ABOVE: Watch and listen to “Captives ” a paper theatre narrative, designed/performed by Zoë Sadokierski and written by Ceridwen Dovey for Future Fables: Lessons from Other Animals, a project of Animal Allegories.
BELOW: Discover more on Animal Allegories and the story behind the narrative “Captives”, including an accompanying text transcript.
Future Fables: Lessons from Other Animals
Curated by Zoë Sadokierski and Ceridwen Dovey of Animal Allegories.
Animal Allegories’ Future Fables: Lessons from Other Animals project. The off-kilter stories that make up the Future Fables collection are intended to open up new thresholds for considering how humans relate to the more-than-human species around us. These stories emerged alongside another project Animal Allegories is developing with the Australian Museum, titled “Survival Stories: Threatened Species and the Scientists Who Study Them.” Visit the Animal Allegories page for more information about Future Fables.
Humans and Nature Press Digital is honored to present Future Fables as an ongoing digital story gallery highlighting a variety of text, audio, video, and artwork capturing the power of human and nature encounters and connections. Stay tuned for more fables to come.
“Captives” Intro
Captives: A silent paper-theatre film in which a platypus and a naturalist discuss colonial collection practices.
Throughout his life, Australian naturalist Harry Burrell (1873–1945) was a fierce advocate for platypus conservation. His intention was to better understand these remarkable semi-aquatic, egg-laying mammals by studying live creatures, rather than dissecting specimens. However, to study live platypuses he hacked into burrows, extracted them from their nests and kept them in captivity. History renders him a complicated character.
Ceridwen was inspired to write the script for Captives after we were shown glass plate photographs and a bizarre film from the Burrell collection by Vanessa Finney, Head of World Cultures, Archies and Research Library at the Australian Museum. The film shows bare-chested Burrell digging into creek beds and constructing a tank to observe the live platypuses, which he called a ‘platypusary’. Burrell’s background in vaudeville lingers in his flare for drama; the film shows him in the platypusary, his head poking into the tank through a glass dome with his forearms reaching in through special holes to pet a live platypus.
Our initial plan was to create an archival film using this footage and still photographs. But how to voice a platypus? How far is too far to anthropomorphise? We opted for a silent film, and rather than the actual footage, Zoë came up with a more ‘hands-on’ presentation: a paper theatre performance of the script using photographs from the Burrell collection, via the National Museum of Australia, and public domain natural history illustrations.
Hacking into Burrell’s archive to create this paper-theatre film mimics his hacking into the riverbank. The hands placing archival fragments into the frame of the film act as a reminder that all archives are constructed, all stories assembled from fragments of the whole. Telling hard truths from Museum archives is part of a process of taking responsibility for past practices to ensure future practices are ethical, sustainable, and respectful. Rather than burying troubling material, how might we work with it to tell more complex and inclusive stories about our past?
Credits:
An Animal Allegories Production.
Written by Ceridwen Dovey, illustrated and animated by Zoë Sadokierski.
Videoed by Gabriel Clark, edited by Gabriel Clark and Jason Benedek.
Music: Platypus Rag, by Anes Sadikovic.
Images from the Burrell Collection supplied by the National Museum of Australia.
This film was made with the support of an International Engagement Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts, and the University of Technology Sydney School of Design. With thanks to Vanessa Finney and Jenny Newell, from the Australian Museum.
Text Transcript
A black and white title card reads: “Captives”, written by Ceridwen Dovey, illustrated by Zoë Sadokierski. Hands place two cutout drawings of platypus on either side of the title.
A new title card is placed into the frame. It reads: Starring Harry Burrell, C.M.Z.S and introducing “PLATYPUS”. Hands place an old-fashioned photograph of a man in a suit and a drawing of a platypus on either side of the title.
A black intertitle card reads:
“Mr Burrell, can I ask…”
“Yes, platypus?”
“…where am I?”
A white intertitle card reads:
“You’re in your new home,”
“My home?”
Hands place a cutout picture of a man in a raincoat standing with one arm and leg propped onto a home-made wooden construction. Hands place a small label that reads: Portable Platypussary. Hands place a cut out of a top view of the platypussary with a label that reads: top view.
A black intertitle card reads:
“Do you not like it here?”
“I do, it’s just….”
“In here you are safe and well fed.”
A black intertitle card reads:
“…my burrow in the riverbank…”
“Yes, platypus?”
“…it took me a while to build.”
Hands place a collage of natural history illustrations of several platypus on a riverbank. The hands take away parts of the illustration to reveal a photograph of a dug-out platypus burrow and the words “Don’t worry. You won’t need it anymore.”
A black intertitle card reads:
“I’m sorry to ask…”
“Yes, Platypus?”
“My babies, I can’t seem to find them.”
“They’re on a special journey, that’s why.”
“They are too small to travel far.”
A white intertitle card reads:
“So unusual, twins! I couldn’t believe my eyes.”
“On that we can agree.”
Hands place two cut out photographs, each with a forearm holding a baby platypus.
A black intertitle card reads:
“I have been searching for eggs, nests…”
“Indeed you have.”
“…but I did not expect to find twin puggles!”
“Where have you taken them?”
A black intertitle card reads:
“To the museum, of course.”
“And then you will bring them back…”
Hands place a cut out photograph of two platypus puggles in a glass jar, with a label “Platypus, twelve days old”.
A black intertitle card reads:
“You should be proud, Platypus.”
“Of what?”
“People will gaze upon them in wonder.”
“But they need my milk.”
A black intertitle card reads:
“Come, let me calm you. There, there.”
“I don’t like to be touched.”
A black intertitle card reads:
“It’s time to take your photograph, for my book.”
“Again?”
“Be glad I am only taking your photograph.”
“What else is there for you to take?”
Hands place two cut photographs, each showing a man’s arm holding an adult platypus.
White intertitle card.
Hands place paper cut outs of a platypus skeleton and anatomical illustrations of platypus organs, and small hands holding scalpels.
A black intertitle card reads:
“My wife will hold you, in her hands.”
“I’ll try to be still.”
“Susie knows more about you than I do.”
“Which is never enough…”
“And I know everything there is to know.”
“You do?”
A white intertitle card reads:
“I am the Platypus Man!”
Hands place labels that read: Harry Burrell had a background in vaudeville. He built a tank to film the platypus.
Hands place three photographs of Burrell in his tank, his head is in a glass dome, with his hands in the water, the platypus is swimming around him.
A black intertitle card reads:
“She is gentle when she handles me.”
“Her hands will be immortalised.”
“We will remember her hands.”
“Her wedding ring catches the light.”
Hands place a cut out photograph of a woman’s forearm holding up a platypus, curled into a ball. A large diamond wedding ring is visible.
A black intertitle card reads:
“I miss the river.”
“But in this tank you thrive!”
“I still do not know where I am.”
A black intertitle card reads:
“You need a companion.”
“No, no…”
“You are lonely, is all.”
“I am fine, Mr Burrell.”
A hand places a cut out platypus hand, upward.
A white intertitle card reads:
“Without Susie, I’d be lost.”
“So you do know…”
“Know what, Platypus?”
“How I feel.”
“You can feel nothing.”
Hands place an old-fashioned photograph of a woman holding two baby platypus.
Hands place a label: Mrs Harry Burrell, fondling twin nestlings in camp.
A black intertitle card reads:
And yet, I am lost.
Hands place drawings of platypus around the words.
A black intertitle card reads:
The end.
Hands place a cut out of platypus and a small hand holding a scalpel
