Waumananyi: The Song on the Wind

Uti Kulintjaku [UK] is an innovative, Aboriginal-led mental health literacy project that takes its name from a Pitjantjatjara phrase that means ‘to listen, think and understand clearly’. Formed from the Ngangkari traditional healers and artists of the NPY Women’s Council, the UK addresses community issues of mental health from both Aboriginal and Western perspectives. “What makes (the UK project) especially compelling”, writes Kim Mahood in The Monthly, “is that it provides a framework for a conversation about the underlying psychological forces that drive human behaviour.”Working with the Big Anxiety and fEEL, the Uti Kulintjaku team have created two new virtual reality works, sharing their healing practices through creative visualisation, including Waumananyi: The Song on the Wind, an Anangu-led response to the experiences of constraint, entrapment, and depression through the traditional story (or ‘tjukurpa’) of ‘The Man in the Log’.Thes VR work was presented at:Winda Film Festival, University of Technology, Sydney. 21/11/2019 - 24/11/2019.Siggraph Asia, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, Sydney. 17/11/2019 - 20/11/2019.VRST 25th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology, Western Sydney University, Parramatta. 12/11/2019 - 15/11/2019.Pop up exhibition, UNSW Library, Sydney. 28/10/2019 - 31/10/2019.Art after Hours. The Big Anxiety virtual reality station., Art Gallery NSW, Sydney. 16/10/2019.The DAX Centre, University of Melbourne, Melbourne. 10/10/2019 - 08/11/2019.Big Anxiety Festival, UNSW Art and Design, Sydney. 27/09/2019 - 09/11/2019