Yandha Djanbay (Go Slowly)

Kirli Saunders is a proud Gunai woman who, in her own words “rarely stays in her lane”. Rather, as a multi-disciplinary artist, she uses words, music and movement to express her strong feelings about country and mob … and the politics and policies and that force her out of “her lane”.

In Yandha Djanbay she explains those feelings in a performance that is open and challenging but is infused with gentle humour, wry irony and wise commentary.

The wide, open stage becomes country, protected by blue sky and rolling surf captured by cinematographer Tad Souden, sound realiser Dominic Hinton and musician Mark Chester Harding. In centre stage is a “midden” of modern artifacts that Saunders uses to facilitate her stories, stories that recall the past, decry the present, predict the future. Stories that are heart-wrenchingly personal … and mockingly sardonic, all lit evocatively by Corey Potter.

Saunders bookmarks each story with quotations boldly projected behind her, quotations from politicians, multimillionaires, would be influencers – cleverly chosen quotations that show Saunders’ perceptive understanding, quick intelligence and satirical sense of humour.

The quotes stay just long enough for the audience to read, then pick up Saunders’ cynical sobriquet for the originato. I seem to remember one including the words “spandex” and “Speedo”! Tony Abbott was just one among many – Hanson, Morrison, Rinehart, Katter, Joyce, Dutton – whose words Saunders used to exemplify stories of discrimination, racism, lack of empathy …  and denial.

Kirli Saunders moves easily on the stage, talking conversationally and punctuating with thoughtful pauses or short, sharp screams of anger or pain. She uses objects from her “midden” as symbols for each story. Holding an abalone shell, she takes the audience to the sea, and the wisdom of old aunties. She bends, holding the shell toward water and adds sand-shifting dance steps as she conjures the image of the abalone baking in the ashes – and the long thin spines of the sea urchins who have invaded the abalone spaces fished out by greedy colonising invaders.

Like the shell, other items become story starters, that are then laid in a circle around the “midden”. A possum skin, a paint brush, a wheel of cheese, a set of cable tie handcuffs, a hospital gown … All symbolic of the issues she raises – the hunting of native animals, stolen children abortion, deaths in custody, domestic violence, the referendum …

As a writer Saunders knows the importance of economy of words and careful editing. Both are evident in this clever script with which, as a performer, she reaches across cultures and generations in a kaleidoscope of messages and images that speak powerfully but gently of the need for action and change.

Carol Wimmer

Photographer: Tracey Leigh Images