Travel restrictions press pause on our national tour

Over the last year we’ve been in and out of rehearsal rooms both in person and online preparing for the presentation of Jurrungu Ngan-ga (Straight Talk). Combining movement, spoken word, installation and soundscape, our latest work reflects on the disgracefully disproportionate number of Indigenous Australians in custody and explores testimony from inside Australia’s immigration detention centres.

We were grateful to connect with community on Yawuru Country, sharing a preview of the performance across two nights in April and May at Broome Civic Centre. The performance was then set to premiere at Carriageworks before touring to Darwin Festival and Arts House in August. As cities went into lockdown and states closed their borders, Jurrungu Ngan-ga was put on hold for presentation in 2022.

“We send our love and support to the amazing team of artists, technicians and community leaders who prepared creatively, culturally, mentally and physically to deliver this work to Australian audiences in 2021. As we did in 2020, Marrugeku is committed to paying out all wages to company members for all cancelled work.

We thank our venue partners and their marketing and technical teams for all the work they did in preparation for sharing Jurrungu Ngan-ga. We are super proud of our work to stage the Broome community preview of Jurrungu Ngan-ga earlier this year and we are thrilled to be moving forwards with plans for multiple presentations in 2022.”

— Dalisa Pigram and Rachael Swain, Co-Artistic Directors

We look forward to sharing this work with audiences in the future, when we can safely come together once more. While staying safe at home, we invite you to watch the trailer for Jurrungu Ngan-ga here, giving you a little glimpse of what’s in store!