Director, First Nations Programs Carriageworks | Language Groups: Narangga / Kaurna 

The continent now known as Australia is home to the oldest, continuous living cultures in the world. For 80,000+ years Australia’s First Nations peoples have been custodians of this sacred Country, living alongside megafauna, surviving two ice ages and the ongoing assault of 230 years of colonisation. 

Our relationship to Country and responsibility to the lands, waters, skies and seas is integral to our culture, our identities and to understanding our place in both ancient lineages and a modern changing world. 

This collection of dance works from 3 First Nations Australian dance artists looks at land as an essential element to our sense of belonging, in spite of continual human and ongoing colonisation and in the face of desperate climate emergency 

The Voyage of Bayini by Rachel Wallis

3:44

A collaboration by First Nations artists in Yolngu country, NT, Australia and Paiwan and Truku artists on Pingtung and Hualien country in Taiwan

Movement of Place by Amrita Hepi

2019 | 5:44 

Language Groups: Bundjulung / Ngapuhi 

Considering the body as a point of archive, artist Amrita Hepi took to re-performing stories around Kaurna Country Adelaide in order to rediscover the bodies’ relation to the place and context. 

Underfoot by Adrianne Semmens

2021 | 3:25 

Language Groups: Barkindji 

Commissioned by Aakash Odedra company, Underfoot responds to the provocation of climate change and a series of discussions and workshops as part of the company’s project, Dance Film Dance Plus.  

Filmed on Kaurna Country (Adelaide, South Australia) Underfoot honours and explores relationships to place and the environment, grounded in responsibility, care and respect of Country. 

The chosen sites continue a thread across Adrianne’s work, filmed at places of fresh and salt water. The dancers feel the ground underfoot and listen to Country as they trace the landscapes with their gaze.

About Jacob

Jacob Boehme is a Melbourne born and raised artist of the Narangga and Kaurna Nations, South Australia. A multi-disciplinary theatre maker and choreographer, creating work for the stage, screen, large-scale public events and festivals.. Jacob is also Director, First Nations Programs at Carriageworks, Australia’s largest multi-arts centre. For contemporary and experimental arts.