Production still for "Yanagai! Yanagai!". L-R: Tony Briggs, Bryan Andy. Photographer: Ponch Hawkes

Yanagai! Yanagai!

05 September 2003 – 27 September 2003 Merlyn Theatre

Playbox Theatre Company, Melbourne Workers Theatre,

New Writing Theatre Musica Collaboration

Munarra is a black woman, thrown from the skies into the Dreaming so that she may heal her land, the mighty river Dhungula and her people. In the present day, the Yorta Yorta people are in court, fighting for a right to their land. Yanagai! Yanagai! is a war cry, the first recorded Yorta Yorta words spoken to the white men who went onto their land uninvited.

Since its premiere in Melbourne in 2003, Yanagai! Yanagai! has been performed in France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Philippines. Now in a revised edition, Andrea James’ Yanagai! Yanagai! is a celebration of Yorta Yorta stories and song.

Some of the stories are told so that they may be remembered; others are told in the hope that they never occur again.