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This is Australia
2023 Program Guide
2023 brings a moment to reflect and reckon with Australian identity, here and now. A break from business as usual and a chance to rave and revel in the grand and the granular.
Shadow Spirit — 07 JUNE — 30 JULY
A new First Peoples exhibition in Flinders Street Station’s abandoned rooms. Be immersed in Ancestral systems of knowledge. Traverse time and celestial worlds. Reflect on the shadows of Australia’s history.
BUŊGUL — WED 14 — THU 15 JUNE
The Inspiration behind Dr Gurrumul Yunupiŋu’s seminal album Djarimirri (Child of the Rainbow), brought to the stage in a hypnotic live performance by Yolgnu dancers and songmen with the MSO.
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WARIPA — SUN 11 JUNE
Waripa means Ceremony in Mutti Mutti. Join the chorus with senior songman Uncle Kutcha Edwards in a huge, ceremonial celebration of Blak music.
TRACKER — WED 7 — SUN 18 JUNE
The legendary story of director-choreographer Daniel Riley’s great-great-uncle. Brought into the now with dance, ceremony and oration.
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PAUL KELLY — TUE 6 — WED 7 JUNE
The songwriting legend cracks a fresh one after a long day and takes us on a journey—one vivid vignette at a time.
HIDE THE DOG — WED 14—SAT 17 JUNE
A swashbuckling First Nations comedy for all ages that sails the high seas to hide a Thylacine and strengthen the bonds between trans-Tasman spirit stories.
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ROBYN ARCHER : AN AUSTRALIAN SONGBOOK — MON 12 — TUE 13 JUNE
Cabaret legend Robyn Archer has a ball distilling her wealth of music knowledge into a personal, political and provocative celebration of Australian music.
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IDENTITY — FRI 16 — SAT 24 JUNE
Daniel Riley’s THE HUM evokes the search for cultural permanence and shared ceremonial space, while Alice Topp’s Paragon celebrates The Australian Ballet’s vibrancy, spanning generations.
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10,000 Kazoos — SAT 10 JUNE
It’s 10,000 people, playing 10,000 kazoos and everyone’s invited. Simple. Powerful. Kazoo-tiful.
OH DEER! — THU 15 —SAT 17 JUNE
A playful performance work that burrows into pop culture’s most beloved stories and pulls the stuffing out of the orphan trope.
CONSORT OF THE MOON — SAT 10 — WED 14 JUNE
A major new sound-work that transforms a haunting, ancient melody into an elemental experience of communal listening, both to each other and the wild earth.
ELECTRIC : SPIRITS OF THE LAND — WED 7 JUNE — SUN 10 JULY
Hamer Hall’s iconic façade plays host to Ancestor spirits and celestial worlds in a large-scale projection work from Aunty Zeta Thomson (Wurundjeri/Yorta Yorta).
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BLACK MASS — SUN 11 JUNE
Black Mass, a celebration of the POC-led revolution in electronic music, rising from the underground and drenching dance floors in sweat.
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RVG — WED 14 JUNE
Revered Melbourne band RVG grind your heart into paste, then paint the room front to back with a shiny, thrilling, punch.
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LIQUID ARCHITECTURE — WED 14 JUNE
The founders of radical, communal sonic experiences since the dawn of millennium. RISING’s handed Liquid Architecture subterranean territory for a night of world building.
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HAND TO EARTH — WED 7 JUNE
Yolngu manikay (song cycles)—an oral tradition from Southeast Arnhem Land that’s over 40,000 years old—in conversation with a Korean vocalist and minimalist jazz.
JACKY — MON 22 MAY — SAT 24 JUNE
A sharp-witted play from a fresh Aboriginal voice that deals with the cost of balancing family, work and culture in today’s Australia.
MELBOURNE ART TRAMS 2023 — TUE JUN 13 2023 – JUN 2024
Melbourne Art Trams travel into a new season with six newly commissioned First Peoples artists rolling out vivid visions of a Blak tomorrow.
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TIN & ED'S MULTITUDES — MON 5 JUNE — WED 5 JULY
The reimagined deep-sea creatures have taken up residence in Fed Square. See the new lair in the atrium.
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SONIC ECLIPSE — THU 15 JUNE
An immersive sonic event featuring new works by art music luminaries—a mass of mobilised musicians, spatialised sonic choreography and a reframing of the marching band phenomenon.
THIS — FRI 9—SUN 18 JUNE
Devolving, shaming and space invading. Fear, conspiracy, collapse, terror, frustration, solidarity and hope. Mud wrestling. THIS is a brutally funny, raw and unflinching response to the theme of infuriation.
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WALLABIES — WED 7 JUNE — SUN 18 JUNE
Twenty big wallabies, bursting with impressionistic colour and personality, peek out from banks of the Birrarung (Yarra River). See if you can find them all!
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BIRDZ & FRED LEONE PRESENT : GIRRA — WED 14 JUNE
An in-demand rapper and Butchulla songman unite to debut a dynamic new project.
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NIGHT TRADE — WED 7 — 18 JUNE
The St Paul’s Cathedral grounds become a fluid space of curated chaos. A free meeting place for song, dance, deliciousness and the uncanny.