This object has significance in material culture due to its role in the 'Awakening' segment of the opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games, an important event in the social history of Sydney and NSW. It has the potential to communicate in exhibitions and publications about the Sydney Olympic Games and has historical significance in its design, making, use and in the cultural meanings ascribed to it.

Described by the NSW premier Bob Carr as 'the greatest spectacle Australia has produced', the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games took place at Stadium Australia, Homebush Bay on Friday 15 September 2000.

The opening ceremony was the subject of much public expectation. After years of controversy and insecurity around issues like Ric Birch's infamous kangaroos on bicycles (from the Atlanta closing ceremony) and the recruitment of American musicians in a proposed marching band for Sydney's opening ceremony, it was perceived as a test of Australia's cultural competence. Could Australia deliver a modern, sophisticated performance or were we to embarrass ourselves?

The overwhelmingly positive public response to the opening ceremony inspired a sense of relief among Sydneysiders. In the upsurge of goodwill and excitement (which began when the torch relay arrived in Sydney) the media dropped its negative attacks on the Games' organisers and embraced the extraordinary spirit that had gripped the city. The public had finally claimed ownership of the Games. Cynicism melted away for two weeks as locals revelled in the rare carnival atmosphere.

The opening ceremony had anthems, speeches, oaths, flags, a marching band, pop singers and a parade of the athletes from 199 competing nations. However the daring conceptual sequences ('Deep Sea Dreaming', 'Awakening', 'Nature', 'Tin Symphony', 'Arrivals' and 'Eternity') will be remembered as the ceremony's great imaginative works. Each segment commenced without interruption, following on from the last to form an overall narrative. The purpose was to project a national image to a worldwide audience, to form the world's vision of Australian culture. This image embraced tolerance, social progress, multiculturalism and reconciliation, as well as nature, history and creativity. Designed to stimulate emotional responses from the audience, these segments delivered a refreshing mixture of youth, naivety and larrikinism.

The creative team comprised 13,000 artists and performers, including designers, choreographers, circus artists, costume makers, set builders and painters, singers, composers, writers, arrangers, dancers, musicians. Even more than the high quality costume design, choreography and music, the props were talking points, with the Endeavour cycle and the Ned Kelly horse attracting the most attention.

The 'Awakening' segment was a primary focal point of the ceremony and had a strong theatrical impact. It portrayed a powerful image of Indigenous peoples to a vast international audience for whom Aboriginal culture is perhaps the most recognisable aspect of Australian life. Featuring over 1000 performers from around Australia, it showed the diversity of Aboriginal cultures. The segment functioned as a traditional welcome that celebrated the next generation of Indigenous youth, taking their culture into the new millennium.

In 'Awakening' Djakapurra Munyarryun, the songman, called the new generation of spirits. The white ochre spirits were drawn to the heartbeat of the land by Central Desert women, who performed their 'Chant of the Seven Sisters Dance'. As ochre filled the air, dancers from Arnhem land performed the 'Flag Welcome Song', which welcomed the Macassan traders long ago. Torres Strait islanders arrived, welcomed by the Eora nation of the Sydney area. All gathered around drums of burning eucalyptus leaves, rekindling and cleansing the Olympic stadium on Daruk land. The Gjorn Gjorn, huge spirits from the Kimberley Ranges, hovered. As the clans united, the giant Wandjina figure appeared - an ancestral creation spirit and lawmaker. The Wandjina flung a lightning bolt to ignite the bushfire that regenerates the land.

As the designer Peter England stated, 'We want to correct the idea that indigenous Australia has only one face.In fact Australia's Aborigines have rich and diverse cultures' (quoted in Olympic Opening Ceremony Rehearsal Program).

The Aboriginal theme continued into the next segment, 'Fire'. The Australian bush began to burn when the ancestral creation spirit and lawmaker, the Wandjina, yawned and started a raging bushfire. Flames purified the bush, starting a new life cycle. The segment included fire breathers and fiery stilt walkers.

Viewers around the world learnt something about modern Australia, including the desire of the people (if not the government) to achieve reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

Peter England, Ceremonies Workshop Eveleigh, Redfern NSW, 1999 Peter England was set designer for the 'Awakening' segment. He was a landscape architect before moving into theatre design. He has designed opera, dance and theatre productions, as well as the large floating lanterns for the Sydney Millennium New Year's Eve celebrations. In 'Awakening' he tried to create a landscape that captures Australia's grandeur and subtlety. 'Awakening takes on the raw Australian imagery of barren, open, vast landscapes and incorporates the textures of its sparse populations, flora and fauna' (Peter England, quoted in Olympic Opening Ceremony Rehearsal Program). The standard 44 gallon drum is a humble icon of the outback, appropriated here as a 'smoking drum'.
Peter England was set designer for the 'Awakening' segment. He was a landscape architect before moving into theatre design. He has designed opera, dance and theatre productions, as well as the large floating lanterns for the Sydney Millennium New Year's Eve celebrations. In 'Awakening' he tried to create a landscape that captures Australia's grandeur and subtlety. 'Awakening takes on the raw Australian imagery of barren, open, vast landscapes and incorporates the textures of its sparse populations, flora and fauna' (Peter England, quoted in Olympic Opening Ceremony Rehearsal Program). The standard 44 gallon drum is a humble icon of the outback, appropriated here as a 'smoking drum'. Ceremonies construction team, Ceremonies Workshop, Eveleigh, Redfern, 1999-2000 Standard 44 gallon drum with added hinged lid and skirted trolley to protect ground cloth from burning ashes. Trolley has castors and handle/rail for handling. Ceremonies construction team, Ceremonies Workshop, Eveleigh, Redfern, 1999-2000
Standard 44 gallon drum with added hinged lid and skirted trolley to protect ground cloth from burning ashes. Trolley has castors and handle/rail for handling.
made: Ceremonies construction team, Ceremonies Workshop, Eveleigh, Redfern, 1999-2000
Standard 44 gallon drum with added hinged lid and skirted trolley to protect ground cloth from burning ashes. Trolley has castors and handle/rail for handling.

Sydney Olympic games- Opening Ceremony -Awakenings segment, Stadium Australia, Sydney Olympic Park, Homebush, 15 September 2000.

Made for and owned by the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, and donated to the Powerhouse Museum after the Games.

Drum, 44 gallon, containing gum leaves, with trolley, 'Smoking Drum', performance prop, metal / leaves, designed by Peter England made by the Ceremonies Workshop, used in the Awakenings segment of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games opening ceremony, Sydney, 2000

Hinged metal lid and skirted trolley/ stand to protect ground cloth from burning ashes. The hinged lid has a metal fastener on the edge opposite the hinges. On the right hand side of the lid a metal handle has been welded. Embossed into the surface of the lid "61139L". The drum is rusted. Two ridges run around the circumference of the drum. There are 16 random holes in the drum. Inside the drum is a removable grate made from an aluminium ring that has been covered with chicken wire. The grate sits on three metal brackets fastened to the inside of the drum. Below the grate in the base of the drum are burnt gum leaves. Four metal rectangular bars with clasps act as legs for the drum and fix it to the stand. The stand is circular shaped metal with raised rim that is bent around the edge. Four castors are screwed into the base of the stand. A metal circular handrail is fixed to the stand by 4 metal diagonal pipes that are welded to the top of the stand. PHM number on the handrail.

Made: 2000

2001/84/4

2000

1170 mm

1360 mm