BlakForm

Garabari

Image by Jeff Busby

A sovereign act of gathering. A ceremony grounded in Country.

Created by Joel Bray Dance

Produced and toured by BlakDance

Tickets on sale now. Visit The Wagga Wagga Civic Theatre website to explore the program.

Wed 22 — Fri 24 October | Wagga Wagga Civic Theatre

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At the heart of Garabari is the Story of the Making of the Murrumbidgee, gifted to the project by the late Uncle James Ingram, a respected Wiradjuri Elder and cultural custodian. Shared with permission and care by Uncle James and the Elders of Wagga Wagga, this story forms the narrative and spiritual spine of the work.

Garabari is a contemporary civic ceremony led by Wiradjuri artist Joel Bray and developed in close collaboration with Elders, artists, and community members across Wagga Wagga and the Riverina. Created in response to an instruction from Elders to make a new dance for a lost one, Garabari affirms First Nations sovereignty and celebrates the living strength of Wiradjuri culture.

The work honours the leadership of:
Uncle James Ingram (dec.) – Cultural custodian of the story
Uncle Christopher Kirkbright – Project Elder and language custodian
Aunty Cheryl Penrith, Aunty Mary Atkinson, and Aunty Jackie Ingram – Senior Knowledge Holders and Community Leaders

Taking its name from the Wiradjuri word for corroboree, Garabari is not a reinterpretation of the past. It is a continuation. It embodies community-led gathering, story-sharing, and resistance. Throughout the work, a song in Wiradjuri language composed and performed by Uncle Christopher Kirkbright and Letetia Harris carries memory and cultural strength, echoing the flow of the Murrumbidgee itself.

With cultural permission, Garabari includes the teaching of foundational Aboriginal dance movements to audiences. These are offered not as spectacle but as a respectful act of welcome, grounded in deep protocol and guided by community leadership. The audience is invited to step into the work through call and response, shared rhythm, and a large participatory dance moment. It is a collective experience of joy and gathering on Wiradjuri terms.

Featuring an ensemble of powerful First Nations performers, sound by Byron Scullin, design by Katie Sfetkidis, and costuming by Wiradjuri fashion label Ngali (Denni Francisco), Garabari is a space of movement, memory and togetherness.

This is not ceremony imagined. It is ceremony continued.

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.

Creative Team

  • Joel Bray – Choreographer/Director (Wiradjuri)

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

  • Uncle James Ingram – Collaborating Elder, Custodian of the Story of the Making of the Murrumbidgee (Wiradjuri, dec.)

  • Letetia Harris – Song translation and performance

  • Katie Sfetkidis – Lighting and Projection Designer

  • Byron Scullin –Original  Sound & Music

  • Gideon Cozens - Sound and Music

  • Luke George – Dramaturg

  • Denni Francisco – Costume Designer

  • NON Studio – Screen Video Production

  • Carolyn Conners – Additional voices and voice textures

  • Juanita McLauchlan and Jordan Ingram – Community art-making facilitators

  • Veronica Bolzon – Executive Producer (Joel Bray Dance)

  • Merindah Donnelly – Co-CEO Executive Producer (BlakDance, Wiradjuri)

  • Nicole Reilly – Senior Producer (BlakDance, Wiradyuri)

  • Simon Cook – Production Manager (BlakDance, Mamu)

  • Luke Peacock – Associate Producer (BlakDance, Samsep/Meriam)

2025 Cast

  • Luke Currie-Richardson – Kuku Yalanji, Djabugay, Mununjali, Butchulla and Meriam

  • Amelia Jean O’Leary – Gamilaroi

  • “Cheeky” Chandler Connell – Wiradjuri and Ngunnawal

  • Karlia Cook – European, Mā’ohi and Māori descent, hailing from Norfolk Island, Hitiaurevareva (Pitcairn Island), and Ngāpuhi iwi (Aotearoa)

  • Zoe Brown-Holten – Dunghutti, Gomeroi

  • Glory Tuohy-Daniell – Indjalandji Dhidhanu, Alyewarre

  • Kiarn Doyle – Dunghutti

  • Nadiyah Akbar

  • Siobhan McKenna


Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) Acknowledgement

Garabari contains and embodies Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP), including the Story of the Making of the Murrumbidgee, gifted with permission by the late Uncle James Ingram. We honour Uncle James as a cultural custodian 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.

Garabari has been developed in accordance with First Nations Protocols and guided by community-determined principles of cultural authority, attribution, and care. All ICIP remains the property of the community and is shared with consent, under ongoing cultural accountability.

