As the world teeters on the precipice of ecological catastrophe, we have to find very different ways of doing and being. Western imperialist capitalism has failed and we as a species are frantically casting about for alternatives. It comes as no surprise to me and my community that many of those alternatives were here all along, coded into the wisdom of First Nations law, relations with Land and Water and delicate kinship structures. Here, on this continent, we tinkered and refined these for tens of thousands of years, finding a way to live in harmony with Place and People. And to hand down this wisdom from generation to generation, we developed sophisticated ways of congregating, celebrating and sharing Ceremony.

These Corroborees recurred and as we grew in stature in the knowledge hierarchies of our Tribes, from youngsters, to novices, to initiates, to elders and songmen and women, we gently peeled back the infinitely deeper layers of meanings. As we re-encountered each other in these rituals, we learnt and shared the secrets and the secret languages. This meant no-one ever learnt anything before they had the character and experience to bear that knowledge.

Garabari is not the recreation of any specific such ceremony. Instead, it is an imagined, shared, civic ritual that celebrates this genius coded into all First Nations Corroborees of this continent.

- Joel Bray

Naarm-based Joel Bray is a proud Wiradjuri man who has danced in Europe and Israel with Jean-Claude Gallotta, Kolben Dance, Machol Shalem, FRESCO Dance Company, Roy Assaf and Niv Sheinfeld & Oren Laor, and in Australia with Chunky Move.

Joel’s intimate dance-theatre encounters in unorthodox spaces spring from his Wiradjuri heritage, and use humour to engage audiences in rituals about sex, history, trauma and healing. His experimental work challenges white audience expectations of Aboriginal performance and blur the colonial silos of art genre.

His works Biladurang, Dharawungara, Daddy, Considerable Sexual License and I Liked It, BUT have toured to the Brisbane, Sydney, Darwin, Midsumma, Auckland, LiveWorks and Dance Massive Festivals, and to the Arts Centre Melbourne and Canberra Theatre Centre.

Joel was the 2019 National Library of Australia Creative Arts Fellow and this research into Ancient Wiradjuri ceremonial practices continues, in collaboration with Wiradjuri elders, to inform all of Joel’s work. Joel is the inaugural Chunky Move Choreographer-in-Residence, a member of the Melbourne Fringe Board and was a 2020 Sydney Dance Company New Breed choreographer. Joel is currently making a multi-channel video work commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia called Giraru Galing Ganhagirri (The Wind Will Bring the Rain).

Chunky Move creates bold, visually striking and genre defying dance works. These works are experiments that merge the body with other forms, explore new ideas and materials and respond to different spaces and contexts. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Antony Hamilton and Executive Director Kristy Ayre, Chunky Move plays a crucial role in driving the artform of dance forward in Australia and beyond. Artists and audiences are at the heart of our company, expressed in our dense program of major works, commissions, residencies, workshops and public classes. Our collaborations, partnerships and projects aim to extend artform influence in the public realm and increase the visibility of contemporary dance as an everyday artform.

Choreographer/Director: Joel Bray
Performers: Chandler Connell, Luke Currie-Richardson, Tra Mi Dinh, Mason Kelly, Amelia Jean O’Leary
Understudy: Karlia Cook
Project Elder: Uncle Christopher Kirkbright
Sound & Music: Byron Scullin
Lighting & Projection Designer: Katie Sfetkidis
Screen Video Production: NON Studio
Costume Designer: Denni Francisco
Song written, translated and performed by: Uncle Christopher Kirkbright and Letetia Harris
Dramaturg: Luke George
Collaborating Elder: Uncle James Ingram
Community Engagement Coordinator: Visual Dreaming
Stage Manager: Lucie Sutherland
Assistant Stage Manager: Erin O'Shea
Rehearsal Director: Rachel Coulson
Costume Fabricator: Fiona Holley
AV Programmer/Operator: Alex Nguyen
Lighting Programmer/Operator: Adelaide Harney

Supported by
Garabari is supported through the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative, the Australian Government through the Indigenous Languages and Arts program and through the Australia Council for the Arts, the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, BlakDance through BlakForm, the Besen Family Foundation, Creative Partnerships Australia through MATCH Lab, and Eastern Riverina Arts.

Joel Bray is supported by Chunky Move and the Tanja Liedtke Foundation through the Chunky Move Choreographer In Residence program. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body and the City of Melbourne through Arts House.