About

Kungkarangkalpa: Seven Sisters Songline

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About

Kungkarangkalpa: Seven Sisters Songline is a performance of the ancient Western Desert epic song saga of the Seven Sisters presented by AṈANGU Dancers from the APY Lands in partnership with the Australian National University ARC Linkage project: Alive With Dreaming! Songlines of the Western Desert and the Centenary of Canberra at the National Museum of Australia as a celebration of Australia’s vibrant indigenous culture. Watch the performace live on the 2nd March.

Senior desert dancers of Kungkarangkalpa: the Seven Sisters Songline, will fly from the red sands of Central Australia to alight by the lake for a series of performances at the National Museum of Australia. By singing up the living cultural routes of trade, story, dance, art and music that criss-cross our country, they will symbolically join the nation’s capital to the nation’s heart.

Background from Wesley Enoch, Artistic Director

The story of the 7 sisters is one of this country’s foundation stories. It connects so much of this landmass through the storylines that crisscross the country. It talks about relationships between men and women, masculine desire and feminine caring, family bonds, the unexpected powers of magic, and the extraordinary power of our landscape to be created through story, song, dance and painting. Where ever you go throughout the world there are similar stories of the Pleiades and the 7 sisters. It has been a privilege and an honour to come on this journey and I look forward to what the next part of it will be as it mature into 2016.

Cast

Singers
Portrait of Inawinytji WilliamsonInawinytji WilliamsonTraditional Libretto Writer & Senior Inma Custodian
Portrait of Witjiti GeorgeWitjiti GeorgeFregon, Senior Lawman & Inma Director
Portrait of Nyurpaya KaikaNyurpaya KaikaSenior Inma Custodian & Dancer
Portrait of Illuwanti KenIlluwanti KenAmata, Senior Inma Singer
Portrait of Josephine MickJosephine MickPipalyatjara, Senior Inma Singer
Portrait of Niningka LewisNiningka LewisErnabella, Senior Inma Singer
Portrait of Nola WongawayKunmanara(Sadly missed, dec 2015)Fregon, Senior Inma Singer
Dancers
Portrait of Tapaya EdwardsTapaya EdwardsLead male dancer
Portrait of Mary PanMary PanAmata, Senior Inma Dancer & Teacher
Portrait of Renita StanleyRenita StanleyErnabella, Senior Inma Dancer
Portrait of Tjunkaya TapayaTjunkaya TapayaErnabella,Senior Inma Dancer
Portrait of Pantjiti LewisPantjiti LewisErnabella, Senior Inma Dancer
Portrait of Carlene ThompsonCarlene ThompsonErnabella, Senior Inma Dancer
Portrait of Rene KulitjaRene KulitjaUluru, Senior Inma Dancer
Portrait of Tjungura GeorgeTjungura GeorgeFregon, Inma Dancer
Aṉangu Cast Support
Portrait of Marita BakerMarita BakerKanypi, Aṉanguku Arts, Aṉangu Assistant Manager
Portrait of Sally Scales with her mother Josephine MickSally ScalesMelbourne, Interpreter, Cast assistant(pictured with her Mother Josephine Mick)
Aṉangu Media Assistants
Portrait of Kukika EdwardsKukika EdwardsErnabella, Media trainee, Translator
Portrait of Anne ThompsonAnne ThompsonErnabella, Media trainee, Translator

Credits

Artistic Director
Wesley Enoch
Songlines Project Director & Interpreter
Diana James, ANU
Producer
Helen Healy, HHO Events
Project Manager
Jo Victoria
Songline Libretto
Inawinytji Williamson
Aṉangu Media Assistants
Kukika Edwards & Anne Thompson
Aṉangu Cast Assistants
Marita Baker& Sallie Scales
NPYWC costume manager
Jo Foster
Senior Indigenous Curator, Songlines Project
Margo Neale, NMA
Assistant Curator
Tessa Keenan, NMA
Production Manager
Patrice Wallace
Stage Manager
Sarah Pritchard
Designer
Tony Found
Projection Designer, OPTIKAL BLOC
Craig Wilkinson
Projection Designer, OPTIKAL BLOC
Steven Brodie
Set Designer and Builder
Josh McIntosh
Sound Designer
Anthony Brumpton
Projection Photography
Barry Skipsey, Sarah James, Iain Morton
Projection Filmmaker
Tony Collins
Projection Translation
Diana James
Live Webcast
Tilt Vision, Matt Davis

Partners / Sponsors

Songlines of the Western Desert. Alive with the Dreaming!

A cutting edge cross-cultural collaborative and inter-disciplinary research project between the Martu, Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara peoples and the national cultural heritage institutions of the Australian National University and the National Museum of Australia.

Inspired by Nganyinytja OAM:

Kulilaya, ngura milmilpatjara; Tjukurpa alatjitu!

Listen this land is sacred; Alive with the Dreaming!

The vision is to increase national recognition and understanding of Indigenous Songlines as complex pathways of spiritual, ecological, economic, cultural and ontological knowledge. A radically new approach to the integration of Indigenous and western knowledge in understanding and managing our shared cultural and natural environments.

Contact

For inquries about the Songlines of the Western Desert. Alive with the Dreaming! project, please Project Coordinator Diana James:

Email
Diana.James@anu.edu.au