We acknowledge with deep respect the following Elders whose leadership, stories, language, and generosity form the heart of 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:

  • 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 Wiradjuri community. We offer our deepest respect and thanks.

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.







The Reckoning

Image credit Emma Fishwick

by Joshua Pether Projects, Kalkadoon 

The Reckoning is a durational performance ritual drawing upon the knowledges locked within the performer’s own body that are the result of our traumatic past history and this drives and moves the performance. Audiences are invited to ‘witness’ this event unfold whilst also allowing a sense of contemplation to occur in relation to our bloody and colonial history. At the heart of the reckoning is an understanding that we must acknowledge our traumatic past as a country and also create a way to move forward. The Reckoning also becomes a site specific work that will be performed across various sites of historical interest where past traumatic events have occurred. 

Learn more

The Reckoning is funded by Australia Council through Signature Works initiative. The Reckoning is supported by PICA and BlakDance, through BlakForm. BlakForm is funded through Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative.

Garabari

by Joel Bray Dance, Wiradjuri

Garabari means Corroboree in Wiradjuri and will be a large-scale new work by Wiradjuri choreographer Joel Bray in co-production with CHUNKY MOVE, Victoria’s leading contemporary dance company. The Wiradjuri are called The People of the Three Rivers and Garabari will be a contemporary Corroboree celebrating rivers as the veins of Country and as the ancient songlines and trade routes that have always connected the many Peoples of this continent. The work will be developed over a series of creative developments in Melbourne and out on Wiradjuri Country.

“This work has been appearing in my dreams. Sometimes it is a series of pilgrimages through manicured gardens, sometimes it is a massive rave in a warehouse, sometimes it is a collection of canoes on the river with the audience watching from the riverbank. Sometimes it is on the stage. Perhaps it will happen in all of these places.“ - Joel Bray

Garabari is funded by Australia Council through Signature Works initiative. Garabari is supported by BlakDance, through BlakForm. BlakForm is funded through Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative.

More by Joel Bray Dance

Considerable Sexual Licence

image3.jpeg

by Joel Bray Dance, Wiradjuri 

Date Premiered: May 2021
Presenting/host partner: Northcote Town Hall and, Yirramboi Festival
Location: Melbourne 

A queer pop caberet immersive audience experience that reimagines the sexual ecology that might have existed on this continent before the Coloniser. Considerable Sexual Licence brings together four award winning performers. Proud Wiradjuri man Joel Bray and a talented team of collaborators including Carly Sheppard, Dan Newell and Niharika Senepati come together for a flirty, occasionally filthy and deeply passionate look at the true history of sensuality ‘down under’.

Considerable Sexual License is a playful invitation to explore your own history and relationship to sex, sexuality and personal freedom, and a celebration of Country, community, consent and kinship.

Through painstaking research and personal reflection, the team delve deep into the deliberately misrepresented practices of ceremony to reimagine the songs, dances, partying and perhaps something a little sexier. 

Considerable Sexual License was created with development support from Creative Spaces, PACT and Lucy Guerin Inc. YIRRAMBOI Festival, Australia Council for the Arts, Arts House, Creative Victoria and Chunky Move. Considerable Sexual Licence is supported by BlakDance, through BlakForm. BlakForm is funded through Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative.

more by Joel Bray Dance

Weredingo

Weredingo is the fifth full-length work by Karul Projects, the Queensland-based First Nations contemporary dance company led by Thomas E.S. Kelly (Minjungbal-Yugambeh, Wiradjuri an Ni-Vanuatu), and Taree Sansbury (Kaurna, Narrunga and Ngarrindjeri). The work premiere at Brisbane Festival 2021.

Image Credit: Mick Richards

Image Credit: Mick Richards

Choreographers Thomas E.S. Kelly and Taree Sansbury started a multifaceted approach to the subject of shape-shifting four years ago, commencing with a mockumentary and performance in Sydney at PACT, which interviewed people who revealed that they have other, animal selves.

The first development ‘conjured everyday fantasies of transformation and then moved on to something more serious: dance performance imbued, at first impressionistically and then quite specifically, with First Nations cultural shapeshifting’. Keith Gallasch REALTIME.

Over the next few years, the creative developments took place back on Karul’s homelands, as the company relocated back to the Gold Coast (2018). 

Further creative developments began to further explore the work from a narrative and text based perspective. The original pitch to Brisbane Festival was that the work would be mostly text based theatre, of which this has undergone its own shapeshifting journey to now include animations and projections by Studio Gilay (who animated Cooked) shot at Wirrim Studio on the Gold Coast.

