Djinama Yilaga Washington performance
To commemorate National Reconciliation Week in Washington DC, the Australian Embassy is hosting Djinama Yilaga, the intergenerational Choir from the South Coast established in 2019, under leadership of Walbunga/ Monero-Ngarigo Artist, Cheryl Davison.
Djinama Yilaga perform songs in Dhurga, the predominate language of the 13 Tribes of the Yuin Nation. The choir is accompanied by Cobargo musician Robyn Martin.
Last night in Washington DC, Djinama Yilaga met with Kevin Rudd and performed at the opening of a major exhibition of large-scale photographic portraits of contemporary First Nations women and girls photographed in Canberra and Sydney from 2019 to 2022 by Brenda Croft.
Brenda L Croft is a multidisciplinary creative-led researcher, 2024 Gough Whitlam & Malcom Fraser Visiting Chair of Australian Studies, at Harvard University.
Croft is from the Gurindji / Malngin / Mudburra peoples from the Victoria River region of the Northern Territory of Australia, and Anglo-Australian/Chinese/German/Irish/Scottish heritage.
Since the mid-1980s Brenda Croft has been a key participant in Australian and international First Nations and broader contemporary arts/cultural sectors as a multi-disciplinary creative practitioner – artist, author, curator, educator, researcher and scholar.
Brenda’s creative-led research encompasses Critical Indigenous Performative Collaborative Autoethnography and Storywork methodologies, often working closely with her patrilineal family and community.
Brenda is based at the ANU as Professor of Indigenous Art History & Curatorship.
Croft’s exhibition Naabámi (thou shall / will see): Barangaroo (army of me) opens to the public in the Quentin Bryce Gallery. The exhibition is a series of large-scale photographic portraits of contemporary Australian First Nations women and girls, with cultural connections across Australia. Naabámi (thou shall / will see) honours Barangaroo, the Cammeraygal Warrior woman (? – 1791) who acts as a constant ancestral guide for the women and girls represented in this major installation.
Croft and the Embassy’s Cultural Programming Team are hosting panel discussions to commemorate NAIDOC Week and this year’s theme – Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud. The panels will celebrate the strong, resilient First Nations women of Australia with illuminating discussions with Australian First Nations Women Elders and Rising Leaders.
While in Washington the group have been visiting the sites such as the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial and the US Capitol.
