We would like to acknowledge the Adnyamathanha community and their work on the Same Like Yesterday project. In 2014, the Adnyamathanha community sought support from the SharingStories Foundation to record and creatively interpret a traditional story relating to female ancestors and the creation of Adnyamathanha Country. In 2019, the resulting work Same Like Yesterday will be showcased as part of this year’s DreamBIG Festival at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
The Same Like Yesterday installation tells a story about six senior Adnyamathanha women and two teenage girls travelling through the Flinders Ranges in the footsteps of Virlkuthalypila the two women from the Yuramuda (Dreamtime). Senior custodians Yvonne Brady, Lesley and Linda Coulthard, Gladys and Sophia Wilton and Judy Patterson contributed to the telling and artistic expression of the story on Country. Donna and Veronica Coulthard also joined the creative team during the production period.
Supported by Senior Custodians and the SharingStories Foundation, teenagers Shaunaya and Sohara Brady and a group of young people from the Leigh Creek Area School program recorded and interpreted the ‘Virlkuthalypila and Other Stories from Our Country’ through a range of new media. Yvonne Brady, a senior Adnyamathanha custodian said she felt the focus on a women’s story was important in relation to the keeping of traditional knowledge and transmission of stories to young girls.
“We wanted to teach girls about some of the women’s stories. There are a lot of stories about our Country.”
Over twelve months community members guided by Senior Custodians worked together on the project, facilitated by the SharingStories Foundation. The twenty metre animated installation will be screening in the Radford Auditorium at the Art Gallery of South Australia between 10 am to 3 pm from the 22nd of May to the 2nd of June.