Performing kayepa dordok living waters in Noongar boodjar, South‐Western Australia

Abstract

Performance through language, song and dance provides alternative knowledges and ways of understanding, in this case, developing deeper relationships with living water. Drawing on Indigenous Noongar culture from south-western Australia, this paper addresses the question: How can relationships between living underground, estuarine and riverine water bodies (kayepa dordok) be performed? Two new interlinked Noongar works in response to local riverscapes were developed for, and performed as part of, the 2021 Perth Festival. The first was to embody the return journey of the bullshark, from the salt water to the riverine fresh water; the second was to enact the presence of the unseen groundwaterwhich emerges as wetlands and estuaries strewn throughout the landscapeon its return to the sea. The method used to derive the song and dance, and the impact of the performance itself, are described. The experiment makes a case for multiple benefits associated with reestablishing connections among culture and nature by drawing on Indigenous perspectives, through performance giving voice to a relationality between river systems and people.

From Deficit to Strength-Based Aboriginal Health Research—Moving toward Flourishing

“…Within this, the centrality of culture is also growing in primacy [ 52 ] and being recognised as fundamental by governments and funding bodies (we note that Aboriginal people have long understood this). There is a growing body of work spanning cultural practice in recent times, from Aboriginal-determined models and frameworks of social and emotional wellbeing [ 14 , 16 ] to projects focused on language revitalisation [ 56 ], giving voice to country through song [ 57 ], and birthing on country [ 58 ]. Here we briefly expand on a few pieces of research grounded in strengths and their potential fit to a salutogenic model.…”