dancing.
His trip was covered extensively in an article written by John K. Ewers, prominent in West Australian literary and education circles , for the December 1947 Walkabout magazine.
A copy of the magazine , plus numerous clippings relating to Shawn and his renowned dancing partner , Ruth St. Denis , were found in a battered portfolio in New Zealand dealing with famous dancers down through the years , including exotic Dutch dancer Mata Hari , executed in France as a spy for the Germans in WWl , and numerous early Russian ballet stars.
Individual,worn folders contained newspaper cuttings, magazine articles and mixed ephemera , many from the l920s ,one Shawn item from Vanity Fair magazine nominating him, shown in military uniform , for entry in The Hall of Fame in 1919.
Whoever compiled the collection had been deeply interested in dance , possibly a writer on the subject , and amassed overseas articles and Australian newspaper clippings about Shawn.
When Shawn arrived in Darwin he and Ewers were taken across the harbour in a launch by Native Affairs Patrol Officer , Bill Harney , later well known author and Ayer's Rock (Uluru) caretaker , to the Delissaville Aboriginal settlement , guests of the Superintendent , Tom Wake and wife , Mary , who was a nurse .
Shawn was mightily impressed by the series of dances performed by the Wargaitj for him..." I can say without hesitation, that of all primitive dancing I have seen , the dancing of the Wargaitj which I have witnessed tonight is the best- bar none !"
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Continuing, he was quoted in the Walkabout article as saying one performer , Beeanamu, with whom he was photographed , above , would be a sensation on the stage in London or New York . There is a highly detailed account of the various dances performed , mention of another impressive performer, Mosik , doing the Hunting Dance.
As a result of the article , I recently renewed contact with Patricia Wake , daughter of Tom and Mary Wake , who informed me her father and two Aborigines , Mosik, mentioned above, and Robert Tudawali , later a prominent sportsman and actor , had been in a dugout canoe padding across the harbour from Delissaville to Darwin to pick up supplies , on February 19,1942, the day the Japanese attacked .
They had rolled the canoe over so that it looked like a floating log and hid underneath as the devastating attack on shipping and the town took place. Her father joined the Army two days later .
In discussing the Walkabout article ,Patricia said her father had long known the author, John Ewers , in Perth , Western Australia , before he came to the Territory . Her father had come out from England in 1936 as a soldier settler and farmed at Margaret River in WA. His contact with Ewers was so close that Patricia, who had been named after one of his daughters, eventually called him Uncle John .
When she went from Darwin to Perth to study anthropology at university , Patricia was closely involved with the Ewers family . Mrs Ewers , Jean , a scientists , was a noted potter, some of her pieces now in Darwin . She was also a patron of the arts , including ballet, one daughter a dancer , and would have been delighted to meet Shawn , who had travelled the world studying dancing .
While in Australia , Shawn , billed as the world famous American dancer gave performances in Adelaide and Melbourne , one dance based on the Cuban Cutting of the Sugar Cane . In l960 , still America's most celebrated male dancer , Shawn published his autobiography, One Thousand and One Night Stands .
John Ewers (1904-1978) schoolteacher, novelist, poet ,short story writer, author , wrote many newspaper items and used the nom-de-plume, J.K. Waterjugs , a play on the meaning of a ewer .
While teaching in Tasmania in the l920s , he is said to have written 40 pieces of work for newspapers . In 1938 , he was the first president of the West Australian branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers .
He promoted appreciation of literature in the wider community, was involved with (Sir ) Walter Murdoch , a member of the Murdoch media family and a founding professor of English and Chancellor of the University of WA. Ewers campaigned to preserve "Tom Collins" House (the home of Joseph Furphy , author of Such Is Life ), in the Perth suburb of Swanbourne .
It is interesting to note that Ewers gave up teaching in 1947 to become a fulltime writer , the year he accompanied Shawn to Darwin .
Excerpt from the Australian Dictionary of Biography: Despite Ewers's Methodist and Congregational upbringing, in his twenties he rejected church-based faith and declared himself an agnostic and a sceptic. In middle age he read J. G. Bennett's The Crisis in Human Affairs (London, 1954). His subsequent association with Bennett led him in 1958 to became a follower of Subud, an Indonesian-based spiritual group. Ewers died on 9 March 1978 at Shenton Park and was buried in Karrakatta cemetery; his wife and daughter edited his autobiography, Long Enough for a Joke (1983).
FOOTNOTE : The interesting life of Mrs Mary Wake, member of a well to do South Australian family , was taped for the NT oral history collection .
