Guuranda Show Program

Theatre | World Premiere

Guuranda

Jacob Boehme

Dates: 29 Feb - 3 Mar 2024
Venue: Her Majesty's Theatre
Duration: 1hr 15mins, no interval
Warnings: Contains depictions of violence, haze and strobe effects. Recommended for audiences 8+

Guuranda has been commissioned by Adelaide Festival and produced by Insite Arts. Generously supported by the donors of the Adelaide Festival First Nations Commissioning Programme.

Thanks to TANDANYA Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Bunjil Place, Opera Australia, Wilin Centre (Faculty of Fine Arts & Music, The University of Melbourne), State Theatre Company South Australia (choir costumes), Circus Oz and Country Arts South Australia (CASA).

Contents

Artistic Director's Statement
Elders' Statement
Credits
Narungga Stories
Biographies

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Guuranda Songbook

The Guuranda Songbook includes texts and paintings by Kylie O'Loughlin. The Songbook can be downloaded using the link below.

Download the Songbook (pdf)

Artistic Director's Statement

What you see. What you’re allowed to see. When you’re ready to see it.

These words are a guide for walking and reading Narungga Country. Spoken by Narungga Elder Aunty Lynette (Ninni) Newchurch, they were offered to the team of First Nations performers and non-Indigenous creatives from across Australia with Insite Arts and Adelaide Festival, as a way of understanding the stories manifest within Country. At the beginning of this project, our very first creative development began with the team spending time on Country together, walking the storylines and listening to the songlines of Guuranda (Yorke Peninsula).

These are the words that have guided the dramaturgy of this project; in the writing of the script, the development of visual language and an approach to creating content from traditional Narungga Creation stories for the western stage, through song, puppetry and dance.

What you witness tonight is the results of working with an amazing team of First Nations dancers - each associate choreographers and performers of this work, who bring their whole selves, their stories and their kinship, to the stage to dance our Narungga Creation. The choreographic approach I have used in the making of this work is a methodology I have been building with First Nations communities over 18 years: Memory in Movement. It is derived from Phillipe Genty/Mary Underwood’s Mem-o-gram Technique, which Phillipe and Mary taught me back in 2006. Memory in Movement draws on the personal memories of the subject (dancer) to build choreographic phrases from their own relationships with Country, unlocking intergenerational memory held deep within our DNA.

Guuranda has truly been a family affair. It has given so much to all our family and community, providing healing for us all. Our Narungga Elders on the project - Uncle Rex Angie, Aunty Deanna Newchurch, Uncle Eddie Newchurch and Aunty Ninni - have guided the team culturally and dramaturgically on everything from set and costume design to marketing and puppetry. I have had the privilege of working alongside cousins Sonya Rankine and Tania Wanganeen building the songs for this work, commissioning visual art works painted by Narungga artist Kylie O’Loughlin, engaging the stunning vocals of Narungga Songman Warren Milera and starting a new Narungga Family Choir with all my siblings and cousins living and working on Naarm. Standing alongside my younger brother Luke and little sister Kelly as we learned and revived our language through song has been a career highlight I will treasure forever. This work is my opus to Family and Country.

Guuranda shares with you the stories that our Ancestors have been custodians of for thousands of years. It is an honour and a privilege to stand in a long lineage of custodianship holding these stories that inform us all about our place in the world and the natural environment and to make meaning of the joy and the chaos around us. I thank my Ancestors, my Elders and my family for entrusting me to retell these stories through movement and theatre, passed on to us by Aunty Elaine ‘Laney’ Newchurch, Aunty Irene Agius and Aunty Pam Sansbury, who were told these stories by our great-grandfather Papa Eddie Sansbury.

What you see. What you’re allowed to see. When you’re ready to see it.

Whatever journey you take tonight, we Welcome you to Narungga culture, our Country, our Creation and to our Family, who have been the custodians of these stories for tens of thousands of years and who share these stories with you now with generosity, kindness and care.

