Ngapa Yaan (Murrawarri), Niibi Aanmitaagzi (Northern Cree)

Ngapa Yaan (Murrawarri), Niibi Aanmitaagzi (Northern Cree) represents one stage of an ongoing artistic and knowledge exchange between First Peoples women performance makers from Australia and Turtle Island / Canada. Featuring creation stories told in Murrawarri and Northern Cree language, and footage of their respective lands and waterways, the work foregrounds the crucial connection between language and Country and the importance of language revitalisation.

'This project is a durational investigation of two cultural stories, Serpent People from Nipissing First Nation (Turtle Island) and Mundagudda from Murrawarri Country in Far West NSW, Australia [...]

Through a discursive practice of storytelling, and story-weaving connected by a common theme – WATER – we are engaging with historical references to water from across different nations and countries that celebrate and highlight our relational identities and connection to country. The stories come from juxtaposed locations, one a frozen inland lake, the other in an often-dry land. We ask, what knowledge about water is contained and transferred through each story? How do these stories define a relationship to water? [...] In articulating our relationship to water, we are in a process of communicating our identity, blood ties, and clan affiliations.'—Moogahlin Performing Arts