Boodja Dwordak Wirn
2024 Gallery
Murdidyinakabi (Lake Monjingup)
This gallery showcases some of the work created for the 2024 Boodja Dwordak Wirn project in partnership with the technical and creative teams from Illuminart (specialists in light projections) and with local artists Naomi Stanitzki, Mylene van Heijster and Colleen Frost plus visiting Noongar visual artist Sharyn Egan and musician Clint Bracknell (Maatakitj).
Many other artists from our community also participated in this project including Gail Yorkshire, Julie Walker and Taya Close, Hayleigh and Moniquah Graham, Sean Vincent, Candice Smith, and Jennell Reynolds.
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This very special community project reflects the input of so many. We have included a selection of behind-the-scenes images here to tell some of these stories.
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ETNTAC Artistic Director: Jennell Reynolds
Illuminart Artistic Director: Cindi Drennan
The Light Installations
Our Boodja Dwordak Wirn walk tail featured 7 original key focus points designed and created by and with the Wudjari community led by Jennell Reynolds with technical design by the Illuminart team. These were linked together by and atmospheric lighting and installations of community sculptures created for the Festival of Wind (2017, designed by Karen Hethey) and Esperance Wildflower Festivals (2019 - 2024, designed by local artists Mylene van Heijster, Naomi Stanitzki and Jennell Reynolds) .
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This partnership with Illuminart was supported by Lotterywest and Esperance Ag Fund.
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The Community Lanterns
We created 57 giant Lanterns for this project with the help of many community members. The lantern designs were inspired by local flora and fauna and installed at Lake Monjingup to create a forest effect.
This project involved many stages. Metal frames in three different sizes (25 x 1.1 metres, 25x 1.8 metres & 7 x 2. 5 meters tall) were first designed and manufactured locally by Jatek Engineering. Esperance-based textile artist Mylene van Heijster then expertly designed and constructed 57 calico covers for these frames.
Some of the artwork displayed on the lanterns was created by community members during workshops held earlier in the year at our NAIDOC and Wildflower Festival events. Local Artist Naomi Stanitzki scanned these drawings and used them to create 46 digital compositions which were projected and drawn on the lantern covers . Stanitzki and other artists, including a group from Escare's Yorga Barmah Aboriginal women's group, then painted these 46 designs onto the calico covers using permanent ink. An additional 4 lanterns were designed and painted by Esperance Tjaltjraak staff and 1 was created by work experience students from the ESHS Stars program.
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Six of the largest lanterns, showcasing the Wudjari Nyungar seasons, were painted by artists selected by the 6 families of Wudjari Traditional Owners. Gail Yorkshire (Djilba) represented the Yorkshire family, Jennell Reynolds (Bunuru) the Reynolds family, Julie Walker (Makuru) the Dabb family, Candice Smith (Kambarang) the Bullen family, Hayleigh and Moniquah Graham (Djeran) the Boxer- Rogers family and Shaun Vincent (Birak) the Tucker family. The seventh giant lantern was positioned at the exit. Designed by ETNTAC artistic director Jennell Reynolds and painted by Naomi Stanitzki, this shared a statement that captured the essence of the Boodja Dwordak Wirn message:
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"We now pass om our ancestral message stick to you, as a custodian of Country. Remember, if you look after Country, Country will look after you. Boorda... until next time."
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Each of these 57 lantern covers was ironed and photographed for use in future projects before being sewn up.
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Our lantern project was supported by the Australian Government's Indigenous Languages and Arts Program.
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The Tjaltjraak Tree Sculpture
One of the very special features on display at our Boodja Dwordak Wirn event was our beautiful Tjaltjraak tree sculpture, covered in leaves of wool and raffia handmade by many different community members.
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This project, led by artists Sharyn Egan and Colleen Frost, invited community members of all ages to come together at a variety of different times and places to collaborate on this artwork representing our shared connections to Wudjari Boodja.
Over 500 individual leaves were created over 5 months, symbolic of community, culture and connection.
Sharyn and Colleen delivered community workshops at our NAIDOC events, at the Esperance Wildflower Festival and at our office in Shelden Rd with ETNTAC staff, families and Esperance Ag Fund representatives. Workshops were also delivered at Esperance Community Arts, Escare Incorporated, Bay Of Isles Community Outreach, the Gibson Soak patchwork group, and at the Mental Health Week Pop up Cafe (with Jennell Reynolds).
​The team from Jatek Engineering created a magnificent metal tree to carry all our leaves and Sharyn and her family, James & Deni, put it all together with some extra help from Esperance Community Arts and ETNTAC volunteers.
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The Tree is now on permanent display at the ETNTAC office on Shelden Road.
We are grateful to everyone who has helped out on this project and to our funding partner the Western Australian Department of Local Government, Sports and Cultural Industries.
The Dance Project
At the heart of our Boodja Dwordak Wirn light show was a very special project featuring two contemporary Wudjari songs composed by musician Clint Bracknell (Maatakitj) and two dances choreographed by Actor & Director Kyle Morrison. These were performed by First Nations students from Stars Foundation and Clontarf Academy and were recorded to be projected onto our beautiful paperbark trees as part of the light installations at Lake Monjingup.
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The students also performed these dances at the opening event for the 2024 NAIDOC celebrations.
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Our young mob put a lot of effort into these performances, one telling a story of the dragonfly and the other telling the story of the honey possum, a local threatened species.
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Our lantern project was supported by the Australian Government's Indigenous Languages and Arts Program.
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The Community Sculptures
The sculptures displayed at the Boodja Dwordak Wirn event were created for the annual Esperance Wildflower Festival over 6 years as part of community engagement projects lead by local artists Mylene van Heijster and Naomi Stanitzki . From 2019 - 2023 these projects were presented by Esperance Community Arts in partnership with Esperance Tjaltjraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation. The 2024 project was delivered entirely by ETNTAC with Naomi Stanitizki working alongside First Nations artists. The scupltures are created from recycled materials with the help of many community members over many hours. The giant walitji (eagle) puppet and the small family of puppets were created in 2017 by more than 100 community members as part of the Mandaboornap Dreaming Puppet project lead by artistic directors Karen Hethey and Jennell Reynolds and presented by Esperance Community Arts and Escare Incorporated for the opening of the 2017 Festival of the Wind.