Artistic Director, Writer & Choreographer
Jacob Boehme | Narungga, Kaurna

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Elders' Statement

As Elders of Narungga, Yorke Peninsula, Guurunda, we share stories told to us by our ancestors. Our traditional history has been translated orally in the traditional way for generations. There is a lot of significance of Yorke Peninsula that has been recorded by different anthropologists and archaeologists over time. The stories are about the land itself, but not as a written book. We belong to the land. We feel and read the land and sea, as Narungga people. The plants, animals, the hills and bushes. That’s our schooling, education and experiences. We're passing the set of stories told to all of us by our Mothers. It’s about putting your culture out there.

Jacob Boehme first approached us to make the short film, Wild Dog, but wanted to develop a new project called Guurunda. What Jacob has brought to life has opened a new world for us. He has inspired us and we've all walked the journey together. To see this come to life on stage in a different format is a big step from where we started and how our stories are told.

The storylines are not just ours, they belong to every Narungga person. They are about failure, morals, respect, life and death. Especially respect for one another and for the land you live on. Because without our land, we’ve got nothing. And that's not just with us, being Narungga, that's with all people. The storylines entail living in harmony, caring and protecting. They encompass the values and morals of life itself. It not only benefits us, as a family, it benefits all Narungga people to see that their culture is still alive. Hopefully every Narungga person will embrace it, because we have embraced it. We want to educate our children and our children’s children, by keeping our Aboriginality alive.

Narungga Elders/Dramaturges/Cultural Consultants
Uncle Rex Angie | Narungga, Kaurna, Bungala, Wirangu, Nauo, Ngadjuri
Aunty Deanna Newchurch | Narungga, Kaurna, Adnyamathanha, Ngaduri, Ngarrindjeri
Uncle Eddie Newchurch | Narungga, Kaurna, Adnyamathanha, Ngaduri, Ngarrinderi
Aunty Lynette Newchurch | Narungga, Kaurna, Adnyamathanha, Ngaduri, Ngarrinderi

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Credits

Artistic Director, Writer & Choreographer
Jacob Boehme | Narungga, Kaurna

Narungga Elders/Dramaturges/Cultural Consultants
Uncle Rex Angie | Narungga, Kaurna, Bungala, Wirangu, Nauo, Ngadjuri
Aunty Deanna Newchurch | Narungga, Kaurna, Adnyamathanha, Ngaduri, Ngarrindjeri
Uncle Eddie Newchurch | Narungga, Kaurna, Adnyamathanha, Ngaduri, Ngarrinderi
Aunty Lynette Newchurch | Narungga, Kaurna, Adnyamathanha, Ngaduri, Ngarrinderi

Senior Consulting Elders
Uncle Lewis Yerloburka O’Brien | Kaurna elder
Aunty Pauline O’Brien | Narnungga & Kaurna elder
Aunty Lynette Crocker | Kaurna elder
Uncle Kevin ‘Dookie’ O’Loughlin | Narnungga & Kaurna elder

Narungga Songman/Songwoman
Warren Milera | Narungga/Adnyamathanha
Sonya Rankine | Ngarrindjeri, Ngadjuri, Narungga, Wirangu

Associate-Choreographers & Performers
Caleena Sansbury | Narungga, Kaurna, Ngarrindjeri
Chandler (Cheeky) Connell | Wiradjuri, Ngunnawal
Edan Porter | Gomeroi
Luke Currie Richardson | Kuku Yalanji, Djabugay, Meriam
Jada Narkle | Wiilman, Yued
Jordan O’Davis | Waka Waka, Yaggera, Wiradjuri
Shana O’Brien | Dharug, Darkinjung
Zoë Brown-Holten | Dunghutti, Gomeroi, Wiradjuri

Artistic Team

Narungga Song Woman & Translator
Sonya Rankine | Ngarrindjeri, Ngadjuri, Narungga, Wirangu

