In April we were back in rehearsal at the Broome Civic Centre for the beginnings of Marrugeku’s newest work in development Jurrungu Ngan-ga. Marrugeku has been given its next directive by Patrick Dodson, the company’s long term cultural advisor, to build bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and between local issues in the Kimberley and issues facing the broader global community. He has proposed that our next task is to develop a major work exploring “the fear of the other”. Jurrungu Ngan-ga means straight talk in Yawuru. Originally a kinship term, Patrick and Dalisa have discussed Jurrungu Ngan-ga as the challenge of talking straight with each other about the issues that hold us back from reconciliation: black and white, tribe to tribe, settler and immigrant, First Peoples, boat peoples, across the fence or across the seas. Jurrungu Ngan-ga will premiere in 2020.
During the development the eight dancers trained in Silat with Duttu Ahmat Bin Fidel, were welcomed at the new Yawuru Liyan-ngan Nyirrwa Cultural Wellbeing Centre with a smoking ceremony and received a talk on Yawuru resilience by Nyamba Buru Yawuru CEO Peter Yu (as featured in the above photo).
