“I was with Bangarra [Dance Theatre] for six years … post Covid, a lot of people had a little bit of a ‘Oh I think I need a change in my life,'” he told NITV.

“I knew there were quite a few connections between the Taiwan Indigenous people and the Austronesian language groups all the way down into Australia, so I was really keen on exploring this relationship.”

Speaking to NITV in Taoyuan City after one of his performances, Mr Hitchcock says the piece was inspired by the concept of “gida” – a word in his mother’s language of Motu, from Papua New Guinea.

Baden first moved to Taipei to study Mandarin on a scholarship.

“Gida is the ember you take with you on long journeys, so after a fire … you smother that piece of wood so it keeps smouldering and then you can take it and it can relight fires,” he said.

“Especially because I grew up in Sydney and my mum and my older sisters were born in Papua New Guinea … so as I came into my adulthood it was trying to find my way of who I am, and how I connect with my family back home.”

Community of Indigenous artists

“I started going out into the communities here and trying to meet other Indigenous artists here, and then starting to collaborate and talk about what it’s like being a contemporary Indigenous person now in Taiwan,” he said.

“It reminds me of going back home to my village, I would say island customs of welcoming.”