Lighting and production is being done by an all Indigenous team: Chloe Ogilvie (trained by Mark Howett) has managed to safely cross borders from WA and is plotting the lighting now, dramaturgy is happening largely over zoom with highly accomplished director, actor and playwright Isaac Drandic (who worked on Jacob Boehme’s Blood on the Dance Floor) and Mamu man Simon Cook holds the ship steady as the BlakDance Production Manager.

Add in sound design by Sam Pankhurst and lifelike animal costumes by the talented Selene Cochrane and the work boasts incredible production values and high quality design. A surprising addition to the cast is Grayson Millwood from The Farm (Throttle).

Weredingo was the first of BlakDance’s produced works to undertake a new model for feedback on a work in development through BlakForm. The Critical Response Process (CRP) was a facilitated process that allowed the makers to question their work in open dialogues with industry and community leaders. We were delighted to undertake this initiative earlier this year with Joyce Rosario, a first-generation Canadian of Filipina descent, privileged to live on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. 

Brisbane Festival

Previews 3 & 4 September, Opening Night 7th, until 11 September, 2021

Weredingo is the  fifth full-length work by Karul, an emerging Queensland-based First Nations contemporary dance company led by Thomas E.S. Kelly (Minjungbal-Yugambeh, Wiradjuri and Ni-Vanuatu), and Taree Sansbury (Kaurna, Narrunga and Ngarrindjeri).

Weredingo is about shapeshifting. It's about universal stories of First Nations creationism and the history beneath shapeshifting, stories far older than familiar western tropes. Weredingo is also about duality, cleverly utilising the metaphor of shapeshifting to reveal tokenism, blackfishing, racial profiling and allyship. This powerful dance theatre work combines Karul's distinctive contemporary choreography with narrative storytelling, animation and projection for a thrilling and interactive dance experience.


Director/Choreographer Thomas E.S. Kelly

Rehearsal Director/Performer Taree Sansbury

Performers Benjin Maza and Grayson Millwood 

Costume Designer Selene Cochrane

Sound Designer Sam Pankhurst

Lighting Designer Chloe Ogilvie

Dramaturg Isaac Drandic

Animation Studio Gilay

Videography Wirrim Studio

Producer BlakDance

 

Weredingo was produced by BlakDance and supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, the City of Gold Coast, the City of Melbourne through Arts House, and was developed in the CultureLAB program with the assistance of Creative Victoria. Weredingo has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body and Queensland Theatre. Weredingo is commissioned by BlakDance, through BlakForm. BlakForm is funded through Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative.

Preparing Ground

Preparing Ground

By Marilyn Miller (Kukuyalanji and Waanyi), Jasmin Sheppard (Tagalaka and Kurtitjar) & Katina Olsen (Wakka Wakka and Kombumerri).

when Country is scarred

when language is silenced

when Indigenous Knowledges offer pathways to heal

when communities gather to lead change

when survival depends on care for the environment and each other.

About preparing ground

Preparing Ground began in 2019, and embodies years of dedicated practice, extensive community engagement, and an unwavering commitment to First Nations governance and agency.

Preparing Ground calls on us to come together, as communities and individuals, to care for the land and each other. In a time of environmental and social upheaval, this work offers a message of hope, resilience, and collective responsibility. It’s about honouring the Knowledges of First Nations communities, whose deep connection to Country has endured for millennia, and bringing that Knowledge into the present to guide us toward a shared future.

This work is an invitation for audiences to engage—to listen to the land, to witness the strength of community, and to actively contribute to the reclamation and protection of our environment. By centering local voices, Preparing Ground calls on all of us to reflect on how we can care for the land and its stories together. We are all connected to this place, and we all have a role to play in its healing and future.

Preparing Ground - the future Future

Preparing Ground envisions a “future Future”—a world where care for Country and community spans generations. It reminds us that our survival depends on an enduring relationship with the land, and that the path forward is one we must walk together.

Now, more than ever, is the time to work together—to unite in care, understanding, and action. Preparing Ground is a powerful reminder that through collaboration, we can create a sustainable and thriving future for all.

