Warrmarn Ngarranggarni

Warmun Art Centre, Brown Dog Productions, Zakpage Storytelling, Swinburne Centre for Transformative Media Technologies and Goolarri Media

“Warrmarn Ngarrangarni” (Warmun Dreaming) is a Gija Aboriginal film production from the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. The film fuses the Dreaming of the totemic founder of the Gija lands, the wedge-tailed Eagle with the contemporary creation story of the Gija artistic and cultural movement now known as Warmun Art Centre, through one of its founding artists the late Rover Thomas, who interprets his dream into a Joonba (corroboree). The film was proudly funded by the Australian Government’s Indigenous Languages and Arts fund, and its production was part of the 2019 “International Year of Indigenous Languages.” My role in this project was varied. As co-producer I oversaw the production, post-production, sound design, animation and promotion of the film and served as cultural liaison between the film crew and Gija artists, ensuring that the filming process, content and outcomes adhered to local Gija protocols and storyline.