We Are Water People

2016 June - Coorong, Lakes and Murray River, SA

Advice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this website and videos links contains images and voices of people who have died.

Change Media and Ngarrindjeri collaborated on a short web-documentary, as an engaging promotional tool for Ngarrindjeri and DEWNR, to showcase the significance of Ngarrindjeri science and cultural understanding of the Murray Mouth, the Murray River, the Lower Lakes and the Coorong.

The documentary features significant Ngarrindjeri cultural and caring for country practices and locations along the Murray River, the Lower Lakes, Coorong and the Murray Mouth, to highlight the spiritual connection between Ngarrindjeri and their lands and waters.
The documentary follows the narration script and storyboard developed by NRA, Change Media and DEWNR in late 2015, with a voice-over performed by Ngarrindjeri elder Ellen Trevorrow.

Credits

Producer: Carl Kuddell

Director: Jennifer Lyons-Reid

Writers: Ngarrindjeri managers Luke Trevorrow, Clyde Rigney Jnr and Laurie Rankine Jnr, in consultation with the NRA Board, DENWR and in collaboration with Change Media

Production management: Luke Trevorrow, Laurie Rankine Jnr, Owen Love Jnr, Carl Kuddell

Director of Photography: Johanis Lyons-Reid

Camera: Johanis Lyons-Reid, Owen Love

Editors: Johanis Lyons-Reid, Jennifer Lyons-Reid

Narrator: Ngarrindjeri Elder Ellen Trevorrow

Sound recording: Carl Kuddell

Participants and contributors include:

Auntie Ellen Trevorrow

Uncle Bud

Uncle Major Sumner

Prof. Daryle Rigney

Prof. Steve Hemming

Margaret Sexton

Ngarrindjeri community members

Ngarrindjeri heritage rangers

Tal Kin Jeri dancers

Ngarrindjeri Media Team

Laurie, Owen, Johnny and Daryl. Arnold, Lalo

Funded through the South Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water and Natural Resources and the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority

©2016 Ngarrindjeri and Change Media

Partners

Department of the Environment, Water and Natural Resources

Ngarrindjeri Land and Progress Association

Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority

Urimbirra Wildlife Park Victor Harbor

Ngarrindjeri Shorts 1 - ABC

Everything is Connected - Ngarrindjeri Shorts 1 - ABC iView - 2016 January - SA

Advice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this website and videos links contains images and voices of people who have died.

For Ngarrindjeri, everything is connected. Join their elders Ellen Trevorrow and Major Sumner on country as they share stories of art, culture and survival. We collaborated with Ngarrindjeri to create a beautiful web series for the inaugural Ngarrindjeri Culture Hub, linking Ngarrindjeri art, culture and country.

The Ngarrindjeri weaving, dancing and wood-carving videos showcase Ngarrindjeri culture and invite people to visit and participate in cultural activities at Camp Coorong. They were created during a series of multi-arts and capacity-building workshops with Ngarrindjeri communities in 2016.

The 4x 7min series is available on ABC’s iView arts channel under the title ‘Ngarrindjeri Shorts’. Click on the images below to watch all four episodes.

We Are Ngarrindjeri - Everything Is Connected

Ngarrindjeri Weaving - Everything Is Connected

Ngarrindjeri Carving - Everything Is Connected

Ngarrindjeri Dance - Everything Is Connected

FInd 30sec trailers for Everything is Connected here:

Everything Is Connected - Ngarrindjeri Dance - 30 sec Trailer - PLAY FILM

Everything Is Connected - Ngarrindjeri Weaving - 30 sec Trailer - PLAY FILM

Everything Is Connected - Ngarrindjeri Carving - 30 sec Trailer - PLAY FILM

Click here for Ngarrindjeri Shorts season 2 - Ngarrindjeri Speaking for SeaCountry.

News flash - Thursday May 19th, 2016:

Everything Is Connected has been nominated for the Official Selection of the International Melbourne WebFest 2016! We are also nominated for Best Non-Fiction [Australia] and Best Cinematography [International]!!!

The series also was nominated for the 2016 SA Screen Awards and will screen on ABC iView in July 2016. And we can now announce that we have received funding from the Australia Council for the Arts for a Ngarrindjeri Culture Hub, which will include another web series featuring Ngarrindjeri artists and cultural stories.