Narungga Translator
Tania Wanganeen

Visual Artist
Kylie O’Loughlin | Narungga, Nantowarra Kaurna

Composer
James Henry | Yorta Yorta, Yuin, Yuwaalaraa, Gamilaraay Peoples

Dramaturge
Chris Mead

Staging & Lighting Design
Jenny Hector

Audio-Visual Design
Keith Deverell

Costume Design & Textile Art Finishing
Kathryn Sproul

Puppet Designer & Maker
Philip Millar

Leatherworker
Sue Manski

Costume Makers
Sacha Roberts
Laz Snoswell
Anna Perry
Dianne Tearle

Movement Coach
Rinske Ginsberg

Vocal Coach & Producer
Grace Robinson

Production Team

Production Manager
Nathan Evers

Stage Manager
Cecily Rabey

Assistant Stage Manager
Zsuzsa GM

Programmers
Olaf Meyer
Matt Gingold

Producers | Insite Arts International

Executive Producer
Jason Cross

Finance Director
Victoria Raywood

Associate Producer
Stella Webster

NARUNGGA FAMILY CHOIR

Choir Director
Grace Robinson

Choir Facilitator
Jessica Vangelista

Choir Audio Engineer
Patrick Telfer

Choir Performers
Richard ‘Shaggy’ Brown
Damien Brown
Jacob Brown
Anja Cruse
Jacynta Lehtinen
Luke Picone
Natalie Pocervina
Kelly Rossi
Jodie Seiuli
Faith Seiuli
Kayla Seiuli
Christian Seiuli
Alyssa Siale
Elke Smirl
Tegan Smirl
Markeeta Smith
Jaimie Taunoa
Paulie Taunoa
Jamayne Taunoa-Brown
Rua Taunoa
Taree Taunoaa
KC Taunoa
Jessica Vangelista
Isabella Vangelista
Kaarl Waldorp
Jacob Boehme

Audio Engineer
Craig Pilkington | Audrey Studios

Session Musicians

Guitar
Gary Watling

Percussion
Alexander Meagher

Drumkit
Chris Lewis

Tenor Trombone & Bass Trombone
Adrian Sherriff

Trumpet
Eugene Ball

French Horn
Cinzia Posega

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Narungga Stories

These three Narungga stories, told in an abbreviated manner below, are central to the creation and performance of Guuranda. Thank you to the Narungga Elders who gave permission for the inclusion of these stories.

Buthera

Buthera was a Narungga giant who walked his country. Buthera threw a rock and as it landed it split and became Wardang Island, Green Island, Dead Man’s Island and Goose Island.

He threw his club from Wardang Island with such force that it left an imprint of his foot in the rock. Buthera’s club travelled across miles of water to Point Turton and struck a fishing woman dead. The woman turned into a large stone.

Buthera walked south and came across Ngarna, leader of the bat people. He became angry with Ngarna for camping on his country without permission. The two fought and Buthera cut Ngarna in two. Ngarna became Madjdidju the bat.

He travelled to Curramulka where he came upon a group of people who heard about the fight from Djindrin (willy wag tail). He became angry with them and set fire to their camp. They ran from the fire and jumped into a nearby waterhole, but they were burnt. When the people emerged from the water, they became birds, their bodies burned black and smeared with grey and white ashes; shags, seagulls, crows and magpies.

At Emu Bay, Madjidju and Buthera fought. Madjidju killed Buthera and threw Buthera’s body in a nearby lake. A pile of stones remains there to mark the body of Buthera. They are Buthera’s bones. Seagulls nest here and in Summer you can gather their eggs.

Madjidju turned to stone and became the rock on the point at Nhildidjari (Rhino’s Head). His wife sat at his feet and is represented as the large rock at the base of the cliff.

Gadli

There was once a boy who told lies. One day as he was walking, Windara (wind spirit) came up and cursed him to be a dingo (gadli).

