We Are Many Things: Investigating a sense of shared space and questions of mixed identities in Indaba by Ayla Brinkmann

This artistic research project deals with Indaba, a performance for young audiences. Indaba is an isiZulu word for a meeting or discussion where the right people meet at the right moment to figure out things that concern them. Our performance Indaba explores questions like: How does it feel to be Finnish, or African, or both? How do many identities fit into one person? This artistic research and performance investigate important and underrepresented topics in the Finnish context: a sense of shared space and questions of mixed identities. The research question addresses shared space as follows: “What kind of tools and skills are helpful in creating a sense of shared space in a performative setting?”. The research takes a closer look at a series of five alternating and interconnected indabas and reflection sessions with the performer-trio: Pietari Kauppinen, Kasheshi Makena, and the author of this exposition. This written work also maps out some key conversations and concepts that our indaba and this artistic research connect to, such as third space and intersectionality. The main research findings are a practical tool for establishing a way of sharing space and the importance of the performer's responsibility in making meanings. Relevant skills that emerged from these findings include observation skills such as being alert and sensing what meanings things carry in the context at hand, and proactive skills such as the ability to respond in the moment.

1 INTRODUCTION

This exposition deals with Indaba, a performance for young audiences, and the artistic research that runs alongside it. Indaba is an isiZulu word for a meeting or discussion, especially a discussion where the right people meet at the right moment to figure out things that concern them (Dictionary of South African English, n.d.; Wachira, 2024). The research and performance investigate a sense of shared space, taking a closer look at what kind of tools and skills are helpful in facilitating the shared performative space that is Indaba.

Indaba is also a children’s performance about questions like: How does it feel to be Finnish, or African, or both? How do many identities fit into one person? An answer to this is offered by intersectionality, a concept that claims that an individual’s identity is made up of multiple intersecting facets. This project was born from a wish to talk about intersectionality in simpler words: we are many things.

Here indaba¹ is based on an understanding of identity as a diverse, fluid and pluralistic thing that lives and grows as we do. Each person is many things at the same time and we don’t need to choose between this or that aspect of belonging.

1.1 Research aim and questions

The overarching aim of my research is to investigate a sense of shared space² in a series of five indabas. The research question that will address this aim is:

What kind of tools and skills are helpful in creating a sense of shared space in a performative setting?

While performance for young audiences is the method of this research, it is not the subject of the research. The subject of this research is a sense of shared space in a performative context. Here the main focus lies in navigating and facilitating in-betweenness in terms of identity.

Hence, the conceptual framework and literature supporting this written work are centred around these themes.

1.2 Researcher position: Where do I stand? Where do we stand?

For this theme it is particularly important to position the working group in relation to the research topic and acknowledge the insights and limitations that come with this combination of viewpoints.

I am a white Finnish and South African person. I have Karelian, Finnish, English, and German grandparents. My English grandmother and German grandfather moved to South Africa when they were young, my father was born in Cape Town and identifies as South African. My mother is Finnish. I grew up in Heinola and in Cape Town. I live in Helsinki.

My fellow performers and artistic research collaborators are multi-instrumentalist and music educator Kasheshi Makena and dancer and dj Pietari Kauppinen. Kasheshi is Tanzanian-born and lives in Laukaa, Finland, with his Finnish wife and their three children. Pietari was born in Wollo, Ethiopia, and raised by Finnish parents in Korpilahti. Pietari lives in Helsinki.

We share a special interest in mixed identities and the intersections of Finnishness and Africanness.

In our indaba, I have been the koollekutsuja - a Finnish word for one who invites the people to gather. I have facilitated some parts of the creative process, done most of the producing work and written the texts we use to describe and market the performance, and carried the leadership role of both the artistic project and the artistic research.

This written work represents my thinking, which is inextricably built on the collective work of our trio. Pietari and Kasheshi agreed to be part of this artistic research as active artistic collaborators under their own names, and I therefore draw on their insights and experiences as part of the research. My aim is to acknowledge and amplify their voices, perspectives, and artistic agency that have contributed to uncovering the research findings. I also acknowledge that this written work is filtered through me: my notes, my memory, the things I notice, and my organising mind.

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¹I use the lower case indaba as a common noun to highlight the aspect and act of coming together, rather than the performance of a capitalised Artistic Piece.

² In the context of a performance, we understand shared space as moments of togetherness and shared agency. However, in this kind of setting there are two different roles in the space: the role of the performer and that of the audience.

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Ayla Brinkmann - We Are Many Things: Investigating a sense of shared space and questions of mixed identities in Indaba - 2025

1.1 Research aim and questions