News & Events 2008

Newmont Tanami Sponsorship

In 2008, Artback NT was very excited to enter into a partnership with Newmont Tanami Operations and HWE Mining to sponsor an Award at the Indigenous Music Awards 2008 - 2010. The Award provides skills and industry development to the winner of the Emerging Act of the Year and involves a guaranteed tour of the Northern Territory the following year which would be facilitated and managed by Artback NT: Arts Development and Touring.

The tour will offer a:

-   Community benefit through the presentation of high quality live music performances to regional and remote audiences;

 and the benefit for the performers of

-   Increased recognition musically throughout the Northern Territory and an opportunity to develop regional audiences.

The NT Indigenous Music Awards, presented by Music NT at the Amphitheatre as part of the Darwin Festival each August, are now the NT music industry's highlight of the year. As the only dedicated Indigenous music industry awards in Australia it is an event increasingly gaining a national reputation as a showcase and high quality night of performance. The Awards are broadcast live on Indigenous radio throughout the NT and nationally, and for the first time in 2007, were filmed for TV broadcast on National Indigenous TV.

Artback NT, Newmont Tanami Operations and HWE Mining are proud to sponsor this Award for the next three years.

Emerging Artist Award and Indigenous Music Awards

Saturday 30 August 2008

Above: Dennis Stokes and Hugh Kingston

Below: B2M receiving the award

Images courtesy Agentur

Ngaanyatjatjarra Turlku

In May 2008, Artback NT with the Ngaanyatjatjarra Council and Country Arts WA supported people from Ngaanyatjatjarra communities to hold an inma turlku (ceremony & festival) at the Inpinparra claypans near Blackstone. Preparations for the inma included many cultural trips to the bush for focused rehearsals at sacred sites and to teach young kids traditional dance and craft. The inma was attended by hundreds of locals, as well as some art tour visitors and coincided with the annual Blackstone Festival.

The dancing continued for another two weeks after the festival as 60 participants on a 100km walk to Wirpurly Rockhole, 10 days from Blackstone, remained inspired and motivated from a whole month of intensive dance support.

Desert Mob DanceSite 2008

DanceSite was again successfully staged at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station in partnership with NT Parks & Wildlife and presented by Artback NT on the Desert Mob weekend to an estimated audience of 1000 people. This year the event presented over 80 Indigenous dancers from Central Australia from the following communities/language groups:

Arrernte, Simpson Desert Dancers - Akeyulurre Inc
Arrernte, Antulye Dancers - Amoongana Arts/Irrkerlantye Arts
Arrernte, Ltyente Apurte Dancers - Santa Teresa
Luritja, Papunya Dancers - Ngurratjuta Art Centre
Pitjantjatjara, Tjanpi Dancers - Tjanpi Weavers
Ngaanyatjarra, Kuruyala Dancers - Blackstone Art Centre
Walpiri, Warumungu Dancers - Nyinka Nyunyu/Tennant Creek (mens)
Walpiri, Warumungu Dancers - Nyinka Nyunyu/Tennant Creek (womens)

Yarnballa Festival - October 2008

Funding from the Australia Council Dance Board - Skills Development enabled Artback NT to work in partnership with Ananguku Arts and Country Arts SA to enable a women's dance group from Indulkana, South Australia, to perform and run workshops at the Yarnballa Festival, Port Augusta, 24 - 26 October. The Indulkana women's performance and public preparation encouraged the participation of other dancers and singers from regional South Australia who were also attending the Festival. An unexpected outcome was that this enabled three southern parts of the "7 Sisters" Songline to be presented.

Indigenous Traditional Dance (ITD) Project

The ITD project follows from the Indigenous Performing Arts Brokerage Project (IPAB) which gave intensive support to two Aboriginal dance groups from Central Australia - the Nyinkka Nyunyu Dancers and the Janganpa Dancers.

In the IPAB (June 2006 – Dec 2006) there were 6 funded and supported Dance events including: Desert Mob Dancesite, Desart in the Park, Desert Knowledge Symposium, Wurrpurrjinta Cultural Exchange, Day of Difference fund raiser and the tour to the World Deserts Foundations International Festival of Desert People and Cultures in Algeria.

From 2007 onwards, Artback NT, with support from Arts NT and the Australia Council for the Arts has worked to conduct research and consultation with Aboriginal art centres and dance groups throughout Central Australia. This has lead to strategic documentation and planning to promote a coordinated approach to cultural maintenance, traditional dance activities and performance opportunities for Aboriginal traditional dance groups across the tri-state border region of the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia.

Regional dance forums from 2008 have been described individually in preceeding sections. The purpose of the ITD project is to promote cultural maintenance and exchange in relation to traditional dance. These exchanges encourage art centres and dance groups to invite neighboring communities and language groups to come together to share their knowledge and understanding of traditional dance practices from their regions. The ITD project provides community cultural development support, facilitates and organises performance opportunities and provides links and information sharing between Indigenous traditional dance projects, communities and contemporary dance and theatre initiatives.

Muttacar - Sorry Business

In 2008, the Artback NT tour of Muttacar - Sorry Business travelled throughout central Australia for 22 performances and covered over 5000 kilometres. In 2009, Artback NT is very excited to be working again with the Transport Safety Division of the Department of Planning & Infrastructure and Yirra Yaakin (YY), an Indigenous theatre company based in Western Australia, to tour Muttacar - Sorry Business throughout Darwin and Arnhem Land.

Which Road Will You Choose?

Cast of Muttacar Sorry Business

Yirara College, Alice Springs, July 2008

Photo: Louise Partos