Deadly DRIFT

DRIFT Opening Event   
 
We celebrate the launch of the 2023 DRIFT Arts Festival with a spectacular free opening event featuring the voices, stories and songlines of the oldest living culture, our First Peoples.  
 
This dynamic First Nations program will take over the entire DRIFT Festival Hub, and features presented works from some of the Mornington Peninsula’s and the nation’s most prolific Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, cultural practitioners and organisations. 
 
This immersive event begins with Bunurong Land Council performing a Welcome to Country, sharing their knowledge, culture, ceremony and connection to these sacred lands and waters.  
 
Founder of Our Songlines, Kayla Cartledge, presents Wayapa Wuurrk; a mix of yoga, narrative meditation and movement therapy. This deeply moving practice is designed to connect you to nature, spirituality and your ancestors – whoever they may be.  Nartarsha Bamblett is a facilitator and storyteller here to give power, magic and medicine from her soul connection. She will have you dancing and laughing as she performs her traditional dance. 
 
Living Culture will then deliver a multi-disciplinary presentation featuring two film screenings; the award-winning short film 'Healing Country' which is based on the origins of cultural lead Lionel Lauch’s cultural practice, and the celebrated documentary, 'Wash my Soul in the Rivers Flow,' a film based on the love story of Lionel’s Uncle Archie Roach and Aunty Ruby Hunter. These films will be accompanied by a deep exploration of Lionel's cultural practice, and in-depth and insightful Q&A with Lionel and 'Healing Country' Director Tracee Hutchison. 
 
And as the night falls, the Rosebud Soundshell comes to life with a program of music featuring Kee’ahn and Carissa Nyalu, curated by local projection artist and curator Nathaniel Stewart.  
 
Nathaniel’s mix of new technology and ancient storytelling will light up the performance and the Soundshell, celebrating connection to the land through digital projections.  
 
This is an Auslan interpreted event.  
 
Mornington Peninsula Shire acknowledges the Bunurong people, who have been the custodians of this land for many thousands of years; and pays respect to their Elders past and present. We acknowledge that the land on which we meet is the place of age-old ceremonies, celebrations, initiation and renewal; and that the Bunurong people's living culture continues to have a unique role in the life of this region. 

Rosebud SoundShell - 3:30pm - 5:45pm
3.30pm Welcome to Country      Bunurong Land Council
4.00pm Wayapa Wuurrk            Our Songlines
4.30pm Dance Performance      Nartarsha Bamblett
5.15pm Creative Stories      Our Songlines
 
Shoreline Big Top - 5:45pm - 8:30pm
5:45pm The La La La's Jamu Dreaming Living Culture
6.00pm Yidaki                       Lionel Lauch
6.15pm Healing Country Film Screening       Lionel Lauch / Tracee Hutchison
6.35pm Healing Country Q & A           Lionel Lauch / Tracee Hutchison
7.00pm Wash my Soul in the River’s Flow – Film Screening
 
Rosebud Soundshell - 8:30pm - 10:15pm
8.45pm Music Performance       Carissa Nyalu
9.30pm Music Performance Kee'Ahn
With projections by Nathaniel Stewart