YIRRAMBOI 2–12 May 2019
2–12 May 2019
200+ artists
100+ events and presentations
40+ venues across narrm
Multiple new commissions and world premieres
Strong international First Nations presence
YIRRAMBOI 2019 was a major expansion of the festival’s ambition, vision and international reach. Across ten days, First Nations artists from across Australia, Aotearoa, Turtle Island and the Pacific came together to present new commissions, bold premieres, cross-cultural collaborations and community-driven works.
Program Highlights
Barring Yanabul
Barring Yanabul translates to 'we all walk the path' in the shared local languages of the Boonwurrung and Woiwurrung peoples. It was the epic free program of more than 40 pop-up live events that created a citywide Blak-out on the first Saturday of YIRRAMBOI 2019.
Night River
Audiences entered the dreamy atmosphere of Night River. Through the telling of ancestral stories, they travelled across the natural world and river systems of Nyikina country and into the spiritual landscape of the Mardoowarra River (Kimberley region). Kalaji wove together beguiling rhythms and jewel-like melodies with evocative moving images for a mesmerising narrative experience.
Blood Quantum
Based on real-life stories from her maternal grandparents who were part of the Stolen Generations, Blood Quantum, performed and choreographed by Ngioka Bunda-Heath, examined the brutality of Australia's government-sponsored displacement and relocation of Aboriginal youth, and its impact across three generations. When you grow up having to justify your connection to culture, are you less than Aboriginal, less than white or something in between?
The Honouring
The Honouring was a provocative new solo work from dancer and actor Jack Sheppard, reflecting his meditations on the nature of culture, ritual and performance. Addressing suicide and trauma within First Nations communities, the work posed a deeply taboo question: when suicide is played out almost every day, is it a cultural practice? Through movement, dialogue, text and puppetry, The Honouring explored the transitions that the spirits take after suicide, and paid homage to their names.
Daddy
Featuring Joel's trademarks of disarming humour, dance and audience participation, Daddy was a confessional laced with lollipop-psychology and the sugar crash of post-colonisation.
dis rupt
For the first time, a young team of emerging First Nations creatives presented new work made specifically for Hamer Hall. Responding to the stories of the land on which the hall rests, the Birrarung and its waterways, dis rupt provided a groundbreaking afternoon of live music, performance and visual arts.
Yothu Yindi and The Treaty Project
Yothu Yindi and The Treaty Project continued the ongoing fight for First Peoples recognition, inspired by the success of their 1991 hit song 'Treaty'. Featuring original Yothu Yindi members, along with emerging First Nations artists and special guests, it was a cross-generational celebration of Indigenous music and dance as powerful tools of protest.
Blak Mass
Blak Mass by Naretha Williams reflected on the city's jarring civic history and the impact of colonisation on its First Peoples and land, through an experimental, site-specific musical performance developed for the Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ. Blak Mass considered the Grand Organ as a significant symbol of European domination and reached deep into the psyche of the instrument to create a haunting, avant-garde sound work.
Festival Guide