Big congrats to our team both at Ngarrindjeri and Change Media - and a huge thanks to everyone involved and our partners and friends for all your support!

Together with our community partners, the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority and the Ngarrindjeri Land and Progress Association, we delivered a series of multi-arts community engagement and capacity-building workshops in 2015-2016, to transmit Ngarrindjeri culture to young leaders and simultaneously created three new digital media works: Ngarrindjeri Carving with Elder Major Sumner and community members, Ngarrindjeri Dancing with Tal Kin Jeri dance group, and Ngarrindjeri Weaving with Elder Auntie Ellen Trevorrow and community members.

The inter-generational cultural exchange during the workshops, masterclasses and co-creative productions supported core elements of Ngarrindjeri cultural and arts activities.

The artworks, artifacts and a series of engaging cinema quality multimedia artworks are now being used by Ngarrindjeri to communicate culture and connection to country to the wider community.

Production credits

Producers: Carl Kuddell

Series Director: Jennifer Lyons-Reid  

Director: Johanis Lyons-Reid

Developed by: Clyde Rigney Jnr, Luke Trevorrow and Laurie Rankine Jnr, Jennifer Lyons-Reid, Carl Kuddell and Johanis Lyons-Reid, in consultation with the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority and Ngarrindjeri Land and Progress Association

Production management: Luke Trevorrow, Laurie Rankine Jnr

Director of Photography: Johanis Lyons-Reid

Assistant Camera: Laurie Rankine Jnr, Owen Love

Editor & Post-Production: Johanis Lyons-Reid

Sound recording: Carl Kuddell, Laurie Rankine Jnr 

Participants and contributors include

Auntie Ellen Trevorrow

Uncle Major Moogy Sumner

Ngarrindjeri community members

Alice Abdulla

Edith Carter

Latoya Love

Harmony Love

Bessie Rigney

Cheyenne Carter

Thomas Trevorrow

Tal Kin Jeri dancers

Loretta Sumner

Krissa Sumner

Major Sumner

Stacia Sumner

Lianna Sumner

Tyrone Lindsay

Jordon Karpany

Damien Wanganeen

Ryan Knowles

Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority team

Clyde Rigney Jnr

Luke Trevorrow

Laurie Rankine Jnr

Owen Love

Supported by:

Australia Council for the Arts

Arts SA

Change Media

Ngarrindjeri Land and Progress Association

Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority

Natural Resources Management Board SA Murray Darling Basin

The Rural City of Murray Bridge

Alexandrina Council

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body, and the South Australian Government through Arts SA.

Nation to Nation - Aboriginal Authorities

Aboriginal Regional Authorities Initiative SA 2015 February - SA

Advice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this website and videos links contains images and voices of people who have died.

In collaboration with the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority, we produced Nation to Nation, a 25min documentary about the new South Australian Government Aboriginal Regional Authorities (ARA) initiative. The video showcases the benefits and opportunities of Aboriginal Regional Authorities in the context of colonization and new approaches for respectful governance and support for Indigenous representation in SA.

It features the four selected trial groups at their different stages of development and implementation:

Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority - Murraylands, Lower Lakes, Coorong and South Coast

Narungga Regional Authority - Yorke Penisula and surrounding islands

Kaurna Heritage Board - wider Adelaide area

Aboriginal Community Engagement Group Port Augusta and surrounding areas

The documentary features the views of Indigenous key leaders, detailing the process, development, and envisaged and current best practice and future outlook for each participating Aboriginal Authority, in Murray Bridge, Port Augusta, Point Pierce and Port Adelaide. Each trial group cover aspects of the five key issues and activities, ranging from Indigenous governance and leadership initiatives, Working on Country programs, to cultural engagement and Indigenous authority and self determination.

The project started development in October 2014, shooting across regional SA in 5 locations between November 2014 and January 2015.

