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First Nations Choreographer/Dancer Tammi Gissell shares her beautiful insight into her personal connections to each of the works for HOVER REIMAGINED!

ANPURU MAAU KUTJPA – Electric Fields

“I’m a freshwater river woman, from stone country out in the far north west of Bourke, NSW… at the end of 2024 I was profoundly moved by my time camping out in Arrernte (pronounced Arrunda) Country, just south of Mparntwe (pronounced m’barn-twa) at the Henbury Meteor impact site.

I was gifted some yarns about the ancestral creation times of the Country there and how Ayepe-arenye, Ntyarlke and Utnerrengatye (Caterpillar beings) had formed the landscape all around us. I could feel and see their incredible crafting of that generous country, it was luscious and so eternally powerful. I knew I must dance this yarn one day.

When I was beginning to conceive of this work, I wanted to honour that memory of Arrente Country and of that particular Dreaming in a way that was respectful because it is not my own yarn to fully know or share explicitly.

I wanted to celebrate the essence, the spirit of those Ancestral creator caterpillars who through their patient and powerful efforts made that place where I slept on the dusty red, blanketed in stars and housed by the ranges they formed in the Dreaming times.

I looked deeper into the meaning of the iconic Electric Fields song “Anpuru Maau Kutjpa” and found it celebrates the witchetty grub and its relationship with the Mimili community, much further south from where I was camped out. I already loved the song, but knowing more about it made me so excited because it resonated with the yarn I’d learned. It felt right for me to create a piece that honoured the essence of those undulating creators who hold relations across cultural territories and time.

Learning that the song Anpuru Maau Kutjpa spoke to movement and evolution of the self as realised when the witchetty grub transitions into a moth also felt right for this dance piece – as dancers and as humans we are always in a state of becoming. I am bringing together a cast of dancers from different territories to honour this yarn and I feel like we are, in a way, growing wings together to evolve from being ‘me’ and ‘you’ to ‘us’.

Electric Fields was the obvious choice for this opening piece because their music is simultaneously ancient and modern – Electronic Fields embody and share with the world a true sense of the everywhen – which is the Dreaming – and this particular song is so, so compelling musically and culturally. I am so grateful to choreograph to this sumptuous music and share it here in Osaka. It is a gift that really keeps giving the more we dance our dance to it, teaching us and teaching our audiences about patience, truth and determination to be who we are without apology.”

FROM LITTLE THINGS BIG THINGS GROW – Electric Fields (original song by Paul Kelly & Kev Carmody)

“In celebrating Country and our relationship to it throughout this entire show, you could not ask for a more relevant song than ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’.
Because we are here in Osaka representing the entire continent of the lands now referred to as Australia, I felt it imperative to educate our audiences on this monumental moment in our history, to share how deeply Vincent Lingiari’s fight for land rights still resonates with our First Nations people, and how Whitlam’s pouring of sand (Lingiari’s own Country!) back into Lingiari’s hand was a promise we will never, ever forget.

I wanted to share this story with the world audiences here in Osaka and this new offering of the song from Electric Fields was simply perfect! It is musically and vocally so powerful, and the yarn it holds so vital to our shared Australian history. We are blessed to physically interpret this song and share this history in a way that overcomes the limits of spoken language – our bodies speak for the international audiences – many of whom may be unaware of the land rights movement or that such a promise was ever made to our people.”

MARRYUNA – Baker Boy featuring Yirrmal

“This track absolutely rocks my world for its authenticity to, and celebration of, the Yolgnu culture. It’s a fast and deadly track that has many layers to its rhythms. Marryuna holds equal relevance to ancient and contemporary First Nations musical and dance cultures.

Marryuna means ‘to dance without shame’ in the Yolgnu language and that is something that is so important to me as an Aboriginal woman and as a contemporary dancer. This piece represents that feeling we all have when we are so into a groove that there is no other option but to bust out and dance it up hard!

The men in this cast are deadly hip-hop dancers, so I wanted to also honour their skills in these modern dance styles, while showing the international audiences attending the World Expo in Osaka that First Nations cultures are enduring and being expressed in new and exciting ways! This piece is a celebration of the power of dance itself, and I am so grateful to Baker Boy and Yirrmal for laying this deadly track down for the men in this show to experience and share their own sense of dancing without shame!”

GATHU MAWULA REVISITED – Gurrumul & Blue King Brown

“I chose this stunning collaboration between Gurrumul & Natalie Pa’apa’a from Blue King Brown to close the ceremony of our show. It is such a powerful message to leave our audiences with. I really wanted to create a contemporary dance with honest Aboriginal sensibility that could speak to all people everywhere.

A public, but still deeply sacred dance that reminds us that ‘home’ is something that all of us, no matter where we come from can relate to. This song is so moving – the vocals, sung in both Gumatj (a Yolngu language) & English hits me right in my soul and really conveys the power of remembering. I have been so lucky to dance alongside and learn from many Yolgnu people over the years and I hold a special place in my heart for the Elcho Island (Galiwinku Country) community where Gurrumul comes from. Galiwinku mob have deeply informed my cultural knowings. So, for this finale piece, I honour the Elcho Island community and my own homelands through showcasing Dinawan (emu), and the connection between sky and my beloved stone and river country. Dancing to Gathu Mawula in this way allows us to remember our respective homelands and to give thanks to the many traditional lands we are visitors to across the Australian continent.”

HOVER REIMAGINED!

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