At West Space, Suzanne Kite will present INDIGENOUS LISTENING, a lecture on soundscapes, musicologies, and traditions in her own work and that of artists including Post Commodity and Rebecca Belmore, and EVERYTHING I SAY IS TRUE, a multi-media narrative work that uses family ephemera and history to consider concepts of truth in relation to Oglala Lakota knowledge systems.

This event will begin with a Welcome to Country by Wurundjeri Elder Aunty Diane Kerr and will include performances by Olivia Crawford, Iki Finau, Ileini Kabalan and Aunty Lesieli Taufa, and Pati Solomona Tyrell who will perform the work FA‘AAFA Activation from 2015.

This event is part of PŌULIULI, a living Indigenous space featuring work by Indigenous artists and collectives based in Kulin Nation territory, curated by Léuli Eshraghi.

Presented in association with YIRRAMBOI First Nations Arts Festival, Midsumma Festival, and West Space

The venue is wheelchair accessible and the event will be Auslan interpreted throughout.

________________________

PŌULIULI is a living Indigenous space featuring work by Indigenous artists and collectives based in Kulin Nation territory, Vasa Loloa (Great Ocean) and Turtle Island (North America): Angela Tiatia (Sāmoan), Anne Riley (Cree, Dené), Fafswag Collective members Pati Tyrell (Sāmoan), Sione Monu (Tongan) and Manu Vaea (Tongan), Aata (Tahitian), Ripley Kavara (Toaripi), Suzanne Kite (Oglala Lakota), and curator Léuli Eshraghi (Sāmoan, Persian).

A place to gather, deepen and engage with Indigenous knowledges, PŌULIULI positions audiences in this moment of return to Indigenous genders, sexualities and ceremonial-political practices. This is an accessible and culturally safe space held by Indigenous peoples who identify with many ways of being and knowing including Two-Spirit, trans, non-binary, queer, femme/feminine, and man/masculine. Dark or deep night of potentiality in Sāmoan, PŌULIULI alludes to nocturnal ceremonial-political practices within vā, spaces of mutually beneficial relationships, providing ample space for Indigenous spoken, written, ritual and sensual languages to be activated.

________________________

YIRRAMBOI First Nations Arts Festival – a City of Melbourne production entirely created, choreographed, produced, directed and performed by Indigenous artists. The ten-day event, from 5 to 14 May, celebrates the diversity and creativity of 60,000 years of Aboriginal culture through 60 unique events including dance, music, visual art, theatre, film and talks in Melbourne’s laneways, public spaces and venues.