Thanks for all the amazing community support
Kaurna Nation Heritage Association Inc
Living Kaurna Culture Centre
ART Employment
Peachey Place Community Centre
Kauwi Interpretive Centre SA Water
Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute
Narungga Aboriginal Corporation Regional Authority
Point Pearce Aboriginal Corporation
Point Pearce Aboriginal Health Service - SA Health
Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority
Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting
Ngarrindjeri Land and Progress Association
The Rural City of Murray Bridge
Aboriginal Community Engagement Group ACEG Port Augusta
Port Augusta Aboriginal Family Violence Legal Services
Port Augusta Youth Centre
Bungala Aboriginal Corporation
Davenport Community
Port Augusta City Council
Pricewaterhousecooper Indigenous Consulting Pty Ltd

Thanks to our funders:
The South Australian Government
Department of State Development - Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation

Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority and Change Media

Developed with support from Arts SA Strategic Community Partnerships

© 2015 South Australian Government
Department of State Development - Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Change Media and Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority

Miwi Wisdom - TarraWarra Biennale

2014 August - TarraWarra Museum of Art Healesville VIC

 Advice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this website and video links may contain images and voices of people who have died.

Change Media was invited to collaborate with Professor Diane Bell on her recent one-act play with Ngarrindjeri weavers, called 'Weaving and Whispers: Miwi Wisdom' to launch at the TarraWarra Biennial 2014 'Whisper in my Mask' in Healesville, Victoria, August 16th 2014.

The co-creative, community-driven play focuses on Ngarrindjeri women's knowledge, the Hindmarsh Island Bridge affair and the role of anthropologists and curators in suppressing traditional oral knowledge.

Our contribution included creative support for the performance team, prop-making, the production of a three-channel moving image projection to illustrate and illuminate the play, for 3 projectors, and the video documentation of the work and the Q & A, produced in collaboration with our community partners from the Ngarrindjeri Media Team.

A Word from the Playwright

In ‘Weaving and Whispers: Miwi wisdom’, we invite the audience into the world of women’s weaving. What do Ngarrindjeri women talk about while they weave?  What does that have to do with women’s sacred knowledge?  How is this knowledge understood by the institutions dedicated to conserve and preserve Indigenous knowledge? Stories, told as women weave, reveal the hidden truths of their relationship to their country, families and sacred beliefs. This knowledge is inaccessible to those who privilege written texts and dismiss oral traditions. Through their Miwi, their 'sixth sense', located in the pit of the stomach, Ngarrindjeri wisdom comes to full voice.

We have been busy shooting exquisite footage of Auntie Ellen Trevorrow's weaving techniques and worked with Diane Bell and Darrell Sumner on the moving image elements, prop design and dramaturgy of the play.

The play was presented in two performances at the TarraWarra Museum, at the launch of the international exhibition ' Whisper in my Mask', co-curated by Djon Mundine OAM and Natalie King in Healesville, Victoria.

Credits: Moving image creation and documentation

Change Media

Jennifer Lyons-Reid - Artistic Director, Editor

Carl Kuddell - Creative Producer, Editor

Johanis Lyons-Reid - Director of Photography, Trainer

Ngarrindjeri Media Team

Laurie Rankine Jnr - Second Camera  

John Karpany - Third Camera

Cyril Trevorrow - Supervisor

Weaving and Whispers Play

Professor Diane Bell - Playwright, Co-creative Director and Producer

Cast

Aunty Ellen Trevorrow

Ellie Wilson

Debbie Rankine

Destiny Rankine

Stephanie Russell

Djon Mundine AOM

Dr. Karen Hughes

Professor Diane Bell

A special thanks to the team at Tarrawarra Museum Healesville for the invitation to be part of the 2014 Biennial ‘Whisper in my Mask’:

Djon Mundine OAM - co-curator of the Tarrawarra Biennial

Victoria Lynn - Tarrawarra Museum Director

The documentation and moving image production was supported through

The South Australian Government Arts SA Partnership for Strategic Communities

Tallstoreez Productionz

Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority

The Play and Performance were supported by generous contributions to the '21st Century Lamington Drive' for the ‘Ngarrindjeri Women Weavers Project’ designated by the National Foundation for Australian Women as a preferred donor fund;

by the Meningie Uniting Church through a gift to the Ngarrindjeri Lands and Progress Association

and by Victor Harbor Removals through donation of boxes for props

© 2014 Change Media, Diane Bell, Ngarrindjeri Land & Progress Association, and the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority

We Are Ngarrinjderi - ABC

Ngarrindjeri Media 2014 June - Coorong SA

 Advice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this website and video links may contain images and voices of people who have died.

