Every time Bangarra Dance Theatre takes to the stage, they do so to tell the stories of Indigenous communities across Australia.
Each piece starts its life on Country, seeking permission from that community and working with cultural consultants to guide the process of creating a dance piece using those local stories.
Bangarra artistic director Frances Rings said it's a chance to be a sponge and soak up what Country has to offer. It's a rare opportunity to gain insight into the lived and inherited experience of that mob.
The latest work to do just this is Yuldea, which is at the Canberra Theatre Centre until Saturday.
"Our Indigenous experiences, they're layered with hope, with trauma, with the past, with the present, but also incredible resilience and hope for the future. And I think that's the thing that you can always expect from a Bangarra performance," Rings said.
"It will move you to your core, but also there's something powerful about walking away, and going through this experience. And also, knowing that it's a gift, to be able to hear these stories, experience something like this, and be given the opportunity in your own life to walk away and do your little bit to create change, and to have a better understanding of Indigenous people and experiences."
Yuldea awakens the earth and sky worlds to tell the story of the Anangu people of the Great Victorian Desert, in South Australia and explores the abrupt moment that traditional life collided with the industrial ambition of a growing nation.
But for Rings, it is also a deeply personal affirmation of history and heritage, as it is inspired by her family's connection to the area, for what is her first work as Bangarra's artistic director.
"For so long, I've been telling stories of other mobs, Country and experiences, and been a muse for Stephen [Page, former artistic director] for so many years, and been a portal for those stories," she said.
"And I'm 53 years old and in this position ... I have this moment, I'm going to tell my story, I'm going to be proud of that. I want my community to be proud and to be able to see their stories told in this medium in our biggest theatres in the country, and have that be a light, a beacon of hope."
While Bangarra aims to always educate and inspire conversation in its audience, it is not lost on Rings that this latest performance comes at a time when the entire country is talking about The Voice to Parliament.
For her, and the rest of Bangarra, it is a conversation that they have been waiting a long time for.
"It's a remarkable time for our country," she said.
"These conversations, Blackfellas have been wanting to have for so long. As artists, we've been truth-telling since Bangarra started, because we had no space to truth tell.
"We, through our medium of dance theatre, find the words to which there are no words to express. And that's part of our resilience and our way of expressing identity, the complexities of surviving as a minority, in a country that your ancestors have inhabited for thousands of years, yet you feel unseen. You walk out, and you don't see yourself anywhere."
Yuldea is at Canberra Theatre Centre until Saturday. For tickets go to canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
