It has become Tracks’ trademark that audiences expect to see black and white dancing together. It is not a surprise for Tracks’ audiences to enter a performance area and come across bare breasted women singing and painting elaborate designs in ochre and oil. The Lajamanu Yawalyu Women has become a key part of the Tracks experience.

Yawalyu means women’s rituals. In Lajamanu this group of active older women play a key role in keeping their culture alive and contemporary. All the women within this group are major painters (many with paintings in major galleries around Australia and overseas). As well as being dancers and singers they are mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers.

The relationship between Tracks and the Yawalyu group has taken many forms. They were originally advisers to visiting artists within Lajamanu residencies, 1989 and 1990. They performed in the Lajamanu youth show in Darwin – Lajamanu Kurra Karna Yani, toured in their own right to Sydney for the Festival of the Dreaming (with David McMicken and Tim Newth) toured with Tracks to the Melbourne Green Mill Dance Festival where they presented THE OPPORUNITY OF DISTANCE and they have been involved in major cross-culture collaborations such as NGAPA – TWO CULTURES ONE COUNTRY, FIERCE: THE STORY OF OLIVE PINK and FIERCE: THE MEETING OF OLIVE PINK.

Tracks artists’ contact with Lajamanu first occurred through the Corrugated Iron Youth Theatre production of Desert boy, a play written in the Warlpiri language by students at Lajamanu in 1987. It toured as part of Living In Isolation to remote communities throughout the Territory. This led to a three-month residency, where Sarah Calver and Tim Newth were invited to "cut their teeth" and began to develop new ways of working with Indigenous Australians. One residency led to another, as well as and tours to other remote communities and major centres. Tim led a Mural Project within the Lajamanu Community. Before long, people recognised that exciting performances could be made possible by working in a way that gave a new voice to an often little understood culture. The Lajamanu Yawalyu Ceremonial Dancers have continued to be a major force within the company. They have performed in many mainstream and Darwin Festival works.

It is hard to imagine a community more remote than the Lajamanu Aboriginal Community (originally named Hooker Creek, and Catfish Waterhole). It is situated on the edge of the Tanami Desert, midway between Alice Springs and Darwin, in the traditional country of the Gurindji people.

Lajamanu is not a traditional community situated on traditional homelands but has its genesis back in 1949. Established by the Native Affairs branch of the federal government with 25 Warlpiri people trucked there from Yuendumu (a similar Warlpiri settlement founded in 1946). This was done to alleviate overcrowding and the risk of disease.

The settlement was in 1951, totally against their will, a further 150 Warlpiri were trucked from Yuendumu. Unable to live away from their Dreaming sites, they all walked back to Yuendumu, a distance of some 600km across the inhospitable Tanami Desert. The notion of being removed from close relatives and from sources of spiritual power was anathema to them. Two further resettlements and Aboriginal walkbacks in 1958 and 1968 to Yuendumu occurred before the Warlpiri residents were prepared to accept the new community at Hooker Creek

Lajamanu is now home to some 700 Warlpiri with a strong sense of culture identity, helped by the settlement’s remoteness, linguistic stability and its own Aboriginal Town Council.

The term Jukurrpa (Dreaming, Dreaming law, ancestral or heroic past) refers to the creative epoch in which Aboriginal men, women and all of nature came to be as they are - eternally interconnected with their totemic ancestors. The concept is not confined to the mythical past but carried forward into the present and future as a living reality. Aborigine might call the place from whence their spirit came or their Dreaming, or refer to their totem as their dreaming, or explain the existence of a social or moral imperative as causally due to the Dreaming. The word is attached to the titles of paintings, or floats as an adjective through descriptions, with one or more of these connotations in mind. The paintings celebrate a philosophy at odds with scientific rationalism, consumerism, greed for possessions and money - ‘white man’s Dreaming’.

Myra Nungarrayi Herbert (Patrick) was born at Willowra. Her country is Wiriyajarrayi (Two Feet). She paints and performs Mala, Juwarrpa, Ngatijirri, Witi/Kurlada, Jurdiya, Ngalyipi, Jurlpa, Watiya and Karrkarrdu Dreamings. Myra has been a key player in all of the Tracks and Lajamanu collaborations, as well as performing in the company’s productions Lajamanu Kurra Karna Yani, NGAPA – TWO CULTURES ONE COUNTRY, Local, FIERCE, Angels of Gravity, and MILPIRRI.

Gladys Napangardi Kelly (Kangariya) was born in Mamingirri (c. 1940), her country is Jarrardajarrayi and her dreamings are Yarla, Ngayaki and Wardipi. She is renowned in Lajamanu as an extraordinary dancer of the goanna ceremony. Performer in Tracks productions Lajamanu Kurra Karna Yani, NGAPA – TWO CULTURES ONE COUNTRY, FIERCE, ANGELS OF GRAVITY, and MILPIRRI 2005.

Molly Napurrula Tasman was born at Miya-miya. Her country is Miya-miya and Malangurru and her dreamings are Ngurlu, Jungungpa and Kalajirri. Member of the Lajamanu Yawalyu Women. She was a key artist in the NGAPA – TWO CULTURES ONE COUNTRY project and performed in ANGELS OF GRAVITY, and 2005.

Rosie Napurrula is a highly regarded Aboriginal Elder who carries a wealth of knowledge. Born at Yaturlu-Yaturlu around 1935, her country is Miya-miya and Malangurru and her dreamings are Ngurlu, Kalajirri and Karangu (name of country). Member of the Lajamanu Yawalyu Women, she is an amazing performer and storyteller. Rosie toured with Tracks to Melbourne (1995), performed in NGAPA – TWO CULTURES ONE COUNTRY, FIERCE and MILPIRRI 2005.

Judy Napaljarri Walker first performed with Tracks in Lajamanu Kurra Karna Yani. She also performed in FIERCE and MILPIRRI 2005.

Alice Napaljarri Kelly toured with Tracks to Melbourne (1995), performed in NGAPA – TWO CULTURES ONE COUNTRY, FIERCE and MILPIRRI 2005.

Maisie Napangardi (Kajingarra) born at Janyinki around 1930. Her country is Janyinki and dreamings are Mardukuja-mardakuja, Kanakurkangu and Yunkaranyi (Pirrkanji). With the Yawalyu women, she has danced from one end of the NT to the other, Melbourne, country Victoria, Adelaide and Sydney. Maisie toured with Tracks to Melbourne (1995), performed in NGAPA – TWO CULTURES ONE COUNTRY, FIERCE and MILPIRRI 2005.

Updated 14/12/2005