Northern Turtle Island artists to headline Melbourne’s 2025 YIRRAMBOI festival
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30.01.2025

Northern Turtle Island artists to headline Melbourne’s 2025 YIRRAMBOI festival

yirramboi
Photo: Jimmy Murray of Adrian Stimson (Siksika) in We are the land we walk upon 2025
Words by Staff Writer

Northern Turtle Island (Canada) has been announced as the 2025 YIRRAMBOI Focus Nation, bringing over 20 Canadian First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists to Narrm.

The landmark collaboration will showcase two major world premieres, strengthening the cultural ties between Australian and Canadian First Nations communities through art, performance, and storytelling.

The festival will present multiple new works focused on cross-cultural dialogue and shared histories, with international commissions supported by Creative Australia, Canada Council for the Arts, City of Melbourne, and the Australia Film Television and Radio School.

YIRRAMBOI 2025:

  • May 1-11, 2025
  • Arts Centre Melbourne – World premiere of Margo Kane’s new work
  • Immigration Museum – We are the land we walk upon installation premiere

Check out our gig guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.

 

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Taungurung/Filipino artist and Yirramboi Co-Lead/Creative Lead Sherene Stewart emphasizes the historical significance of this cultural exchange. “As First Nations Peoples, we have long valued and understood the power of trade and exchange – practices that have shaped our cultures for thousands of years. Whilst we may come from different corners of the world, our fight to thrive is shared. It is in our unity that we will create the transformative change our future generations deserve.”

The festival marks the return of celebrated Cree-Saulteaux Métis artist Margo Kane, known for works including Reflections in the Medicine Wheel, Moonlodge, and Confessions of an Indian Cowboy. Her new production will be an Australian exclusive at Arts Centre Melbourne.

We are the land we walk upon, a new collaborative film installation by Adrian Stimson (Siksika), Frances Belle Parker (Yaegl), and Tess Allas (Wiradjuri), will explore shared colonial histories. The artists collectively state: “Our two countries share many things – one being colonial brutalities and our historical resistances to these acts. We are the land we walk upon explores our sense of belonging to these histories and the lands in which our ancestors campaigned for and also walked upon.”

Anishinaabe Senior Curator Denise Bolduc highlights the ongoing importance of these partnerships: “Decades of creative connections by Indigenous visionaries have cultivated extraordinary exchanges. The trails blazed and the deep roots planted continue to inspire relations between our lands. The international collaborations between Australia and Turtle Island respectfully continues this legacy of amplifying our sovereign voices and strengthening our collective fires by honouring the past, uplifting the present, and igniting the future.”

Tickets and full program details: yirramboi.com.au