Darwin / Lajamanu

In development throughout 2020/21/22

In a similar vein to the Milpirri Banner Home Page project, Tracks Dance Company wishes to gather knowledge about the Milpirri dances as performed in Lajamanu since 2005, and then make this accessible.

Tracks has also worked with Lajamanu artists outside the community, including in Darwin, Victoria, and New South Wales. There is potential to extend this work to include those activities.

We are expanding the representation of our “Knowledge Base and Creative Intelligence”. Tracks has a 30-year relationship working in the remote Indigenous community of Lajamanu, with initial connection with Lajamanu beginning in the late 1980s. This time was shared with anthropologists, educators, linguists and cultural workers. Many of these relationships have survived to the current day.

Track’s Lajamanu legacy is of national and international significance and needs to be documented in a manner in which the body of knowledge is accessible and usable by Lajamanu community members as well as the world at large, and which incorporates other researchers' fields of expertise.

Building on the Milpirri Banner Home Page, which is defined by the Jukurrpa (dreaming/law) meanings held with the Banner designs, Body Dance Design aims to research the knowledge embodied within the Milpirri dances and associated body designs captured in documentation through video and photographs. Collating this knowledge and working out how to share this rich Australian Warlpiri knowledge with the world will be done through 3 phases:

1. Initial Research Darwin and Lajamanu
Gather and collate known resources (Darwin), and one week research trip in Lajamanu for David and Tim to work with long-term collaborators (since 1988) and Lajamanu elders to affirm that the base information we will be exploring is relevant and correct.

2. Development of Academic Writing
Partnering with Professor Jennifer L. Biddle, Tracks will gather information around the dancers and body designs found in the Milpirri performances (going back to 2005) and through Dr Biddle’s ongoing research.

3. Research Warlpiri Knowledge Found Internationally - Europe
The Warlpiri people have been heavily researched over the past 4 decades. Much of this knowledge exists in international contexts (keeping places such as Universities and Art Galleries), especially due to the work of Anthropologists and linguists. We would like to ensure that our 3 decades of work and embedded knowledge can sit alongside and link with other people’s research.
Focused work with Barbara Glowczewski, based in Paris, and Educationalist Christiane Fennell based near Hamburg.

Dates:
May - Lajamanu field trip
September - Berlin, Paris field trip

Creative personnel: Tim Newth, David McMicken, with Lajamanu Elders: Jerry Jangala Patrick, Myra Nungarrayi Herbert
Anthropologists: Barbara Glowczewski, Dr Jennifer Biddell

There are five Milpirri performances in the cycle.

• Jardiwanpa (2005/14)
• Kurdiji (2007/16)
• Jurntu (2009/18)
• Yinapaka (2011)
• Pulya Rani (2012)

The biennial performance sees dancers performed by the Lajamanu community, and unlike in the ceremony, we bring the youth and the adults onto the same stage. The adults perform open “soft” versions of their Warlpiri dances, connected to particular ceremonial concepts. We are also given thematic material from Steve Wanta Jampijinpa Patrick that is sourced as the values inherent in each year’s performance. (Example: following the right path, celebrating, working together, looking after the country.) These themes are reinterpreted through contemporary and hip-hop dance routines created on and performed by the school-age youth. The performance is intergenerational and intercultural, spanning Warlpiri and Non-Warlpiri knowledge and methodologies

In this project, we look back at and clarify the resources we have gathered since 2005.

These include:

• Video Footage
• Dance or Action Name
• Voiceover: Who and what said
• Owner, Manager, Creatives
• Singers
• Lyrics: (both Warlpiri and English)
• Performers
• Description of Dance or Action
• Costume
• Body Design
• Properties/objects/artefacts

Creative Team

This project will be led by the Artistic Co-Directors Tim Newth and David McMicken
Milpirri Creative Director: Wanta Steve Jampijinpa Patrick
Web Development: John Saward
Youth Dance Co-Ordinator: Kelly Beneforti
Design Assistance: Jessica Mellor

Company Partners

Tracks Inc is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and is proudly sponsored by the Northern Territory Government.

Project Partners

Newmont Goldcorp

Supporting Partners

Central Desert Shire, Warlpiri Education and Training Trust, Warnayaka Arts Centre, Mount Theo Youth Program (WYDAC), Lajamanu School, ALPA Stores and Central Lands Council (Ranger Program)

Tracks 2020

Artistic Co-Directors: David McMicken and Tim Newth
Company Director: Adelaide Wood
Production Manager: Duane Preston
Dance Animateurs: Kelly Beneforti and Jess Devereux
Administrator: Jessica Mellor / Jo Shearn
Bookkeeper: It Figures

Committee Members: Venaska Cheliah (Chairperson), Andrea Wicking (Vice-Chairperson), Glenn Bernardin (Treasurer), David Taylor, Michael Grant, Ken Conway, Max Dewa Stretton, Rachael Wallis. David McMicken, Tim Newth, Adelaide Wood (Ex-Officio Members).

Public Fund Trustees: Maari Gray, Will Crawford and Lachlan Peattie.

Patron: Her Honour the Honourable Vicki O’Halloran AM, Administrator of the Northern Territory.