Image: Tjupi Band. Image by Ollie Eclipse. Rock for Reconciliation 20 July Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and cultures are a source of pride for all Australians. Over the years we haven’t always gotten the relationship right but Australians fundamentally believe in a fair go for all. As we mark <strong>100</strong> years of our nation’s capital, we recognise the world’s oldest continuing living culture in the context of twenty-first century society, and together celebrate in shared visions of a better tomorrow. Reconciliation is everyone’s business. Rock for Reconciliation will feature Tjupi Band (Central Australia), supported by local ACT based band Hung Parliament. Tjupi (Honey Ant) come from Papunya, 250 kilometres out of Alice Springs: they play energetic and emotive desert reggae. Singing in Luritja (as well as in English), they are a musical inspiration for people right across Central Australia. Rock for Reconciliation is supported by Playing Australia, Reconciliation Australia, The Street Theatre and the Northern Territory Government. The Street Theatre www.thestreet.org.au 44 canberra<strong>100</strong>.com.au
Hipbone Sticking Out 3 – 6 July On the edge of the Pilbara, jutting into the Indian Ocean like a hipbone, lies one of the world's greatest cultural treasures - Murujuga, the Burrup Peninsula - the world's largest and oldest art gallery. Inspired by this incredible landscape and drenched in story, song and imagery from the nearby town of Roebourne, Hipbone Sticking Out grabs world history by the throat, spins it upside down and sets its teeth rattling. One night, in the main street of Roebourne, a young man hits his head on the footpath and finds himself travelling through time from Ngurra Nyujunggamu, ‘when the world was soft’, and creation spirits carved the land, to the incredible mining boom of the present. We are swept across the millennia through Greco-Roman myths, past great artists at work, Vermeer, Bach, the plague, pressgangs, seafaring explorers, the Dutch East India Company, Terra Nullius, white ghosts settling the Pilbara, blackbirding, pearling, crimes of war, freedom fighters, reservations. On to mining claims, wheelers and dealers, hi-viz miners sipping stubbies, white-only bars, truck-stops and bent cops, rivers dammed and families damned. Until we arrive at the here and now, where billion dollar deals are made under the watchful eye of Elders, who pass on law and culture as they have always done to a new generation in a new Roebourne. This performance piece inverts our notions of nationhood and takes us beyond the linear view of histories and futures and unwinnable arguments across 24 hour news desks, to a new powerful, optimistic picture of the land, culture, people and life. Just like the Pilbara itself, this performance piece invites us into a big, big place and you can’t take it all in at once. In an act of generosity from the community of Roebourne, Hipbone Sticking Out brings us the cultural strength and gift of the Pilbara, what it is now and what it will be into the future. With a remarkable cast, Hipbone Sticking Out combines music, story, movement, video and songs written in Roebourne Prison, to create a mesmerising cosmopolitan multi-lingual work that shows a strong culture, and a hopeful future of law and country, that is not finished. Hipbone Sticking Out is the latest collaboration from Australia’s renowned experimental arts company Big hART. Now in its twentieth year of creating artwork across many disciplines, Big hART has been evolving this performance piece for three years in one of our country’s most isolated and exhilarating communities. It is part of the long-term, multi-platform Yijala Yala Project, based in Roebourne, and focused on telling the stories of its history, culture and future. The name Yijala Yala was chosen to reflect the focus of the project: Yijala means ‘now’ in Ngarluma; Yala means ’now’ in Yindjibarndi. The project is generating many creative expressions of culture in a range of media including films, games, comics, iPad applications and music, designed to be used across arts, media, tourism, conservation and education contexts. Woodside Energy Ltd is the major sponsor of the Yijala Yala Project and Hipbone Sticking Out. Hipbone Sticking Out is a Centenary of <strong>Canberra</strong> project, proudly supported by the ACT Government and the Australian Government. Find out more at www.hipbonestickingout.com Hipbone Sticking Out is written and directed by Scott Rankin, it is a part of <strong>Canberra</strong> Theatre’s Collected Works: Australia 2013, and Big hART 's three year residency at the <strong>Canberra</strong> Theatre Centre. The Playhouse, <strong>Canberra</strong> Theatre Centre www.canberratheatrecentre.com.au Image: Group River Girls. By Sarah Davies. canberra<strong>100</strong>.com.au 45
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