Gadli chased a possum to Curramulka, crossing into country without permission. He was punished and struck with a terrible mange. He itched and itched and came to a place called Gudlowie (dog watering hole) where he decided to wash his skin. As he washed his skin, the mange dropped from his body and became limestone.

Gadli stopped at Port Vincent and then at Black Point where he caught fish.

Gadli continued north to Ardrossan where he came upon Winda the owl, who travelled with a black gadli.

Every morning the dhuggudja (curlew) would come onto the shore to play and eat. One day when the parents left their chicks on the beach, Winda ordered the gadli to kill the chicks. The chicks annoyed Winda because they were too loud and always messy.

When the parents arrived, they found their children dead on the beach. They went to Nhandhu, the Lore man (kangaroo). Nhandhu cursed Winda to live in the darkness of caves and to never see daylight again. He then killed the black gadli and banished the boy to leave Narungga Country and never return.

The Creation of the Spencer Gulf

Spencer Gulf was once a big valley. All kinds of birds and animals lived there, each with their own territory.

One day, the waterbirds stood staring at their reflections in the water. They believed they were the most beautiful and only they could drink from the waterholes. This caused much fighting as there was no other water source.

War started and may animals were injured and killed.

Nhandhu, Garrdi (emu) and Djindrin (willy wagtail) sat on a hill, watching the war below.

Djindrin said: “I dreamt I was on an island and the ocean rose up. I was scared and I ran, but the waves rose up and drowned me.”

Garrdi spoke next, “I dreamed there was devastation and death everywhere”, and he produced a magic bone he had found.

Watching the war below, Nhandhu said: “Bring this bone and I will strike the land and they will learn to live in peace.”

Nhandhu struck the ground and the earth opened and the sea came tumbling in causing a great flood and creating the land mass we now know as Guuranda (Yorke Peninsula).

This story we know to be at least 10,000 years old as it aligns with the rising of the sea levels at the last ice-age approximately 11,000 years ago.

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Biographies

Jacob Boehme | Narungga, Kaurna
Artistic Director, Writer & Choreographer

Jacob Boehme is a critically acclaimed theatre maker and choreographer, from the Nharangga and Kaurna Nations, creating work for stage, screen, large-scale public events and festivals.

Alumnus of NASIDA College of Dance and the Victorian College of the Arts, (MA in Arts – Playwriting, MA in Arts – Puppetry), Jacob has led the artistic direction of Tanderrum (Melbourne Festival), Boon Wurrung Ngargee (Yalukit Willam Festival), Thuwathu (Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair), Geelong After Dark and was the founding Creative Director of Yirramboi Festival, recipient of the 2018 Green Room Award for Curatorial Contribution to Contemporary and Experimental Arts.

Jacob is the writer and performer of the critically acclaimed solo work Blood on the Dance Floor, recipient of the 2017 Green Room Award Best Independent Production.

Jacob is an Australia Council for the Arts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Fellow and has been a member of International Advisory Committees for the Calouste Gulbenkian UK Inquiry into the Role of Arts Organisations, the Ministry of Culture Taiwan South East Asia Advisory Panel, the Global First Nations Advisory and Bibu Festival International First Nations Curatorial Committee.

Jacob’s Wild Dog Project: a multi-disciplinary exhibition and gathering, connecting dingo stories and songlines between South Australia, Northern Territory, Far North Queensland and South East Asia, as part of Tarnanthi Festival in 2022, is the recipient of the 2023 Ruby Award for Outstanding Community Event or Project.

Jacob was the inaugural Director First Nations Programs for Carriageworks, one of Australia’s largest multi-arts venues for the development and presentation of experimental and contemporary arts and is currently the Artistic Director and Writer of Guuranda, a major new theatre work telling the Creation stories of the Narungga Peoples of Yorke Peninsula.

