Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre

Bangarra's production Terrain was inspired by Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, and the Arabunna community that call this ancient landscape home. Lake Eyre is a great salt lake of tectonic origin situated in the remote north west of South Australia. As a closed inland drainage basin with an area of 1,140,000 km2, the Lake Eyre basin is one of the largest areas of internal drainage in the world. It has a vastness and diversity like no other landscape in the world.

'Kati Thanda' means "the name of the lake which was formed after the skin of a kangaroo was spread over the ground" (Aaron Stuart, chair of the Arabana Aboriginal Corporation). Although it does not physically resemble a kangaroo, the story is part of Aboriginal cultural mapping. The Arabunna people who have lived in the area for many thousands of years, maintain a deep connection to the area through their cultural inheritance.