Living data in the Lower Balonne: cultural enablement or cultural imposition?

[Abstract]: This paper discusses recent developments in a partnership between the Creative Arts at University of Southern Queensland (USQ) and the Queensland Murray Darling Committee Inc.(QMDC) that is exploring how to develop the use of theatre and visual arts to promote natural resource management in schools and communities in the Lower Balonne. In particular, this paper investigates what constitutes imposition of a theatre-in-education performance for schools in the communities of Surat, Dirranbandi and St George, which are all towns along the Balonne River in south western Queensland. The transference of the “living data” (stories from the children about their river) into a play entitled The Doctor and Nursey-Wursey’s Most Amazing Hydrological Examination polarised school-children and adult community audiences in such a way that the research team needed to re-frame (and continues to re-frame) the relationship between data and knowledge in community cultural development. This research has been an outcome of a Joint Venture between USQ Creative Communities and Queensland Murray-Darling Committee Inc. with funding from QMDC to conduct multiple visits to the Lower Balonne region throughout 2006. Further funding from the USQ Public Memory Research Centre was also integral to the success of this project