Painted Aboriginal dancers decorated with leaves and earth colours move rhythmically to the beat of sticks and the song of elders.
Although the cadences feel ancient, the Gurrir Gurrir ceremony depicts a more recent event in Australia history, when the town of Darwin was levelled by Cyclone Tracy in 1974.
It shows how contemporary events are part of Aboriginal tradition, says Hetti Perkins, senior curator at the NSW Art Gallery.
“If people think of about Aboriginal culture as locked in the past and not relevant today, something like the Gurrir Gurrir ceremony, which to all appearances looks very traditional, defies that categorisation,” Ms Perkins told AAP.
It’s the first time the dance has ever been staged on the East Coast of Australia and it was performed at the NSW Art Gallery to kick of the art+soul exhibition.
