Wai anangu tjuta! The team is back from a whirlwind tour which took the language show or boutique version of the show to the Dreaming Festival in Woodford, Queensland and on to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
Though the journey to Woodford took us over 12 hours, our arrival on site - punctuated by the bus from the airport to the site getting bogged in the mud from days of torrential rain - we arrived to a cozy camp set up by our malpa tjuta Ajita, Valerie and Rosemary, with meals awaiting us. So set the scene for the next few days as the weather cleared and the festival cranked up, the 17 of us who went always assured of a good feed at the ‘Ngapartji café’ thanks to our awesome support team who were later joined by Lorna’s husband Mark.
After the first day of settling we sat on the hillside rugged up against the freezing night air to watch the opening ceremony, hosted by the Jinibara people and offering a taste of things to come over the next 3 days. Despite the cold we were enchanted, drawn in in a way that happens with performance that is ceremony at once. Next day rehearsals began and so our time was shared between making the show and enjoying the inspiring array of dance, music, film and theatre performances by Indigenous artists from all over. Pantjiti and Janet also joined the dancers from Mututjulu who were camped next to us, painting up and bracing the cold to dance, with Bessie Liddle, the Wanampi (Snake) dance from Piltati, which is south side of the Mann Ranges, Lorna’s Grandmother’s country. Lorna tells me that in this dance the two women were after the two men snakes. They chased them up this river which is called Piltdarti River. This river goes right into the Mann Ranges, to a waterhole, where the two men snakes killed the two women.
We offered three shows at the Dreaming Festival and despite the limitations of the set and the unavoidable distance between audience and performance (we know you couldn’t read the video subtitles and we are sorry!) Ngapartji Ngapartji attracted long queues, full houses and engaged and appreciative audiences.
Where did they get those wigs? Pantjiti and Janet in cabaret mode, Adelaide
Flying directly to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival was quite a leap and it’s true we hit the ground running with two days before opening a four-night season which would include an additional show. With this scaled-back show every performance is supported by a different language and culture segment and each night accumulates the material from the big production from the night before which makes it necessary to rehearse that day what we will perform that particular night which can be quite demanding on cast and crew.
Unable to come to the Dreaming Festival Elton Wirri joined us in Adelaide gracing the stage with his chalk sketches of landscape. Nineteen-year-old Belinda Abbott was impressive in her debut appearance on stage in Adelaide, as well as a great person to have on tour with us. Her and Sadie met us in Adelaide after we’d farewelled another strong young performer, 16-year-old Maureen Watson, who took part in the Dreaming show.
Belinda, Elton and Sadie in rehearsal, Adelaide and Julie on the Torrens River
Place and audience composition also influences the performances. We were happy to see so many anangu family and friends come to performances in Adelaide and especially stoked to see the senior classes from Woodville High School at the show night after night, including some of the young men and women we met in Mimili last term. Also at performances were young people from Kurruru Arts and Fregon School.
It is always interesting to hear laughter or a response from the Pitjantjatjara speakers in the audience ahead of everyone else, for the rarity it is to have this experience in a mainstream context.
Back home the desert is cold and quiet. Cloudless skies are smudged only by the smoke of fires. It’s good to be home.
dani p
