'Challenging, joyful and deeply affecting, Jurrungu Ngan-ga confronts Australia’s shameful fixation with incarceration in a powerful and provocative new dance work. Inspired by perspectives on incarceration, Jurrungu Ngan-ga reflects on the disgraceful disproportion of Indigenous Australians in custody and first-hand descriptions of life inside Australia’s immigration detention centres. Searing truths blend with dark humour, fear, sadness and courage to shine a light on new ways to resist and to empower us all to rewrite our future – together.' (Production summary)
'Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk] was co-commissioned by Carriageworks and the City of Melbourne through Arts House, and has been funded by the Australian Government through the Australia Council it arts funding and advisory body and the Indigenous Language and Arts Program, the Government of Western Australian through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries; Create NSW; and the Nelson Meers Foundation.' (Production website)
Performed at Carriageworks 27-29 January 2022
Jurrungu Ngan-ga is collaboratively created by:
Concept: Dalisa Pigram and Rachael Swain with Patrick Dodson
Choreography: Dalisa Pigram with the performers
Direction: Rachael Swain
Dramaturgy: Hildegard de Vuyst
Cultural Dramaturgy: Behrouz Boochani, Patrick Dodson, Omid Tofighian
Music: Sam Serruys, Paul Charlier and Rhyan Clapham (aka DOBBY)
Sound Design: Sam Serruys and Paul Charlier
Scenic Design: Abdul-Rahman Abdullah
Costume Design: Andrew Treloar
Lighting Design: Damien Cooper
Co-devising Performers: Czack (Ses) Bero, Emmanuel James Brown, Chandler Connell, Luke CurrieRichardson, Issa el Assaad, Zachary Lopez, Bhenji Ra, Feras Shaheen and Miranda Wheen
Additional music
Far from Home
Farhad Bandesh and Anna Liebzeit (composition)
Farhad Bandesh (recorded vocals sung in Kurdish)
The Ha Dub Rewerk’d
MikeQ (composer and performer)
Jalangurru Wiyi
Emmanuel James Brown (live vocals sung in Bunuba)
Additional instrumental recordings
Natasha Rumiz – Viola
Additional Choreography
Krump Army: Stacy Peke aka Red Ladybrui5er
Co-devising Performers: Czack (Ses) Bero, Emmanuel James Brown, Chandler Connell, Luke Currie-Richardson, Issa el Assaad, Zachary Lopez, Bhenji Ra, Feras Shaheen, and Miranda Wheen.
Presented at the Adelaide Festival, Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre, 10-12 March 2023.
Creatives as for Carriageworks production.
Co-devising Performers: Czack (Ses) Bero, Emmanuel James Brown, Chandler Connell, Luke Currie-Richardson, Issa el Assaad, Macon Escobal Riley, Bhenji Ra, Feras Shaheen, and Miranda Wheen.
Presented by Black Swan Theatre Company, Heath Ledger Theatre, Perth, 15-23 September 2023.
'A dance performance that takes us into the brutality of prisons and detention centres.'
'Jurrungu Ngan-ga, a Yawuru kinship concept meaning “straight talk”, is a throbbing protest about the violence experienced by Indigenous, racial, trans and queer Australia.'
'Jurrungu Ngan-ga, a Yawuru kinship concept meaning “straight talk”, is a throbbing protest about the violence experienced by Indigenous, racial, trans and queer Australia.'
'A dance performance that takes us into the brutality of prisons and detention centres.'
