Gudirr Gudirr

The guwayi bird calls a warning to signal when the tide is turning – miss the call, and you risk drowning. For thousands of years, this call has guided Aboriginal people of the northwest region of Australia and kept them safe from harm.

Equal parts hesitant, restless, resilient, and angry, Gudirr Gudirr calls a warning to a community facing massive industrialisation on traditional lands, loss of language, and major gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous wellbeing.

Performed by Dalisa Pigram, a Yawuru and Bardi woman with Malay and Filipino heritage, Gudirr Gudirr reaches into Australia’s history and asks important questions: What does it take to decolonise the minds of Aboriginal people? How do we take a broken past, shift through a fragile present, and create a brighter future?

In collaboration with Belgian choreographer Koen Augustijnen and artist Vernon Ah Kee, Pigram creates a dance language that captures this moment in time for her people.