Watch the Community Engagement pilot - Kombumerri Country, October 2023

"There is a stronger elemental guidance influencing movement and how the body responds to Country that comes from such close association with, or being on, Country… It has been an extremely rewarding, renewing, and reinvigorating process. The realisation encapsulated as: 'we ARE Country'; we present the voice OF Country." Marilyn Miller

“Working on Country or being connected to Country has been the springboard from where every concept, creative ideas and information which makes the bulk of our content has come from. It has informed the decolonized process of our creative development in the studio.” Jasmin Sheppard

"Preparing Ground cannot happen without dedicated time on Country. Having this time researching and developing on Country means that our communities are involved in the making of our work right from the beginning and throughout the process of making the work. Therefore we are honouring our own protocol and duty to our communities, and the voice of community is then reflected in the work." Katina Olsen

Image credits: Samuel James, Katina Olsen, Jade Ellis Photography

Community Engagement pilot images feature Kombumerri Rangers from Ngarang-Wal Gold Coast Aboriginal Association Incorporated

 

PROJECT TIMELINE

2019 - Project conception as part of BlakForm market development program 

Feb 2020 - Pitched at AsiaTOPA APAM 

May 2020 - Research and Development (online)

Mar 2021 - 3 x 1-week on Country Research and Developments (Tagalaka, Yalanji and Wakka Wakka)

Apr 2021 - 3-week Research and Development at Bulmba-Ja Cairns

Sep 2021 - 4-week Choreographic Development at Brisbane Powerhouse & The Art House

Apr 2022 - 2-week on Country Research and Development (Yalanji)

Jul 2022 - 2-week on Country Research and Development (Tagalaka) 

Mar 2023 - 2-week on Country Research and Development (Wakka Wakka) 

Apr 2023 - 1-week Research and Development (Kombumerri) 

Oct 2023 - 3-week Creative Development at HOTA (Kombumerri)

Nov 2024 - 3-day Creative Development (online)

Dec 2024 - 2-week Creative Development at NAISDA (Darkinjung)

Feb 2025 - Design Collaborations (online)

May 2025 - Pre-Production at NAISDA (Darkinjung)

May 2025 - Premiere season at The Art House (Darkinjung)

CREATIVE TEAM

Co-Directors: Marilyn Miller (Kukuyalanji, Waanyi), Jasmin Sheppard (Tagalaka, Kurtitjar) & Katina Olsen (Wakka Wakka, Kombumerri)

Performers: Marilyn Miller (Kukuyalanji, Waanyi), Jasmin Sheppard (Tagalaka, Kurtitjar) & Katina Olsen (Wakka Wakka, Kombumerri) 

Collaborative Understudy: Audrey Goth-Towney (Wiradjuri) 

Dramaturg: Victoria Hunt (Te Arawa, Ngati Kahungunu, Rongowhakaata Maori, English, Irish, Finnish)

Lighting Designer: Karen Norris 

Set and Projection Designer: Samuel James

Sound Designer: Samuel J Pankhurst

Costume Designer: Aleisa Jelbart

Production Manager: Simon Cook (Mamu), BlakDance

Production Coordinator: Emma Holgate (Mandaburra), BlakDance

Stage Manager: Zara Thompson 

Executive Producer: Merindah Donnelly (Wiradjuri), BlakDance

Senior Producer: Nicole Reilly (Wiradyuri), BlakDance - previously Tom Pritchard and Emily Wells (Kamilaroi)

Associate Producer: Luke Peacock (Samsep/Meriam), BlakDance

Early Collaborators: raymond blanco (Yadhaigana and Erub), Yolande Brown (Bidjara), Tammi Gissell (Muruwarri). 

On-Country Collaborators: 

Kukuyalanji: Uncle John Hartley and Juan Walker 

Tagalaka: Patrick Wheeler and Victor Steffenson 

Wakka Wakka: Uncle Max Chapman, Aunty Yvonne Chapman, Shirley Olsen, Natalie Chapman, Corey Appo, Shannon Bauwens, Aunty Lurlene Henderson

Kombumerri: Uncle John Graham, Shirley Olsen, Justine Dillon, Maxwell Dillon, Clinton Brewer

Yuggera, Birri, Bindal and Warranghu: Raelene Baker

Presented by The Art House Wyong.

Produced by BlakDance. 

Preparing Ground is co-commissioned by Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), BlakDance and Brisbane Festival, with support from NAISDA Dance College, The Art House Wyong. 

It is supported by the Australian Government’s Indigenous Languages and Arts program, and the Major Festivals Initiative, managed by Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body, in association with Brisbane Festival and Sydney Festival, with additional project funding from Creative Australia. Preparing Ground is also supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, Sunshine Coast Council and the City of Gold Coast. Additional support has been provided by Bulmba-ja Arts Centre, HOTA (Home of the Arts), Brisbane Powerhouse and Judith Wright Arts Centre.