Video courtesy of Sydney Festival
A sovereign act of gathering. A ceremony grounded in Country.
Created by Joel Bray Dance
Produced and toured by BlakDance
Tickets on sale now. Visit The Sydney Festival website to explore the program.
Friday 9th – Sunday 11th January | 8pm
Northern Broadwalk | Sydney Opera House
At the heart of Garabari is the Story of the Making of the Murrumbidgee, gifted to the project by the late Uncle James Ingram, a respected Wiradjuri Elder and cultural custodian. Shared with permission and care by Uncle James and the Elders of Wagga Wagga, this story forms the narrative and spiritual spine of the work.
Garabari is a contemporary civic ceremony led by Wiradjuri artist Joel Bray and developed in close collaboration with Elders, artists, and community members across Wagga Wagga and the Riverina. Created in response to an instruction from Elders to make a new dance for a lost one, Garabari affirms First Nations sovereignty and celebrates the living strength of Wiradjuri culture.
The work honours the leadership of:
Uncle James Ingram (dec.) – Cultural custodian of the story
Uncle Christopher Kirkbright – Project Elder and language custodian
Aunty Cheryl Penrith, Aunty Mary Atkinson, and Aunty Jackie Ingram – Senior Knowledge Holders and Community Leaders
Taking its name from the Wiradjuri word for corroboree, Garabari is not a reinterpretation of the past. It is a continuation. It embodies community-led gathering, story-sharing, and resistance. Throughout the work, a song in Wiradjuri language composed and performed by Uncle Christopher Kirkbright and Letetia Harris carries memory and cultural strength, echoing the flow of the Murrumbidgee itself.
With cultural permission, Garabari includes the teaching of foundational Aboriginal dance movements to audiences. These are offered not as spectacle but as a respectful act of welcome, grounded in deep protocol and guided by community leadership. The audience is invited to step into the work through call and response, shared rhythm, and a large participatory dance moment. It is a collective experience of joy and gathering on Wiradjuri terms.
Featuring an ensemble of powerful First Nations performers, sound by Byron Scullin, design by Katie Sfetkidis, and costuming by Wiradjuri fashion label Ngali (Denni Francisco), Garabari is a space of movement, memory and togetherness.
This is not ceremony imagined. It is ceremony continued.
Garabari is produced by Joel Bray Dance with the tour produced by BlakDance. The national tour has received financial assistance from the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.
Creative Team
Joel Bray – Choreographer/Director (Wiradjuri)
Uncle Christopher Kirkbright – Project Elder, Wiradjuri language custodian, song writer and performer (Wiradjuri)
Uncle James Ingram – Collaborating Elder, Custodian of the Story of the Making of the Murrumbidgee (Wiradjuri, dec.)
Letetia Harris – Song translation and performance
Katie Sfetkidis – Lighting and Projection Designer
Byron Scullin –Original Sound & Music
Gideon Cozens - Sound and Music
Luke George – Dramaturg
Denni Francisco – Costume Designer
NON Studio – Screen Video Production
Carolyn Conners – Additional voices and voice textures
Juanita McLauchlan and Jordan Ingram – Community art-making facilitators
Veronica Bolzon – Executive Producer (Joel Bray Dance)
Merindah Donnelly – Co-CEO Executive Producer (BlakDance, Wiradjuri)
Nicole Reilly – Senior Producer (BlakDance, Wiradyuri)
Simon Cook – Production Manager (BlakDance, Mamu)
Luke Peacock – Associate Producer (BlakDance, Samsep/Meriam)
2025 Cast
Luke Currie-Richardson – Kuku Yalanji, Djabugay, Mununjali, Butchulla and Meriam
Amelia Jean O’Leary – Gamilaroi
“Cheeky” Chandler Connell – Wiradjuri and Ngunnawal
Karlia Cook – European, Mā’ohi and Māori descent, hailing from Norfolk Island, Hitiaurevareva (Pitcairn Island), and Ngāpuhi iwi (Aotearoa)
Zoe Brown-Holten – Dunghutti, Gomeroi
Glory Tuohy-Daniell – Indjalandji Dhidhanu, Alyewarre
Kiarn Doyle – Dunghutti
Nadiyah Akbar
Siobhan McKenna
Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) Acknowledgement
Garabari contains and embodies Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP), including the Story of the Making of the Murrumbidgee, gifted with permission by the late Uncle James Ingram. We honour Uncle James as a cultural custodian and respectfully acknowledge his recent passing. His legacy, wisdom, and generosity are carried throughout this Garabari.
We advise First Nations audiences that this work contains the name and contributions of a respected Elder who has passed away. This acknowledgement is made with the consent and guidance of his family and community.
Garabari has been developed in accordance with First Nations Protocols and guided by community-determined principles of cultural authority, attribution, and care. All ICIP remains the property of the community and is shared with consent, under ongoing cultural accountability.
We acknowledge with deep respect the following Elders whose leadership, stories, language, and generosity form the heart of Garabari:
Uncle James Ingram – Custodian of the Story of the Making of the Murrumbidgee (dec.)
Uncle Christopher Kirkbright – Project Elder, Wiradjuri language custodian, song writer and performer
Aunty Cheryl Penrith – Senior Knowledge Holder and Community Leader
Aunty Mary Atkinson – Senior Knowledge Holder and Community Leader
Aunty Jackie Ingram – Senior Knowledge Holder and Community Leader
We also acknowledge:
Letetia Harris – Song translation and performance
Juanita McLauchlan and Jordan Ingram – Community art-making facilitators
Carolyn Conners – Additional voice textures
Community art-making participants: Oliver Rolls, Taniesha Wilson, Tylor Wilson, Maree Atkinson, Wesley Williams-Boney, Darren Honeysett, Richard Penrith
All cast, creatives, crew, and community members who upheld cultural safety, kinship values, and artistic integrity across every stage of Garabari’s development
This Garabari exists because of the collective strength, generosity, and cultural leadership of the Wiradjuri community. We offer our deepest respect and thanks.
Garabari was commissioned by Chunky Move with the support of the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, and received support through the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund - an Australian Government initiative, the Australian Government through the Indigenous Languages and Arts program and Creative Australia, the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, BlakDance, the Besen Family Foundation, Arts House, Eastern Riverina Arts, Lucy Guerin Inc and WXYZ Studios. It premiered in 2022 at Arts House Melbourne, presented by Arts House, Chunky Move and Joel Bray Dance.
