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BOODJA DWORDAK WIRN
BRINGING COUNTRY'S SPIRIT BACK TO LIFE
BOODJA DWORDAK WIRN 2024
13, 14 & 15 December
Esperance Tjaltjraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation presented our second Boodja Dwordak Wirn event on 13, 14 or 15 December.
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Following in the footsteps of the Boodja Dwordak Wirn First Lights drone performance on the Esperance foreshore in 2023, the 2024 free family-friendly event took place on-country, at Murdidyinakabi (Lake Monjingup).
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Boodja Dwordak Wirn means ‘Bringing Country’s Spirit Back to Life’. This community project is all about coming together to care for and connect with the Country we now share, and to create positive change for the future.
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Our project partners were the amazing technical and creative teams from Illuminart (specialists in light projections) along side local artists Naomi Stanitzki, Mylene van Heijster and Colleen Frost plus visiting Noongar visual artist Sharyn Egan and musician Clint Bracknell (Maatakitj).
Participants were immersed in a trail of light installations, soundscapes and community sculptures that invited them to see Country through the eyes of the Traditional Custodians, the Wudjari Nyungar community.
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This very special on-Country night-time event was a sensory experience that encouraged us all to stop, look, listen and, most importantly, to feel our own connections to this Country.
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Boodja Dwordak Wirn was a large, impactful, accessible and informative arts-based program designed and delivered over 2.5 years by Wudjari people for Wudjari people, with public outcomes for the whole Esperance community.
The program had two primary goals: to encourage cultural pride for First Nations families; and to engage a wider local audience through storytelling and digital technologies that educate people about Wudjari cultural heritage and ongoing connections to Country, thereby helping to create a more respectful and culturally safe community for all First Nations people.
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​Supported by
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Department of Local Government, Sports and Cultural Industries
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FIRST LIGHTS
12 & 13 May 2023
Esperance Tjaltjraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation (ETNTAC) partnered with Fremantle Biennale and the First Lights team to present the first part of Boodja Dwordak Wirn – Bringing Country’s Spirit back to Life – in May 2023.
This spectacular cultural event featured 160 drone animations over Esperance bay. This performance was is narrated by Wudjari Nyungar Elders Kevin Reynolds Snr and Annie Dabb and accompanied by original music composed by Noongar musician and linguist,Maatakitji (Clint Bracknell).
The performance shared stories about the deep, continuous cultural connections of Wudjari people, the Traditional Custodians for Kepa Kurl, to their Boodja - land, sea and sky Country. An estimated 3000 community braved rainy weather to attend this very special performance over two nights.
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WATCH THE PERFORMANCE ON THE FIRST LIGHTS WEBSITE
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Supported By
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Media Releases
Download copies of media releases about this event.