NGAPA YAAN / Niibi Aanmitaagzi

23rd Biennale of Sydney: rīvus

12 March to 13 June 2022

Pier 2/3 at Walsh Bay Arts Precinct

13 Hickson Road, Dawes Point, NSW 2000

Open daily 10 am–5 pm

Anzac Day Monday, 25 April: 10 am–5 pm
Queen’s Birthday Monday, 13 June: 10 am–5 pm

Free entry 

Avoid queues by registering your entry before you visit Pier 2/3 at Walsh Bay Arts Precinct.

Ngapa Yaan (Murrawarri), Niibi Aanmitaagzi (Northern Cree) represents one stage of an ongoing artistic and knowledge exchange between First Peoples women performance makers from so-called Australia and Turtle Island / Canada.

Featuring creation stories told in Murrawarri and Northern Cree language, and footage of their respective lands and waterways, the work foregrounds the crucial connection between language and Country and the importance of language revitalisation.

“This project is a durational investigation of two cultural stories, Serpent People from Nipissing First Nation (Turtle Island) and Mundagudda from Murrawarri Country in Far West NSW, Australia.

Through a discursive practice of storytelling, and story-weaving connected by a common theme – WATER – we are engaging with historical references to water from across different nations and countries that celebrate and highlight our relational identities and connection to country. The stories come from juxtaposed locations, one a frozen inland lake, the other in an often-dry land. We ask, what knowledge about water is contained and transferred through each story? How do these stories define a relationship to water?

In articulating our relationship to water, we are in a process of communicating our identity, blood ties, and clan affiliations.”

– Moogahlin Performing Arts

Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney. Supported by Australian Government via the Department of Communication and the Arts, the Canadian Government via Canada Council for the Arts, and Consulate General of Canada, Sydney.

Header image by Darrin Baker.