GALTHA ROM / Learning on Country 2017
GALTHA ROM / Learning on Country 2017 / Creating a new theatre work: A Galtha Rom workshops address the process of adapting traditional knowledge into a contemporary performance-based language that can be taught and developed within the context of a Vocational Educational Training scheme dedicated to the realisation of a Yolngu managed and run production company and established within a selected network of homeland communities, initially in the North-East Arnhem Land region bound by the Laynahpuy IPA (Indigenous Protected Area) in association with the neighbouring Dhimurru IPA. Here, Wangurri elders including Tommy Riyakurray share the knowledge of the sacred cycad dingu as part of a Galtha Rom Learning on Country program and later, as part of Bangarra Dance Theatre’s end of year performance Dance Theatre's the Ngathu story is adapted by Gong Wanhurr Artistic Director Djakapurra Munyarryun to share with the outside world.
THE WANGURRI GALLERY: Virtual Reality prototype 2017
December 2017:“Wangurri Museum” VR viewings in Canberra
Wangurri Artist, Elder & Senior Lawman Tommy Riyakurray Munyarryun from Dhalinybuy Homeland, NE Arnhem Land launches the “Wangurri Gallery” Virtual Reality Museum. Pictured with Hon. Luke Gosling MP.
Working with Virtual Heritage researcher Kevin Lucas (MQ) and the Goŋ Wanhurr Aboriginal Corporation, artist and senior lawman Tommy Riyakurray Munyarryun and his brother Djakapurra Munyarryun (Bangarra) are bringing the oldest story telling tradition of their Yolŋu culture together with the newest technologies of Virtual Reality. This innovative project, run through Arnhem Land-based community organization Goŋ Wanhurr, suggests a new form of Indigenous heritage engagement. One that speaks to Closing the Gap and Indigenous Reconciliation Action Plans. Through this approach, it seeks to engage the outside world with a remote homeland, through a both-ways approach.
By engaging community in the management of Heritage collections through new technology it offers Training, Education, Governance and Technology-based programs. By merging living Cultural Practice with Preservation and Archiving of traditional Yolŋu knowledge it offers a pathway that addresses key issues of the MGA’s Indigenous Roadmap Project including Cultural maintenance, recognition and protection; Remote Training and Education leading to community cultural Employment, and further, an opportunity for overcoming the Digital Divide. Run through homeland-based Goŋ Wanhurr’s network of community, regional and national Strategic Partnerships, the Wangurri Gallery project defines a program of Yolŋu-led Mentorship and Learning-On-Country Intergenerational engagements that speak to the future of Yolŋu communities.
Gong Wanhurr Productions, in partnership with Macquarie University, Screen Australia, Screen NT, Academy of Interactive Entertainment and the Documentary Australia Foundation is developing a hybrid virtual reality documentary on the Wangurri clan’s relationship to their homeland called the Dhälinybuy larrakitj project (aka. Wangurri Gallery). This cross-platform, scalable work will be premiered at the Sydney Opera House “Homeground” festival 2018/19, as a hybrid mixed reality performance work, combining traditional knowledge management with augmented and virtual reality technologies. In December 2018, the work (in-development) was presented at ANU’s Digital Humanities Lab and at the AIE’s campus at Canberra Technology Park
Read moreLORRKKON EVENT, CANBERRA - 2014
Commissioned by AIATSIS to open their 50th anniversary celebrations at Reconciliation Place, Canberra and created by Gong Wanhurr Productions this free public performance re-enacted the funerary rite and bone ceremony for Bunitj elder Bill Neidjie OAM - affectionately remembered as ‘The Gagudju Man.’ Neidjie was a senior elder of Kakadu National Park and a traditional owner of the Bunitj country in northern Gagudju. The name Kakadu is derived from the word "Gagudju." The Ceremony had never been publically performed before or performed off Bunitj Country. Yolngu ceremonial elder and Artistic Director of Gong Wanhurr Productions, Djakapurra Munyarryun of the Wangurri Clan in NE Arnhem Land led the 30 traditional dancers, singers and elders in the Lorrkkon Ceremony alongside bininŋ elder and Traditional Owner, Ronald Lamilami.
“All we have is our Culture and our Stories. We had them for a long time. That’s what makes us. This Ceremony will be done in right way - Traditional way. Not tourist one. It includes ceremonial dancers and elders from across Arnhem Land. But it is done in new way too. It’s about Respect and Culture.”
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