We are Ngarrindjeri is a Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority and Change Media collaboration.
Through our ongoing groundbreaking cross-cultural partnership with Ngarrindjeri, Change Media has worked with the Ngarrindjeri Media Team, headed up by Luke Trevorrow, Clyde Rigney and Laurie Rankine Jnr, and the wider Ngarrindjeri community, to create a video to represent Ngarrindjeri culture, past and present, as part of the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority’s Indigenous Cultural Support program between October 2013 and June 2014.

The project included eight collaborative workshops with Ngarrindjeri community members and their media team. The script for the video was developed with thw Ngarrindjeri Media Team over several months to identify the best way to represent Ngarrindjeri culture and ongoing connection to their lands and waters.

The participants and stakeholders decided to use excerpts from the Ngarrindjeri Land and Sea management plan for the narration. The very poetic text was developed over years by Ngarrindjeri elders and had been approved by their leaders. We then workshoped the most appropriate and feasible way to visualize the narration, to be shot across 3 main areas of the vast and beautiful Ngarrindjeri lands and waters - in the Coorong, on the Murray River and at the Encounter coast around Pt. Elliot, Goolwa and Victor Harbor.

The result is an inspiring video featuring several generations of Ngarrindjeri, elders past and present, and the breadth of Ngarrindjeri culture, lands and water, heritage and other activities.

Credits

Producer: Carl Kuddell

Director: Jennifer Lyons-Reid

Writers: Ngarrindjeri Elders - edited selections from Ngarrindjeri Land and Sea Management Plan by Luke Trevorrow, Clyde Rigney Jnr and Laurie Rankine Jnr, in consultation with the NRA Board and Change Media

Production management: Luke Trevorrow, Laurie Rankine Jnr

Director of Photography: Johanis Lyons-Reid

Camera: Johanis Lyons-Reid, Owen Love

Editors: Johanis Lyons-Reid, Jennifer Lyons-Reid

Narrator: Ngarrindjeri Elder Major Sumner

Sound recording: Carl Kuddell

Participants and contributors include:

Auntie Ellen Trevorrow

Uncle Darrell Sumner

Uncle Major Sumner

Prof. Daryle Rigney

Prof. Steve Hemming

Margaret Sexton

Ngarrindjeri community members

Ngarrindjeri heritage rangers

Tal Kin Jeri dancers

Ngarrindjeri Media Team

Laurie, Owen, Johnny and Daryl

Funded through the Australian Government Office for the Arts Indigenous Cultural Support

Partners - Arts SA Strategic Community Partnerships, Indigenous Cultural Support, Office for the Arts, Department of the Attorney General, Ngarrindjeri Land and Progress Association, Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority, Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting, Tal-Kin-Jeri Performance group, Tallstoreez Productionz

Meningie Foreshore Restoration

Ngarrindjeri Media 2014 May - Meningie SA

Advice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this website and video links may contain images and voices of people who have died.

Between April and May 2014, Change Media worked with the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority and its media team and the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, to produce a co-creative documentary about the Meningie Foreshore Restoration project.

The video was developed with the key stakeholders and shot during a one day production and training day at Meningie on April 16, 2014.

The edit included a one-day workshop with the Ngarrindjeri media team to finish the 5 minute promotional video.

The video showcases the amazing work done at Meningie, including the planting of over 23,000 local native plants, the naturalization of the concrete drain into a wetland corridor, the interpretive trail with signage, seating and bird watching platform.

It features all stakeholders, the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority rangers and heritage team, members of the CLLMM Restoration Project, the Coorong District Council, the Meningie community and school, the Friends of Meningie group, and Ngarrindjeri elder Ellen Trevorrow.

The project was funded through The Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth Recovery Project is funded by the South Australian Government’s Murray Futures Program, and the Australian Government

always was always will be Aboriginal Land

Development and design of the South Australian bi-centenary “always was always will be Aboriginal Land” campaign, including t-shirts and poster design, in collaboration with Aboriginal community members, Elders and their supporters.