Uncle Rex Angie | Narungga, Kaurna, Bungala, Nauo, Wirangu, Ngadjuri
Narungga Elder/Dramaturge/Cultural Consultant

Rex Angie is a proud Narungga, Kaurna, Bungala, Nauo, Wirangu, Ngadjuri man, born in Wallaroo, South Australia in 1955. He grew up at Point Pearce (Aboriginal Mission Station) and went to school at Point Pearce Aboriginal School and Maitland Area School, Yorke Peninsula. He has been a Social Emotional Wellbeing Health Worker (SEWB), mental health worker and Stolen Generation Worker on a local and national level. Rex was a board member of the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement in South Australia for 25 years, being the first chairperson of Native Title in 1993. Later, he was a committee member and Traditional Owner of Narungga Nation Aboriginal Committee (NNAC) for 10 years. He wishes to encourage the younger generation to be involved in community affairs.

Aunty Deanna Newchurch | Narungga, Kaurna, Adnyamathanha, Ngaduri, Ngarrindjeri
Narungga Elder/Dramaturge/Cultural Consultant

Deanna Newchurch was born in Wallaroo, South Australia and grew up at Point Pearce. She went to school at Point Pearce in Maitland. Deanna worked as an Aboriginal Education Worker at Point Pearce Aboriginal School for 11 years before working as a Women’s Coordinator in the Point Pearce community, facilitating arts and crafts programs. In 2023, Deanna collaborated with her sister in shell-making and created a cloak for the Saltbush Country exhibition in Adelaide.

Uncle Eddie Newchurch | Narungga, Kaurna, Adnyamathanha, Ngaduri, Ngarrinderi
Narungga Elder/Dramaturge/Cultural Consultant

Eddie Newchurch is a proud Narungga man who has lived at Point Pearce community all his life. Eddie has been one of many community leaders. His role is to help and support community and try to create progress, better outcomes and opportunities for community.

Aunty Lynette Newchurch | Narungga, Kaurna, Adnyamathanha, Ngaduri, Ngarrinderi
Narungga Elder/Dramaturge/Cultural Consultant

Lynette Newchurch is a proud Narungga, Kaurna, Adnyamathanha, Ngaduri, Ngarrinderi woman. She is youngest child of seven and a mother of five, who has grown up at Point Pearce all her life. She was a youth worker for 10 years and facilitated programs to take children out on country and help them connect back to country. Lynette has had many roles within her life, including cultural.

For the past three years, she has helped revive cultural practices by collecting shells for jewellery and possum-skin cloaks as part of the Saltbush Country exhibition. Her goal is to maintain and preserve cultural heritage sites by encouraging young people to be involved.

Warren Milera | Narungga, Adnyamathanha
Narungga Songman

Warren Milera is a Narungga/Adnyamathanha country music singer /songwriter based in the Flinders Ranges. Warren is well known for his mesmerising performances of his original music. He performs around the country at various festivals and events.

Sonya Rankine | Ngarrindjeri, Ngadjuri, Narungga, Wirangu
Narungga Songwoman

Sonya Rankine, a Narungga, Ngarrindjeri, Ngadjuri, and Wirangu woman, is a multidisciplinary artist. She established Lakun Mara in 2019, meaning 'Weaving Hand' in Ngarrindjeri, learning from master weaver Aunty Ellen Trevorrow. Her art, strongly tied to cultural preservation, includes weaving for exhibitions, commissions, jewellery, and workshops. Awarded the 2019 Our Mob Exhibition Don Dunstan Foundation Emerging Artist Prize and the 2021 SA NAIDOC Artist of the Year, Sonya's work has been showcased since 2019 across regional, metro, state, and national platforms. Notably, she performed at the 2022 Adelaide Cabaret Festival and wrote songs in Narungga language for the Wild Dog Exhibition. Sonya's poetry, reflecting her life experiences and addressing social and political issues, has been published in various anthologies.

