Our Songs – Sydney Kabuki Project by Akira Takayama was a single-channel video installation that documents a performative event that occurred at Sydney Town Hall's Centennial Hall on Sunday, 28 January 2018.

 

Inspired by Kabuki a 400-year-old form of Japanese theatre, Takayama invited residents of Sydney to share their family stories and cultural traditions through ancestral poetry and song. Participants were not required to be professional singers or artists, there were no rehearsals, only the requirement to perform once on stage and share a text about the performed piece, in any language.

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100 participants were welcomed one by one to walk to the stage of Centennial Hall along a specially installed hanamichi, a raised path traditional to Kabuki Theatre. Upon reaching the stage, each person performed alone and acapella to a seemingly empty theatre - the red velvet seats left vacant for the ancestors of the participant or the future generations yet to come.

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Songs were heard in 42 languages, the most elderly participant was 94 and the youngest just 5 years old. Created in collaboration with award-winning filmmaker Hikaru Fujii, Our Songs – Sydney Kabuki Project archives the oral and intangible histories that make up the social and cultural fabric of Sydney.

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