In May - June of this year Tracks staff were in Lajamanu to get things started for this year's Milpirri. Tracks artistic directors David McMicken and Tim Newth, dancers Kelly Beneforti, Aaron Lim and Caleb Japanangka Patrick and musicians Marc Peckham and Rob Tremlett  worked together with Steve Jampijinpa Patrick (Milpirri Creative Director) and his father Jerry Jangala to establish the themes and key messages of Kurdiji.

Kelly and Aaron then worked in the school to establish the youth dance groups and link them up with their themes. A key reason for starting this year's Milpirri training in May is to give school staff a longer period of time to digest the themes and hopefully be able to integrate them into other areas of their teaching.

Marc and Rob worked closely with Steve and Jangala to record introductions to both the youth and traditional dance sections. They also worked in the school with students contributing to the vocals for the youth dance tracks.

A community meeting was planned to officially invite all family groups to participate in this year's Milpirri. However due to royalty meeting and Lajamanu sports events being held at that time , this was postponed until September when the company returns.

In the meantime, preparations keep happening in Darwin as we meet wih Alan Marshall who looks forward to evaluating this Milpirri edition.

All up a great start to this year's event. Milpirri 2016 will be performed on Saturday October 15th.

Read more about Milpirri 2016