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Gapu Ngupan

Performing Arts

Labaga Taru, Banyula Marika and Ngalkanbuy Munungurr, Blak LAB, Australian Performing Arts Market, Melbourne. Photograph courtesy of APAM

(L-R) Ljavaus Chen, Rachael Wallis, Loretta Yunupingu and Aulu Tjibulangan, performing, Blak LAB, Australian Performing Arts Market, Melbourne. Photograph courtesy of APAM

(L-R) Ljavaus Chen, Rachael Wallis, Loretta Yunupingu, Aulu Tjibulangan, Sang Mei-Chuan and Ngalkanbuy Munungurr performing, Blak LAB, Australian Performing Arts Market, Melbourne. Photograph courtesy of APAM

About

^{Filmed on Yolngu Country, North East Arnhem Land, in November 2022}
^{Film by Aris & Grimes}
^{Created and produced by Miku Performing Arts, Hui Jia Creatives, Kath Papas Productions & Artback NT}

The world premiere of Gapu Ŋupan commissioned by Asia TOPA Festival in Naarm/Melbourne is an event not to be missed, from Thursday 27th February to Saturday the 1st of March 2025 performing at Arts Centre Melbourne, this stunning production is the result of five years of cross-cultural collaboration and friendships developed between Australian and Taiwanese artists and producers.

This extraordinary production and performing team has completed multiple stages of deep development and creation in Australia and Taiwan and includes music producers, musicians, dancers, choreographers, sound and lighting designers, filmmakers and photographers and creative producers from Yirrkala in the NT’s North East Arnhem Land, all the way to Paiwan and Amis peoples in Taiwan.

Bringing it all together has been made possible through the relationships and work carried out by the four producers behind these stages of development being Hui Jia Creatives, Miku Performing Arts, Kath Papas Productions and Artback NT. The relationships that first sparked Gapu Ŋupan was born through Artback NT’s Indigenous Artist in Residence Program which provided artists from the NT to travel to Taiwan for 6 weeks to be immersed in other cultures, making exchanges and lasting connections through Indigenous artists and communities associated with the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Park in Pingtung. This project was

These experiences were reciprocated for Taiwanese artists where they would journey to the Northern Territory and make connections through their artistic practice with people and in the NT. It was in 2018 when the successful artist exchange applicants Rachael Wallis and 桑梅絹 Sang Mei-Chuan would first see the birth of what was first a working title “The Voyage of Bayini”, before years later becoming Gapu Ŋupan, a name given to the production by Yirrkala Cultural Consultant and one of the show’s leading performers Banula Marika.

Created over five years of cross-cultural collaboration, Gapu Ŋupan has been made by extraordinary Yolŋu, Paiwan and Amis artists from North East Arnhem Land and Taiwan.

This project is supported by Arts Centre Melbourne, Playing Foundation and the Australia Council for the Arts.