Sonya, as the Narungga Songwoman for Guuranda, was honoured and excited to translate Jacob’s lyrics into Narungga and create the song melodies for the Guuranda songs. The final Narungga lyric translations were solidified in consultation with Tania Wanganeen.

Caleena Sansbury | Narungga, Kaurna, Ngarrindjeri
Associate-Choreographer & Performer

Caleena Sansbury, a proud Ngarrindjeri, Narungga, and Kaurna woman, is also a devoted mother to her three-year-old son. As a performance artist, she draws inspiration from cultural and contemporary dance, theatre, storytelling, and choreography, graduating from NAISDA Dance College. Her work spans nationally and internationally, collaborating with various companies and choreographers including Vicki Van Hout, Thomas E. S. Kelly, Karul Projects, Insite Arts, Polyglot Theatre, and Legs On the Wall. Additionally, she worked as a producer at Melbourne Fringe 2018 and performed in Taree Sansbury’s mi:wi. Currently, she dances and serves as rehearsal director for the South Australian First Nations dance collective Tjarutja.

Zoë Brown-Holten | Dunghutti, Gomeroi, Wiradjuri
Associate-Choreographer & Performer

Zoë Brown-Holten is an ascendant from (Th)Dunghutti, Gomeroi and Wiradjuri tribes originating from the south coast of NSW. Zoe completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts – Dance at the VCA, and was the inaugural Ann Kantor Scholar at VCA Dance in 2022. Prior to her tertiary studies, Zoë has been trained and mentored by Bangarra Dance Theatre’s youth facilitators, Sidney Saltner, Chantell Kerr and Patrick Thaiday (2015-2019). She had the privilege to perform in RISE (Daniel Riley and Brianna Kell), Tracker development (Daniel Riley), Theatrum Botanicum (Gregory Lorenzetti). Brown is currently curious about interdisciplinary collaborations and retracing songlines from (Th)Dunghutti country to inform the development of her practice. Zoë was the recipient of the First Nations Dancer Placement for 2023 with Stephanie Lake Company (SLC), receiving mentorship from Stephanie Lake, and working on the 2023 season of Manifesto, and well as emerging choreographers program Escalate.

Chandler ‘Cheeky’ Connell | Wiradjuri, Ngunnawal
Associate-Choreographer & Performer

Chandler Connell (also known as Cheeky) is a young emerging Indigenous storyteller from The Wiradjuri and Ngunnawal countries. Chandler graduated with a Diploma in professional dance from NAISDA Dance College in 2020. Since graduating Cheeky has worked as a collaborating performer on the highly acclaimed Jurrungu Ngan-ga by Marrugeku which has toured extensively nationally and internationally, as a performer for Gary Lang's NT Dance Company and has joined the team of Alice Can Dance, an award-winning youth dance initiative created by GUTS Dance // Central Australia. In 2022 Chandler joined the cast of Garabari by Joel Bray which was performed at Arts House, North Melbourne.

Jada Narkle | Wiilman, Yued
Associate-Choreographer & Performer

Jada Narkle is a multidisciplinary, collaborative artist and Noogaryorga, from the Wiilman and Yued tribes of Western Australia. Jada’s practice prefaces the deep and intricate understanding and exploration of interconnectivity. Through this knowledge they are recontextualising their understanding of time and space, the body’s interaction and endless navigation of these as non-linear concepts. As a Blak woman, Jada aims to facilitate spaces with softness and vulnerability. Their creative process is demonstrative of ancestral connections, genetic memory, intersectionality and trauma pathways, which manifest in movement, language, poetry and installation. Jada understands this to be a continual holding of Noongar kaartdijin across and throughout the Nyitting (time and space) in which they occupy.

