Ngarluma Songman Patrick Churnside weaves song and tradition into theatrical storytelling with his remarkable autobiographical performance Tjaabi – Flood Country. Joondalup Festival brought Churnside’s powerful work that chronicles life in the Pilbara to audiences on Noongar country at Padbury Hall.
With on stage support from composer and musician Aaron Hopper and visual designs by Benjamin Ducroz and Jordan East, Churnside introduces his country and culture through tjaabi, a song form unique to First Nations (“Or,” as Churnside quips, “Indigenous, or Aboriginal, depending on who’s talking…”) people of the Pilbara region of WA. Churnside follows in the footsteps of his grandfather, Bob Churnside who was one of the West Pilbara’s best known singers.
Churnside reassures us that it’s ok for us whitefellas to hear these tjaabi because they are traditionally public, and he brings them around to other communities and towns as a way to exchange and teach culture. He paints a picture of the variety of landscapes to be found in the Pilbara, through which he delivers an urgent, compelling message about the ecological and spiritual impacts of mining on country.
Co-written with director Scott Rankin, Churnside uses incisive humour and poetic language to convey the feelings, ideas, and meanings these tjaabi carry. He pokes fun at politicians, miners, well-intentioned white folks, and even himself. He expresses sorrow, sharing his own experience working on the mines with some regret, but mainly as a transformative experience for him as a man caught between the pull of culture/tradition and colonisation/assimilation.
Churnside chose to step into his familial legacy, to use his voice to sing tjaabi and appeal for folks to learn from traditional people about how to take care of country, to heal the lands we live on, and to ensure we all have a strong future together.
CICELY BINFORD
Tjaabi – Flood Country was presented by Joondalup Festival at Padbury Hall from 28 – 29 Mar 2025. For more information on this past event, click here.
