Adelaide Festival Centre Celebrates First Nations This August and September

First Nations visual arts, storytelling, dance and music will be celebrated in a special program that sees performances and exhibitions across Adelaide Festival Centre this August and September.

Her Majesty’s Theatre’s stage will transform into the desert this August 10 – 12 with choreographer Frances Rings inaugural work as Artistic Director and choreographer at Bangarra Dance Theatre. This major new work, Yuldea, explores the moment traditional life collided with the industrial ambition. Tickets available now.

Later that month, First Nations music icons, No Fixed Address, will perform at Her Majesty’s Theatre on 24 August with tickets on sale now. The celebrated rock band formed in 1979 at The University of Adelaide’s Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music and went on to tour with iconic Australian musicians, Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil and INXS. They will be joined by the award winning First Nations Voices with Glenn Skuthorpe, Jungaji and Adelaide’s own Nancy Bates.

The performance is accompanied by a dedicated exhibition at the Ian and Pamela Wall Gallery on Her Majesty’s Theatre rooftop showcasing archival behind the scenes images from the band’s life, including never before seen images from their world tours in the 1980s. 

No Fixed Address’s Ricky Harrison: “We’re really excited to be coming back to Adelaide. It’s where it all started, we have a special connection there and can’t wait to perform at Her Majesty’s Theatre!”

Further exhibitions in Adelaide Festival Centre’s Festival Theatre Galleries include the beloved OUR MOB: Art by South Australian Aboriginal Artists exhibition and its youth equivalent, OUR YOUNG MOB and new poetry exhibition Defi-Nations.

Defi-Nations celebrates first languages in all its complexity. Many first languages across Australia are being reclaimed and reawakened. This exhibition is an accessible, inclusive, and poetic way to share languages and educate audiences.

In the Banquet Room, OUR YOUNG WORDS, will take children aged 8 and up through an illustration workshop hosted by Yawuru man Brenton McKenna. McKenna is one of Australia’s first Indigenous artists to have a syndicated daily comic strip in a newspaper and is now a published graphic novelist. Registrations open now for this interactive workshop.

Family favourite, OUR STORIES, will return bigger than ever before on the Dunstan Playhouse stage. OUR STORIES invites young audiences to hear traditional Dreaming stories the way they’ve been told for thousands of years, around a campfire, told by captivating Elders and storytellers. 

Adelaide Festival Centre Creative Producer Celia Coulthard: “Turning 50 is an important milestone for Adelaide Festival Centre and a significant opportunity to celebrate First Nations arts and artists. With Bangarra Dance Theatre and No Fixed Address at Her Majesty’s Theatre and OUR MOB in our galleries, OUR STORIES in Dunstan Playhouse, and a hugely exciting year of OUR WORDS in the Banquet Room, we welcome South Australians to join us in celebrating First Nations arts, writing and performance across Adelaide Festival Centre.”

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