Sitting Ganaay is a solo contemporary dance work grounded in story, memory and the embodiment of history, exploring grief, invisibility and intergenerational survival through movement and storytelling.

Sitting Ganaay is a solo contemporary dance work grounded in story, memory and the embodiment of history. Drawing from intergenerational truths, the work follows a Yinarr carrying a digging stick as she feeds and cares for her children alone. When no one comes to help her and her children pass, she enters ceremony grieving and crying out to her people, asking why they abandoned her when “that’s not our way.” In her pain, she curses them, freezing them in time as her whistle continues through the trees.

The work explores the Yinarr not as a ghost, but as someone made invisible while fully experiencing reality. Through movement, sound, layered imagery and storytelling, Sitting Ganaay reflects on the cleverness, gentleness and survival of Ancestors. From language hidden within slang to stories held within trees and bodies.

Forced into small circles or isolation, the work asks what freedom, care and responsibility mean for community now, and what continues to live on through the ongoing enforcement of colonisation and assimilation by colonial systems today.

CREATIVES
Amelia Jean O'Leary – Sound Design, Costume, Choreography & Performance

Aunt Shell & Uncle Ted – Cultural Advisors

This project is supported through commissioned through the Chris Mumbulla First Nations New Work residency through CreativeLab UNSW.