Garrigarang Badu at the Sydney Festival
Former Bangarra dancer Peta Strachan, a Dharug woman from the Boorooberongal clan, founded the all-female Jannawi Dance Clan in 2008, hoping to learn more about the nearly lost language of her ancestors.
The mother of five and Concord dance school graduate began rehearsing with the group at the Newington Armory, the former Navy depot near Sydney Olympic Park where she performed at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2000 Olympics.
“This area, the Wangal country south of the Parramatta River, was where all the clans would gather peacefully for ceremonies, corroborees and mullet feasting,” Strachan said.
“Jannawi means ‘with me, with you’ in the Dharug language – and since 2008 we have been bringing together Indigenous women from across Sydney to reinvigorate the language through song and dance.”
Their most ambitious project to date is the first full-length work in the Dharug language, bringing together female Indigenous dancers from across Australia. It will premiere as part of the Sydney Festival this week.
Garrigarrang Badu, meaning “salt water/fresh water”will have three performances At the Sydney Opera House Drama Theater on 9 and 10 January. It’s fitting that the show is at Bennelong Point on Sydney Harbour, where the salt water of the ocean is said to meet the fresh water of the Parramatta River.
“We want people to gain a deeper understanding, through dance and song, of Dharug country’s river systems and waterways from the Blue Mountains to the salt water of the beaches,” said Strachan, who began developing the project six years ago, working with the late Dharug linguist Richard Green.
“He was a huge inspiration to me; he’s in the show when we recorded him singing in the language,” he said.
The music was composed by First Nations artist Matthew Doyle and Indigenous musician Dyagula, who is also the lead vocalist. The work, which features 14 dancers performing 14 songs in Dharug, is presented in conjunction with Parramatta Arts and Culture Exchange and Western Sydney’s FORM Dance Project.
Four generations of Strachan’s family are involved in this project: Two of his daughters and his six-year-old grandson are dancers, and his mother made the dill bags that were used as props, along with the nawi (canoes), gunyas (shelters), coolamons (storage containers) and digging sticks that Strachan created.
“This is the matriarchal light/country,” he said. “We really need to create a space and opportunity for all women to be able to sing country together again in our beautiful dalang/language.
“I wanted to create our own unique and original special songs and dances in the Dharug dalang/ language to help keep our dalang alive, thriving, strong, heard and talked about, and to perpetuate our culture and stories through these songs and dances for our yura/ people.”
Its aim is to ensure that viewers leave wanting to learn more about the Dharug language, which was once widely spoken by many of the 29 clans of the Eora nation in the Sydney region.
Her daughter, dancer Serene Yunupingu, who recently returned from Arnhem Land, said the show was important in showcasing the “matriarchal revitalization” of Indigenous contemporary dance.
“We danced on top of the Opera House, near the Opera House in the Botanical Gardens, but now we have come from all over the country to dance our story on the Opera House stage, which is pretty special,” Yunupingu said.
Dancer Arohi Pehi, from Redfern, said performing at the Opera House was emotional.
“The idea of reviving the Dharug language through dance started as a seedling, now it is a big tree like a wise old grandmother,” he said.
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‘We really need to create a space and opportunity for all women to be able to sing country together again in our beautiful dalang/language.’
Peta Strachan
