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Turlku Dance
The Ngaanyatjarra Lands span approximately 250 thousand square kilometers across the Gibson, Great Victoria and Great Sandy Deserts in Western Australia. The region is home to the Yarnangu people who retain an unbroken relationship to country, handed down through untold generations to the present day. This continuum is arguably one of the longest relationships with country that any culture in the world retains into the twenty first century.
For Yarnangu, the desert is filled with family, stories, history and spiritual associations of fundamental importance to their law. They interpret this ancient landscape through language, art and ceremony as well as Turlku (traditional song and dance). Their unique and vibrant cultural expression has, in more recent times, attracted national and international interest.
A rare opportunity for Yarnangu to share their cultural expressions with a Perth based audience was provided when they presented Ngaanyatjarra Turlku during the 2007 Perth International Arts Festival. The project took considerable planning, with the Festival, Ngaanyatjarra Media, the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku and Ngaanyatjarra Council negotiating the presentation protocols with Yarnangu custodians over a three year period.
Yarnangu custodians Karirrka Belle Davidson and Mantjantja Roberts, Daniel Featherstone and Valerie Bichard from Ngaanyatjarra Media and the former Ngaanyatjarra Regional Arts Coordinator, Tim Pearn, all had experience working across the lands on a range of arts and media initiatives. It was important to consult widely as the Turlku is a vehicle for celebrating the Tjukurrpa (or Law) central to the cosmology of Yarnangu people. As Mantjantja Roberts states,
“Turlku is really important. The Tjukurrpa is everywhere in the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara, Pintupi Lands and right around Australia. That’s why we want to keep the Turlku strong, for the young people. When we pass away they can take it on.”
Through consultation the process, resources, content, interpretation, style, form and rights surrounding the presentation were identified. As Tim Pearn pointed out,
“The process was most important, and aimed to achieve much more than simply showcase an Indigenous performance in the Perth Festival. It provided an opportunity to enact cultural meaning and symbolism so strongly represented through art in the region, increase awareness to the broader community of Western Australia’s Indigenous performance continuum and to support the maintenance of these practices within the communities.”
As the project was discussed it grew commensurate with the enthusiasm generated. Each stakeholder agreed to commit whatever resources they had towards the project including staff time, vehicles and equipment. The community also saw that further potential performance opportunities could follow from having their work successfully showcased at the Perth International Arts Festival. As Daniel Featherstone acknowledged,
“By developing the skills of Yarnangu performers and media workers the project had the potential to build capacity within the community. A multimedia performance package could be created that was adaptable to other platforms and would provide a stepping stone towards the community undertaking other performances.”
Whilst there was sufficient in-kind support, substantial financial support was however also required to ensure the project was sufficiently broad to engage across the 12 communities of the Ngaanyatjarra Lands and to attain the high standards demanded of a Festival performance. Ngaanyatjarra Media sought assistance from Lotterywest and was successful in obtaining a grant of $135,000 towards the development, documentation, and travel costs associated with Turlku.
With financial assistance confirmed, two development workshops were held in the remote outstation of Walu. The workshops brought together senior custodians from across the region who determined which songs and dances would be performed. During the workshops a cast of 33 Yarnangu performers were selected and an intense period of activity commenced. Tim Pearn describes the activity,
“With temperatures soaring to 45 degrees, meetings were held under the shade of a tarpaulin where senior custodians deliberated on appropriate Turlku to be performed. The chosen Turlku were also rendered symbolically via paint strokes on collective canvasses whilst the participant artists sang the corresponding Turlku. The dancing took place at night, the rhythm punctuated by the percussion of sticks and polyphonic voices singing against a dramatic backdrop of lightning illuminating the horizon.”
Under the combined direction of Karirrka Davidson and Mantjantja Roberts, the development process for Turlku was filmed. By night they captured the dances lit up against the backdrop of a dramatic landscape which provided excellent footage for the production. It took a further month to film Yarnangu telling the Turlku stories and interspersing these with images from daily life and the surrounding landscape.
When the Turlku program was finalised and the video edited to support a one hour performance, the community started on their 3800km (return) road trip to Perth. On arrival, Yarnangu were welcomed to country at a special event in Kings Park hosted by Noongar elders. The Noongar welcome dances were reciprocated by Ngaanyatjarra Turlku performances. This exchange afforded significant cross cultural sharing that was incorporated into the second night’s performance when Noongar men participated in the Kalaya (Emu) Turlku.
The Ngaanyatjarra people saw the performance as an opportunity to teach people about their culture and daily life, as Karirrka Davidson expressed,
“We want to share some of our stories and songs and dances with you so you can learn about our families, our communities and our culture.”
An audience of approximately one thousand people attended the two performances staged during the Festival. Yarnangu were also invited to perform the "Eagle Dance" to the West Coast Eagles at Subiaco Oval. Star West Coast defender David Wirrpanda said,
“the opportunity for those in the club to learn more about other lifestyles was invaluable.”
With many people interested to know more about Ngaanyatjarra people and their culture, Ngaanyatjarra Media have produced a DVD of the Turlku. The DVD screened for the first time at the Ngaanyatjarraku Turlku Purtingkatja (Ngaanyatjarra Music Festival) in Blackstone in May this year. It has also been screened to remote audiences nationally on Indigenous Community Television. It can be purchase by contacting them on - 08 8956 7307 or via media@ngaanyatjarra.org.au.
Photos Courtesy of Ngaanyatjarra Media