The Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company is an Australian Aboriginal theatre company, based in Perth, Western Australia in the heart of the Noongar Nation, a cultural group from the South West of Western Australia.
Formed in 1993, Yirra Yaakin provides the means and environment to assist the nurturing of Aboriginal community cultural development. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Yirra Yaakin means "stand tall" in the Noongar language.
The Noongar are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the south coast. Noongar country is the land occupied by 14 different groups: Amangu, Ballardong, Yued, Kaneang, Koreng, Mineng, Njakinjaki, Njunga, Pibelmen, Pindjarup, Wardandi, Whadjuk, Wiilman and Wudjari.
Heirisson Island is an island in the Swan River in Western Australia at the eastern end of Perth Water, between the suburbs of East Perth and Victoria Park. It occupies an area of 285600 m2, and is connected to the two foreshores by The Causeway. The next upstream island is Kuljak Island, then Ron Courtney Island, with no islands in the Swan River downstream between Heirisson Island and the Indian Ocean other than the artificial islet in Elizabeth Quay.
Fire-stick farming, also known as cultural burning and cool burning, is the practice of Indigenous Australians regularly using fire to burn vegetation. Aboriginal Australians pre-date the extinction of the Australian megafauna. The associated loss of browsing and grazing animals resulted in savannah changing into dry forest. In the resultant sclerophyll forests, fire-stick farming maintained an open canopy and allowed germination of understorey plants necessary for increasing the carrying capacity of the local environment for browsing and grazing animals. Aboriginal people may have been able to aim the burning of the scrub to avoid growing areas. There may have been a ritual taboo against burning certain areas of jungle. This type of farming directly increased the food supply for Aboriginal people by promoting the growth of bush potatoes and other edible ground-level plants.
Jandamarra or Tjandamurra, known to European settlers as Pigeon, was an Aboriginal Australian man of the Bunuba people who led one of many organised armed insurrections against the British colonisation of Australia. Initially utilised as a tracker for the police, he became a fugitive when he was forced to capture his own people. He led a three-year campaign against police and European settlers, achieving legendary status for his hit and run tactics and his abilities to hide and disappear. Jandamarra was eventually killed by another tracker at Tunnel Creek on 1 April 1897. His body was buried by his family at the Napier Range, where it was placed inside a boab tree. Jandamarra's life has been the subject of two novels, Ion Idriess's Outlaws of the Leopold (1952) and Mudrooroo's Long Live Sandawarra (1972), a non-fiction account based on oral tradition, Jandamurra and the Bunuba Resistance, and a stage play.
Kenneth Desmond Colbung AM MBE, also known by his indigenous name Nundjan Djiridjarkan, was an Aboriginal Australian leader from the Noongar people who became prominent in the 1960s. He was appointed an MBE and an AM for his service to the Aboriginal community.
The Pinjarra massacre, also known as the Battle of Pinjarra, is an attack that occurred in 1834 at Pinjarra, Western Australia on an uncertain number of Binjareb Noongar people by a detachment of 25 soldiers, police and settlers led by Governor James Stirling. Stirling estimated the Binjareb present numbered "about 60 or 70" and John Roe, who also participated, at about 70–80, which roughly agree with an estimate of 70 by an unidentified eyewitness.
Theatre of Australia refers to the history of the performing arts in Australia, or produced by Australians. There are theatrical and dramatic aspects to a number of Indigenous Australian ceremonies such as the corroboree. During its colonial period, Australian theatrical arts were generally linked to the broader traditions of English literature and to British and Irish theatre. Australian literature and theatrical artists have over the last two centuries introduced the culture of Australia and the character of a new continent to the world stage.
Nyungar is an Australian Aboriginal language or dialect continuum, still spoken by members of the Noongar community, who live in the southwest corner of Western Australia. The 1996 census recorded 157 speakers; that number increased to 232 by 2006. The rigour of the data collection by the Australian Bureau of Statistics census data has been challenged, with the number of speakers believed to be considerably higher.
An Australian Aboriginal sacred site is a place deemed significant and meaningful by Aboriginal Australians based on their beliefs. It may include any feature in the landscape, and in coastal areas, these may lie underwater. The site's status is derived from an association with some aspect of social and cultural tradition, which is related to ancestral beings, collectively known as Dreamtime, who created both physical and social aspects of the world. The site may have its access restricted based on gender, clan or other Aboriginal grouping, or other factors.
Kylie Bracknell is an Aboriginal Australian actress. She has played Juliet in a run of Romeo and Juliet with the Australian Shakespeare Company, featured in the 2010 revival of The Sapphires, appeared in Rima Tamou's film Sa Black Thing performed in the theatre production Aliwa!, appeared in Muttacar Sorry Business and is the face and narrator of the NITV series Waabiny Time.
Dallas Winmar is a Western Australian writer who first worked with Company B in 2001 on the staging of her play Aliwa!. This play was first showcased in Perth by Yirra Yaakin Noongar Theatre and developed at the Australian National Playwright's Conference in 1999 and 2000.
Miranda Tapsell is an Aboriginal Australian actress of both stage and screen, best known for her role as Cynthia in the Wayne Blair film The Sapphires and her award-winning 2015 performance as Martha Tennant in the Nine Network drama series Love Child. In 2016, she portrayed Fatima in the Stan series Wolf Creek.
Leonard Michael Collard is a Noongar elder, professor and Australian Research Council chief investigator at the School of Indigenous Studies University of Western Australia.
Karla Hart is a writer, film-maker, dancer, actress and director and has been the event co-ordinator for Wardarnji Festival 2011- 2015, is currently the Drive time presenter for Noongar Radio which broadcasts in Perth, Western Australia.
Corina Patricia Abraham is a Whadjuk Noongar woman. In 2016, she challenged the Western Australian Government for failure in procedural fairness during its change to the Aboriginal Heritage status of the land to be impacted by the extension to Roe Highway known as Roe 8.
Noongarpedia is a collaborative project to add Noongar language content to Wikimedia projects and to improve all languages' content relating to Noongar topics. It is being driven by an Australian Research Council project from the University of Western Australia and Curtin University, in collaboration with Wikimedia Australia. The goal of the project is to establish a Noongar language Wikipedia.
Indigenous treaties in Australia describe legal documents defining the relationship between Indigenous Australians and the Government of Australia or the government of an Australian state or territory. As of 2020 there are no such treaties in existence.
The Performing Arts WA Awards, or PAWA Awards, are annual awards for the live performing arts in Perth, Western Australia. The Awards are held by Artist Relief Fund WA, and were formerly known as the Equity Guild Awards. The awards include mainstage theatre and independent theatre and, from 2018, dance.
Yued is an region inhabited by one of the fourteen groups of Noongar Aboriginal Australians who have lived in the South West corner of Western Australia for approximately 40,000 years. Aboriginals in the Yued region share many similarities with the Noongar culture and the Yued language is a dialect of the main Noongar language.
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