“BULLA Midhong” (meaning 1 + 2 = 3) is a series of three on-country events coming up in Eden, Wallaga Lake, and Nowra.

Spearheaded by arts and social change company, Big hART and Djirriba Waagura, one of whose members, Wandri Wandrian man Michael Robinson, says the name implies “sharing, sharing of story, sharing of old ways.”

Held across three Saturdays in April and May “Bulla Midhong” continues an age-old tradition of story-sharing in multi media events weaving together song, text, video, animated image and dance.

Local high-school students have been working with cultural mentors and south-coast artists to generate both digital and live performance content over the course of a 12-month workshop program run with Eden Marine High School, Twofold Aboriginal Corporation, Bermagui Primary School, Narooma High School, Merriman’s Aboriginal Land Council, Bomaderry High School and Shoalhaven High School.

The resulting performances will take place in three locations, starting with Cocora Beach near Eden this weekend under the shadow of Balawan Mountain where local artists Nathan Lygon, Ashweeni Mason and Auntie Sharon Mason will tell a contemporary story about the humpback whale’s migration north.

According to associate creative producer Lincoln Smith, while working on the story Lygon had come across and old parish map featuring the traditional names of all the little coves and inlets in Twofold Bay.

With this stroke of luck in mind they devised the story, “The Jaandi and the Buri” (The mother whale and he baby) in which the mother whale sings the names of all the coves.

“They have created a soundscape, with humpback whale sounds and beautiful artwork projected on to screens around the ‘bunaan’ [dancing circle], which, with permission, has been refurbished.”

Another mountain, Gulaga, will be looking down on the performance on May 13 in the reactivated Umbarra Cultural Centre at Wallaga Lake near Bermagui.

Smith says that in this instance, covid had a positive role to play in the project, for when the musical director of the project, Melbourne percussionist, Mark Leahy, got stuck in NSW, he spent the time hanging out at the lake with musicians Warren Foster and his son, playing together and sharing musical ideas, eventually devising a repertoire involving live percussion and audience participation to illustrate the Mt Gulaga creation story known to the black duck Yuin Djiringang people.

“The music was coming from a very earthy place, informed by the creation stories and involving lots of sticks and stones,” Smith says.

The last story will be told beneath Cambewarra Mountain at Paringa Park, Nowra. This will be the story of the local Yuin people about the black cockatoo, from which the town gets its name. A contemporary song has been written that will be performed by Nowra rapper Nooky.

Smith says that each locality had different mentors and so made different discoveries about their country, but that all the performances would feature, soundscapes, animations, projections and storytelling, with some Yuin language being taught to audiences.

The three free family-friendly events are:

• 6.30pm, Cocora Beach, Twofold Bay 6pm, April 28. 
• Umbarra Cultural Centre, Wallaga Lake, 6pm, May 13;
• Paringa Park, Nowra, 6pm, May 20.