Marrugeku Theatre Company

BURU 

Marrugeku is at the leading edge of Australian contemporary intercultural physical theatre. Drawing from the lives of people and communities living in remote North West Australia, Marrugeku shares the memories and traditions of Indigenous culture through contemporary dance-theatre. Place and identity, migration and misplacement, and the constant shifting world of cultural identities, inform the direction of their productions.

The work Buru draws inspiration directly from the young people of Broome, tracing the traditional stories of their country and their relationship with the land and town, set against a background of their fascination with contemporary multimedia, hip-hop and rap. Buru is an impressionistic suite of stories based around the annual cycle of six seasons identified by the Yawuru, traditional owners of Broome. Three of the stories inspired by the seasons are traditional stories for country and the other three are contemporary stories of the lives of young people in Broome.

The Nelson Meers Foundation proudly suppported Buru's Western Australian tour in October 2011. Buru, a physical performance piece designed for families and children and performed by nine talented young Indigenous and non-Indigenous performers performed at the Garnduwa Festival, Fitzroy Crossing and Mowanjum Art and Culture Centre, Mowanjum Community.

Buru then toured to two Indigenous festival contexts in North America in April 2012.

Why did we fund this project?  We were particularly inspired by the use of dance – theatre to promote an intergenerational and intercultural conversation about significant societal issues such as place, identity and belonging.