Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts and Culture Centre presents Garabari by Joel Bray Dance Produced by BlakDance.

Garabari is a participatory dance gathering created with Elders and community leaders. The theatre becomes a shared dance floor where a pulsing techno beat and Wiradjuri song meet. Audiences join in movement, call and response and group dance, gaining a real sense of what a modern corroboree feels like while seeing how traditional stories and language continue to live and grow today.

Wednesday 4 February 11:30am

Thursday 5 February 11:30am

Thursday 5 February 7:00pm

TICKETS: https://events.humanitix.com/garabari-katherine

PERFORMANCE DURATION: 80 minutes, no intermission

AGES: all ages

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Garabari has been created through collaboration with Wiradjuri Elders, artists, language custodians, and community members. We respectfully acknowledge the sovereignty of Wiradjuri Country and the cultural authority of those who have generously led and contributed to this work.

This work contains and embodies Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, including the Story of the Making of the Murrumbidgee, gifted to the project by the late Uncle James Ingram. We honour Uncle James as the cultural custodian of this story and respectfully acknowledge his recent passing. His legacy, wisdom, and generosity are carried throughout this Garabari.

We advise First Nations audiences that this work contains the name and contributions of a respected Elder who has passed away. This acknowledgement is made with the consent and guidance of his family and community.

All ICIP remains the property of the community and is held with care, consent, and cultural accountability. Garabari has been developed in accordance with First Nations Protocols and guided by community-determined principles of attribution, agency, and cultural leadership. The artists, presenters, and partners honour the integrity of cultural knowledge and recognise that its use and transmission must be guided by the community from which it comes.

We acknowledge with deep respect the following Elders as cultural authorities whose leadership, stories, language, and generosity form the heart of this Garabari:

Uncle James Ingram – Custodian of the Story of the Making of the Murrumbidgee (dec.)

Uncle Christopher Kirkbright – Project Elder, Wiradjuri language custodian, song writer and performer

Aunty Cheryl Penrith – Senior Knowledge Holder and Community Leader

Aunty Mary Atkinson – Senior Knowledge Holder and Community Leader

Aunty Jackie Ingram – Senior Knowledge Holder and Community Leader

We also acknowledge the many collaborators who contributed to the respectful development and presentation of this work:

Letetia Harris – Song translation and performance

Juanita McLauchlan and Jordan Ingram – Community art-making facilitators

Carolyn Conners – Additional voice textures

Community art-making participants: Oliver Rolls, Taniesha Wilson, Tylor Wilson, Maree Atkinson, Wesley Williams-Boney, Darren Honeysett, Richard Penrith

All cast, creatives, crew, and community members who upheld cultural safety, kinship values, and artistic integrity across every stage of Garabari’s development

This Garabari exists because of the collective strength, generosity, and cultural leadership of the Wagga Wagga  community. We offer our deepest respect and thanks.

Garabari is produced by Joel Bray Dance with the tour produced by BlakDance. The national tour has received financial assistance from the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. 

Garabari was commissioned by Chunky Move with the support of the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, and received support through the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative, the Australian Government through the Indigenous Languages and Arts program and Creative Australia, the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, BlakDance, the Besen Family Foundation, Arts House, Eastern Riverina Arts, Lucy Guerin Inc and WXYZ Studios. It premiered in 2022 at Arts House Melbourne, presented by Arts House, Chunky Move and Joel Bray Dance.