ANCESTRAL OMEGA - THE MEDORA, AT GIPCA LIVE ART FESTIVAL 2014

The finale to the GIPCA Live Art Festival was a heart warming story wrapped in a bundle of warm melodies bringing to life the story of The Medora.

“Ancestral Omega: The Medora” is a cross-pollination of theatre and film.

A multi-disciplinary audiovisual experience, which merges photographs, video installation and graphic design with a live theatre installation, acting and music.

The Happy Boys Malay choir sang traditional Kaapse Nederlands songs and songstress Fairuze Simons shaked the room with her warm tones of Indonesian and Afrikaaans opera.

The concept of the Ancestral Omega is one, which embraces women’s histories and the Omega Consciousness of peace, nurturing and creating beauty. It also highlights cultural nuances of a unique community in South Africa. Weaam believes that history is documented from a very male gaze and the Medora metaphorically tells the ephemeral story of South African women who trace their roots to South East Asia.

The Medora project was creatively inspired by what Weaam Williams terms her “Ancestral Omega”. Weaam’s great-grandmother Hadji Gadija Shadley Awaldien as a young girl visited Mecca with her family and was taught how to make Medora’s by Indonesian women living in Saudi Arabia, who had this skill in the 1920’s. She was taken to the Kabbah where she swore to keep this craft a life secret. Upon her return to Cape Town (District Six) in the late 1920’s she was the only woman in Cape Town who could make Medoras.

The pinning of Medora’s at the time was a craft amongst many Cape Malay women who frequently pinned Medora’s for weddings, festivals etc. However, making the actual Medora was a rare skill.

A Medora is made from a very fine cloth and is heavily embroidered with symbolic patterns -traditionally using a white fabric. For the Malay bride, wearing the Medora is a symbol of purity. The original Medoras are embroidered with real gold or silver thread and are family heirlooms.

Today the Medora represents the history of people who trace their roots to the Malay Archipelago: brought to South African soil by Dutch colonials. Dispossessed initially from their Motherland, and in generations to follow from their Cape homes via the Group Areas Act. The Medora remains as a symbol of beauty and culture.

Written and Directed by Weaam Williams

Art Director: Shabnam Williams

Technical Director: Nafia Kocks

Music: The Happy Boys, Fairuze Simons, Aaqib Simons

Medora Pinner: Zaynab Petersen

Bride: Ayesha Adams

Photographs by Ashley Walters