Country Arts SA pays respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and recognises their continuing connection and spiritual relationship to these lands, waters and skies. We are committed to listening and helping care for Country, and safeguarding, sharing and celebrating First Nations’ living cultures.
‘Cultural reckoning’ theatre completes Kumarangk trilogy
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains names of people who have died.
Country Arts SA is proud to announce our theatre production Kumarangk: Sisterhood will premiere in March as part of Adelaide Festival 2027.
It is the third outcome of the Kumarangk project, which unravels the historically sidelined story of the Ngarrindjeri women protestors who resisted the building of the bridge from Goolwa to Hindmarsh Island (Kumarangk) in the 1990s.
The play explores the intimate moments that the cameras were not present for, entwined with a contemporary dance re-imagining of Ngarrindjeri creation story The Seven Sisters.
Kumarangk: Sisterhood follows the bond between key Ngarrindjeri mi:minis (women) at the centre of the resistance, including Sandra Saunders, Aunty Ellen Trevorrow, Dr Doreen Kartinyeri, Aunty Veronica Brodie, and Aunty Maggie Jacobs.
Performed outdoors at Yitpi Yartapuultiku on Kaurna Country, audiences are invited to bear witness to two stories deeply connected across time, place and resistance.
“Our ceremonial songline comes from Ruwe (Country), and continued sacred business through story, song and dance supports our voices through the real-validated actions of a cultural reckoning which has been occurring through time immemorial,” director Glenn Shea (Ngarrindjeri/Wathaurong) said.
“Our women, our mothers, our aunties, our sisters and our daughters stand on the shoulder our of Ngarrindjeri ancestral spirits who have always sung us into being.
“The majestic Seven Sisters watch over our women and Ruwe continually – the past, the present and the future. Kumarangk: Sisterhood, what a gift for all to experience.”
You can attend Kumarangk: Sisterhood as part of Adelaide Festival 2027 from March 3 to 7 at Yitpi Yartapuultiku, Port Adelaide.
To learn more about the Kumarangk project, which also includes a visual arts exhibition, documentary film and community archive, visit www.countryarts.org.au/kumarangk.
Kumarangk: Sisterhood is supported by Creative Australia; Create SA; Indigenous Languages and Arts Program; Seaborn, Broughton and Walford Foundation; Ilbijerri Theatre; and individual donations to the Country Arts Foundation and Kumarangk Giving Circle.
Image: Dancers Kathleen Rankine, Kirsty Williams and Keisha Barrow in Kumarangk: Sisterhood, photographed by Nharla Media.