Shana O’Brien | Dharug, Darkinjung
Associate-Choreographer & Performer

Shana O'Brien is a First Nations dancer and visual artist with ties to Dharug and Darkinjung County. She is a graduate of NAISDA and Sydney College of the Arts. She dances with Wagana, sharing and learning with community and performing at national and international festivals and events. She has also worked with Jannawi Dance Clan, Erth Visual and Physical Inc, as well as with Atamira Dance Company on their remount of Shapeshift by Frances Rings. She premiered her first choreographic work Waterholes at Yellamundie - Sydney Festival, which was later presented at Live Dreams and the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Jordan O’Davis | Waka Waka, Yaggera, Wiradjuri
Associate-Choreographer & Performer

Jordan O'Davis is a proud Waka Waka, Yuggera, Wiradjuri woman based on Awabakal Country in Newcastle, NSW. Her training began as a National level Gymnast for 10 years, before moving into full time dance studies at NAISDA. Her first professional performance was touring with Hugh Jackman in Broadway to OZ. Jordan has been performing constantly all over Australia, China, and other Countries as a dancer, acrobat and physical theatre performer, with Insite Arts, Stalker Theater and GOM circus. Jordan has a passion for fitness, fashion and loves working with youth in remote Aboriginal communities.

Edan Porter | Gomeroi
Associate-Choreographer & Performer

Edan Porter is a proud Gomeroi man from North-West NSW. Edan’s dance journey started at the age of six with Traditional Aboriginal dancing learning from his family in Moree, NSW. Edan started his professional dance training in 2016 with NAISDA Dance College and graduated in 2019 with a Diploma of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Practice. Over the course of his studies, Edan worked with choreographers like Craig Barry, Frances Rings and Pamela Williams as well as with companies including Sydney Dance Company, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Marrugeku, Opera Australia, Brown’s Mart Theatre, NT Dance Company and KARUL Projects.

Luke Currie Richardson | Kuku Yalanji, Djabugay, Meriam
Associate-Choreographer & Performer

Luke Currie-Richardson is a proud descendant of the Kuku Yalanji and Djabugay peoples, the Mununjali Clan of South East QLD, the Butchulla clan of K’gari and the Samsep Meriam people of the Eastern Torres Straight Islands. For the past 15 years he has been at the forefront of sharing vital and groundbreaking stories of Indigenous resistance, joy and solidarity through multi-artforms such as dance, film, photography, spoken word and fashion.

James Henry | Yorta Yorta, Yuin, Yuwaalaraa, Gamilaraay Peoples
Composer

James Henry, a versatile composer and sound designer, has contributed to notable productions like Admissions, Jacky, and An Octaroon. He earned a Green Room Award in 2023 for Sound Design of Heart is a Wasteland, collaborating with Gary Watling and Lidia Fairhall. His compositions have graced esteemed ensembles such as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Actively involved in revitalizing indigenous languages through music, he recently deepened his understanding of traditional Aboriginal music through a fellowship. Nominated for Best Documentary Score at the 2022 AACTA Awards, James Henry's influence extends beyond the stage, bridging cultural traditions with contemporary expressions.

Kylie O’Loughlin | Narungga, Nantowarra Kaurna
Visual Artist

Kylie O’Loughlin belongs to the Narungga people of the Yorke Peninsula and the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. She was born on Yorke Peninsula and lived on Point Pearce Aboriginal mission, and now lives in Adelaide.

Kylie draws inspiration from the colours and textures of the cultural land and seascape of both her countries. She also observes animal and plant life. Kylie paints these aspects because they are important to the lives of her ancestors and are equally important today. She hopes her work can allow people to have a deep respect and mindfulness of Country, animal life and our waters.

Tania Wanganeen
Translator

Tania Wanganeen is a Nharangga language specialist, educator and writer. Tania has written multiple books on and in Nharangga language, including Nharangga Wanggadja: Narungga Speaking, which was published in 2010.

Tania is an advocate for teaching Nharangga language in schools around the Yorke Peninsula, and is heavily involved in language revival projects for Nharangga language.

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