In Imprint, Choreographer Yolande Brown explores the resilience and creative underpinnings that rightly brought a people back to Country.

In 1978 in the heart of Australia’s red desert, a group of driven, Aboriginal artists forged a movement, the Batik project, an initiative in support of the claim for native title in the homeland, Utopia. This process also sparked the journey of renowned artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye, whose yam dreaming stories, abstracted autobiographical designs, have been of significant inspiration to this work.

This production features the First Nations language Pitjantjatjara (Central Australia).

Sections of Imprint

Tresspass - Emily's vision - A child's first sight of white man as he leads a chained countryman from his homeland. A fight against dislocation. The struggle for land rights.
Yam - A totem call - singing up Country through story and art.
Wax - A melding of stories and struggles poured across the fabric of culture and politics. Storytelling through the application of warm wax onto silk.
Slip - Painting the path back to country. Navigating the slippery road to justice. The point where wax and paint collide and mingle in the batik practice.
Imprint - The inextricable imprint land has on countrymen. A calling back to Country. A hymn to land rights.

Duration: 22 minutes

Imprint premiered in 2013 as part of the quadruple bill Dance Clan 3, which included Nala, Macq, Dive and Imprint.