Mutiara

About the production

The cruel, haunting past of the Kimberley’s now famous pearling industry told through intercultural
dance and visual art revealing the resilience, love and strength of ancestors.

The work is a celebration of the unsung bond between First Peoples of the Kimberley and seafaring
Malay peoples during a time of colonialism exploring the coexistence and the path that often led to
love and lifelong companionship.

Mutiara reveals buried truths washed up and left along the shores of time. during an era of
colonialism, racism, exploitation, slavery, and stolen children.

Ancestors tell stories, bones speak, ancestral beings feud, seas change and deep beneath the surface
the diver yearns for home. Mutiara celebrates, heals and rewrites histories.

Co–choreographers and dancers Dalisa Pigram, Soultari Amin Farid and Zee Zunnur with Broome’s
Ahmat Bin Fadal (ex–pearl diver) collaborate with visual artist Abdul–Rahman Abdullah, composer
Safuan Johari, dramaturg Rachael Swain, costume designer Zoe Atkinson and lighting designer
Kelsey Lee, to reflect on living within multiple shifting frames of identity, culture, faith and
belonging.

Drawing on Yawuru and Minangkabau dance forms as well as silat and diasporic connections to land
and sea to create a new dance language that disrupts binaries of identity and the borders of the
nation state.
The cruel, haunting past of the Kimberley’s now famous pearling industry told through intercultural
dance and visual art revealing the resilience, love and strength of ancestors.

The work is a celebration of the unsung bond between First Peoples of the Kimberley and seafaring
Malay peoples during a time of colonialism exploring the coexistence and the path that often led to
love and lifelong companionship.

Mutiara reveals buried truths washed up and left along the shores of time. during an era of
colonialism, racism, exploitation, slavery, and stolen children.

Ancestors tell stories, bones speak, ancestral beings feud, seas change and deep beneath the surface
the diver yearns for home. Mutiara celebrates, heals and rewrites histories.

Co–choreographers and dancers Dalisa Pigram, Soultari Amin Farid and Zee Zunnur with Broome’s
Ahmat Bin Fadal (ex–pearl diver) collaborate with visual artist Abdul–Rahman Abdullah, composer
Safuan Johari, dramaturg Rachael Swain, costume designer Zoe Atkinson and lighting designer
Kelsey Lee, to reflect on living within multiple shifting frames of identity, culture, faith and
belonging.

Drawing on Yawuru and Minangkabau dance forms as well as silat and diasporic connections to land
and sea to create a new dance language that disrupts binaries of identity and the borders of the
nation state.
  • Venues and Dates

    World Premiere

    1 & 2 September 2023
    Pigram Garden Theatre
    Broome Civic Centre
    Broome | Western Australia

    Sydney Festival

    19–21 January 2024
    Seymour Centre
    Sydney | New South Wales | Australia

    Perth Festival

    9–12 February 2024
    Studio Underground
    Perth | Western Australia

     

     

    World Premiere

    1 & 2 September 2023
    Pigram Garden Theatre
    Broome Civic Centre
    Broome | Western Australia

    Sydney Festival

    19–21 January 2024
    Seymour Centre
    Sydney | New South Wales | Australia

    Perth Festival

    9–12 February 2024
    Studio Underground
    Perth | Western Australia

     

     

  • Creative Team

    Mutiara is collaboratively created by: 

    Concept: Soultari Amin Farid, Dalisa Pigram, Zee Zunnur and Rachael Swain
    Co-Choreographers and Performers: Soultari Amin Farid, Dalisa Pigram and Zee Zunnur with Ahmat Bin Fadal
    Cultural Dramaturg: Soultari Amin Farid
    Dramaturg: Rachael Swain
    Composer, Sound Designer: Safuan Bin Johari
    Set Designer: Abdul-Rahman Abdullah
    Costume Designer: 
Zoë Atkinson
    Lighting Designer: Kelsey Lee
    Pearl Diving History and Malay Cultural Advisor, Silat Training: Ahmat Bin Fadal
    Produced by Marrugeku Inc with Bahri and Co

    Mutiara is collaboratively created by: 

    Concept: Soultari Amin Farid, Dalisa Pigram, Zee Zunnur and Rachael Swain
    Co-Choreographers and Performers: Soultari Amin Farid, Dalisa Pigram and Zee Zunnur with Ahmat Bin Fadal
    Cultural Dramaturg: Soultari Amin Farid
    Dramaturg: Rachael Swain
    Composer, Sound Designer: Safuan Bin Johari
    Set Designer: Abdul-Rahman Abdullah
    Costume Designer: 
Zoë Atkinson
    Lighting Designer: Kelsey Lee
    Pearl Diving History and Malay Cultural Advisor, Silat Training: Ahmat Bin Fadal
    Produced by Marrugeku Inc with Bahri and Co

  • Reviews

    The Conversation

    Jonathan W Marshall
    8 Mar 2024

    Marrugeku’s Mutiara was the supreme example of politics melding with artistic form. Marrugeku excels at taking cultural memories of oppression and turning them into conflicted yet energised choreography. Mutiara is framed around the experience of First Nations, Malay and creole workers in the Australian pearling industry of the early 20th century. The dancers fight impulses
    read more…

    Arts Hub

    Wolfgang von Flugelhorn
    13 Feb 2024

    Broome-based Indigenous intercultural dance theatre company Marrugeku’s Mutiara was more intimate and reflective than its previous production Jurrungu Ngan-ga (Straight Talk), which was an explosive large-scale work about the incarceration of Aboriginal people and asylum seekers. Nevertheless the two shared a common focus on racialised violence and oppression as defining mechanisms of White Australia since colonisation. Mutiara (which means
    read more…

    Sydney Morning Herald

    Harriet Cunningham
    21 Jan 2024

    The stage is bare, but for a pile of discarded shells and a square column of thick ropes, hanging to the floor. A figure walks in, holding something. It could be a phone, the way its surface catches the light, but no, it is the milky iridescence of mother-of-pearl. He puts it on the pile.
    read more…

  • Gallery
  • Supporters

    Mutiara was commissioned by Perth Festival.

    Mutiara was funded by the WA State Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries: Made in WA program and National Arts Council Singapore and City of Sydney.

    Marrugeku is assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. Marrugeku is supported by the Western Australian Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries and the NSW Government through Create NSW.