“Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.” (Rita Mae Brown)

The Ngapartji Ngapartji theatre performance has been evolving for eight years and will continue to evolve. Trevor Jamieson and I met after he heard about Box the Pony, a play I’d written with Leah Purcell. Since then, material we have worked on together has been explored and performed in different forms. This has allowed us to develop and test material in front of audiences over time - an approach that Big hART enjoys, seems to sit well within Pitjantjatjara idioms and helps make this a strange and begiling cross-cultural collaboration.

Few opportunities come along where the process of making the theatre piece and the end result are both full of meaning. Ngapartji Ngapartji, however, with its’ ongoing work in community, and its evolving language and culture website continues to be deeply rewarding. In turn, each season of the work has seen a different aspect of the narrative brought to the foreground. The possibility that this project may continue to evolve, and contribute to change, makes it a deeply satisfying experience.

In essence this project is looking at the narration that is our nation, and the ongoing brutal editing process that is designed to sanitize the profound non-fiction narrative that is this continents history – all 2,000 generations of it – into something palatable that fits the Aussie tourist brochure.

Our hope is that Ngapartji Ngapartji becomes part of this country’s narrative and deepens our experience of our own story, warts and all… Check out the web site, start learning Pitjantjatjara for fun, and write to your local Member of Parliament (preferably in Pitjantjatjara, or the language of your country), calling for a national Indigenous languages policy to be developed, to draw awareness to and halt the irreplaceable loss of Indigenous language and culture.

Ngapartji Ngapartji has been a journey with Trevor’s Walytja (family) – the Jamiesons - and community, with each step being guided by wise women such as Pantjiti McKenzie and Lorna Wilson, as well as those working on the community development aspects of the project - Dani Powell, Suzy Bates and Alex Kelly. Trevor and I are deeply grateful to them, for the integrity it brings to the dirty art of showbiz.

If tonight’s performance moves, informs, delights, saddens… If there is applause, then it is applause for the whole unseen team, not just those in the spotlight.
Scott Rankin