Neoliberal Policy and Iraqi Theatre Makers in Australia: The Tension of Homemaking and Playmaking

This article argues that the Australian neoliberal multicultural theatre policy (1990s) curtailed the artistic self-value of the first generation of Iraqi migrants-theatre makers who landed in Australia in the mid-1990s, shaping their homemaking process. By weaving Rimi Khan's model of the multicultural artist as a provisional citizen (Citation2015) and Paolo Boccagni's concept of migratory homemaking process (Citation2016), this article postulates that making Australia a home for this class of Iraqi seasoned artists-migrants has been informed by their experience in playmaking. The array of multicultural strategies fashions a marginalised ethnic-migrant artistic subjectivity by restricting its everyday cultural practices. Thus orbiting around multicultural policy not only created a sidelined Iraqi émigré-artist subject. Rather, it shaped the understanding of home among Iraqi theatre makers. I came to this conclusion through conducting semi-structured interviews with a cohort of Iraqi theatre makers who are based in Australia and whose works I archived in the Australian Live Performance Database (AusStage). The interviewees provided personal experiences of artistic belonging that are missing from the Australian modern migration history.