Now and Ever
Reconciliation Week 2024
For Reconciliation Week 2024, with the support of Quay Quarter, Legs On The Wall were proud to join forces with Frances Rings a descendant of the Wirangu and Mirning Tribes from the West Coast of South Australia and Artistic Director of Bangarra Dance Theatre, and William Barton, a Kalkadunga man and composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, to present Now and Ever within the expansive atrium of the iconic Quay Quarter Tower.
Now and Ever featured Legs artists Tamara Bouman, a Birrpai contemporary dancer, and Joshua Doctor, Yuwaalaraay, Gamilaray, and Gubbi Gubbi performer, and 2024 Leg Up mentee, with co-direction from Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Frances Rings and Legs’ Joshua Thomson. The performance was accompanied live by the esteemed multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer William Barton.
“I am delighted to join Joshua Thomson and Legs On The Wall to collaborate on a piece for Reconciliation Day 2024. The theme for this year – “Now more than ever” resonates with all of us who carried a deep sense of disappointment with the outcome of the Referendum. As artists we come together to use our platform to bring attention to the injustices and inequality facing First Nations people and communities.
This piece is inspired by balance and imbalance. The apparatus that you see the dancers use, reflects the mechanisms of society, and how it requires each of us to lean into each other to find balance and harmony. We each have a part to play in creating an equitable and fair environment where our First Nations people and communities can thrive. And I am proud as an artist that we can be courageous to have uncomfortable conversations in order to create awareness and change.
By coming together to create this piece we amplify our voice to a shadowed history, and to affirm a future that no longer hides behind its truths but grows because of them”
- Frances Rings
image above by Daniel De Giosa: William Barton, Tamara Bouman and Joshua Doctor in Now and Ever
