Lajamanu Community

September 19th 2024

This years Milpiiri involved live performance by the youth and women of Lajamanu, and the first Lajamanu screening of the Milpirri Sensoruinm film. It was performed on the community basketball court with the Milpirri banners as the backdrop. An ongoing artistic and cultural partnership between Lajamanu Community and Tracks Dance.

Grown from a 30-year collaboration between the Lajamanu Community and Tracks Dance Company, Milpirri links the energy of youth and the wisdom of the old, gaining a better understanding of Western and Warlpiri ways of learning.

Lajamanu is situated on the northern edge of the Tanami Desert. The Milpirri performance is radically local and is performed by and for the Warlpiri people.

Yinapaka 2024

This year Milpirri was based on Yinapaka, a ceremonial ground in the Tanami Desert known in English as Lake Surprise. It is the place where birds go to learn how to fly. Yinapaka is literally a slap, but it also means a wake-up, a lightbulb moment of realisation.

“On the dried-up banks of the lake known as Yinapaka, or Lake Surprise, birds are gathering for the Sky Ceremony. Once the ceremony ground is ready, the white cockatoos all flock down towards the ceremony space, It is as if the stars themselves have arrived.”, Wanta Jampijinpa Patrick,  Milpirri Creative Director

Tracks and Lajamanu have been working on this performance since before COVID, but the disruptions of that pandemic have had ramifications ever since. One year we created the soundtrack with Monkey Marc and Mantra. In 2021 we were able to get into the community for a short time and run a few dance workshops and get the vocals recorded for the soundtrack. In 2022 and 2023 we were able to choreograph the youth dances, but the performance was only able to be presented at the school. and with the major disruptions in the world, and especially in remote Indigenous communities, we are excited to have been able to finally present Yinapaka to the wider Lajamanu Community in 2024.  

In 2024, Tracks artists Jess Devereux and Bec Reid spent September in the community training the young dancers at school into the choreography of 6 dances. Although the dances had been created and taught at the school before, they were adapted and rehearsed, giving the students who had done it before a chance to further master their dance skills. During this time school attendance lifted and the fitness, stamina, and concentration of the students got better and better.

Despite the unseasonal rain shutting down the Lajamanu road making it almost impossible to get our production truck in, we were finally able to bring the entire Tracks team (9 arts workers) into the community to produce the community work. Transforming the basketball court, the place where the very first Milpirri was performed in 2005, into a venue for dancing and video work. The evening began with the School handing out awards for the term. This was followed by the youth dancers and some Yawulyu ceremonial women’s dancing. The evening concluded with the Milpirri Sensorium, a video representation of Milpirri dancing going back to 2005. The community sat spellbound seeing their legacy laid out in front of them. As Jerry Jangala once said: "Yapa's history is laid out in front of them, creating a pathway to travel into the future".

Sensorium

Creative Team

Creative Director: Wanta (Steve) Jampijinpa Patrick
Senior Elder: Jerry Jangala Patrick
Artistic Directors: David McMicken and Tim Newth
Music: Mark Peckham (Monkey Marc), and Rob Tremlett (Mantra)
Voiceovers: Steve Jampijinpa Patrick, Jerry Jangala Patrick, Maxwell Japanangka Gordon
Vocals: Lajamanu School students, 2020
Multimedia: Duane Preston
Choreographers: Bec Reid and Jess Devereux (based on material originally created by Jordan Bretherton, Madeleine Brown, and SJ Spillett)

Production and Promotions Personnel

Producers: Tracks Dance Company
Company Director: Sean Pardy
Administrator: Jocelyn Tribe
Production Manager: Duane Preston
Sound Technician: I Made Liam Bulalasia
Lighting Technician: Sean Pardy
Additional Production Support: Andre Sawenko, Tim Newth
Milpirri Image and Design: Mark Marcelis
Photo Documentation: Duane Preston
Video Production: Me Thinks Media
Editing: Andre Sawenko
Camera: Andre Sawenko