Malandarri Festival, Borroloola

Malandarri Festival Artistic Director and Cultural Events Officer Marlene Timothy with Shellie Morris and Dinah Norman during the Song Workshops in Borroloola December 2017, photo by Eve Pawlik

Production Workshops

In the lead up and throughout the 2018 Malandarri Festival, Joshua Grant, the Malandarri Festival Technical Manager, will deliver two weeks of production training. Project Officer, Barnabas Timothy will coordinate the participants and will be lead tech of the program. This workshop program commenced in 2016 and engages young men from all four clan groups and explores a range of skills required to run and manage the technical elements of live events. The participants work towards the Malandarri Festival, managing pre-festival rehearsal spaces, sound checks, site planning, live sound engineering and tech support. Throughout the festival, the participants work alongside the technical team and live engineer the event.

Photography Program

Borroloola based photographer and official Malandarri Festival photographer, Benjamin Bayliss, has begun running workshops in photography skills with the community of Borroloola. These sessions will be ongoing until September and are targeted to young adults 18 – 35.

Printmaking Workshops

In April – May 2018 printmaker Tim Growcott, from Top End Textiles, ran two weeks of dynamic workshops in Borroloola. Based out of the Mabunji workshop space, the workshops engaged with Borroloola CDP Women’s Group, Sea Rangers, Early Childhood Group, Waralungku Arts Centre Artists and Mabunji staff. The workshops were taken up by a wide range of the community and have reinvigorated the screen printing practices in the community. The workshops hosted 45 – 60 participants, many of whom had never experienced printmaking prior. One design has been selected to enter this year’s Koskela/NAIDOC Art Centre T-shirt Design Competition.

Printed designs from the workshops will be showcased at this year’s Waralungku Arts Centre stall and incorporated into an outdoor exhibition space at Malandarri Festival.

Song Workshops with Shellie Morris

In December 2017 as part of strengthening culture, language and song practices in Borroloola, Artback NT engaged internationally renowned Shellie Morris to run three weeks of song workshops with the clan groups.

‘Coming home to the country of my grandmother is incredibly special. Artback NT and Malandarri Festival have created the space and time for us to sit and share and pass on knowledge through song and storytelling which is incredibly important for us as we walk in two worlds.’

Shellie Morris

Based out of Waralungku Arts, the workshops worked with Mara, Gurdanji, Yanyuwa and Garrwa clan group singers. The workshops explored the traditional clan songs and developed and recorded three new songs composed in Yanyuwa/Mara. These were performed at Borroloola School for the end of term celebrations.

Still to come… Twilight Dancing and Damper, Pallet Making Furniture, as well as further Production Training, Printmaking and Photography Programs.

Contact

Marlene Timothy

Malandarri Festival Director and Cultural Events Officer

Borroloola, NT

dancesite@artbacknt.com.au

08 8941 1444