The Southern Ngaliya Dancers are from Yuendumu. This film about Ngapa Jukurrpa (water dreaming) was filmed during the performance of Unbroken Land 2018 at the Desert Park. The film also includes footage of Juka Juka, a water dreaming site on Warlpiri country.
“We dance with white feathers in our armbands and headbands. There is a saying that if we dance with white feathers there will be rain today.” Enid Gallagher, Southern Ngaliya Dancers.
Ngapa Jukurrpa comes from Walapanpa in the east and travels to a waterhole called Wanurlpuru. Then the water continues travelling to Walura where there is water all of the time. From Walura it goes on to Juka Juka.
At this site there are large rocks standing upright. These rocks are the clouds. Ngapa keeps travelling on to Mikanji. Lightning struck there. There is a tree there which is the lightning from the dreamtime.
Lightning made waterholes along the way which are still there. Water dreaming travels onto Puyurru, where there is a soakage. From there, Kirrkarlanji (Falcon) grabbed, and flew off with, the bag of water on its head travelling west towards Lungkardajarra.
Kirrkarlanji then flew to Jiwaranpa and Kamira. That’s where our Jukurrpa ends, and beyond it, is the responsibility of other groups to tell the story.
The Southern Ngaliya women are committed to build this cultural platform to achieve stronger links with traditional song and dance; create new generations fluent in ceremonial and cultural knowledge; maintain Warlpiri culture; and share the culture with others.
Incite Arts present ‘Unbroken Land’ which is about bringing people together through community arts practice to experience diverse stories of belonging, celebrations of culture and our place in the landscape.
The ‘Unbroken Land’ water themed video works showcase the talents of our Alice Springs community on more far reaching online platforms, and to far greater audiences than the original planned live event. Access and inclusion will remain at the very heart of the virtual Unbroken Land, with closed captioning and audio description access features.