The Museum of Australian Democracy acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of country throughout Australia. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to the people, the cultures and the elders past, present and emerging.

The museum respectfully acknowledges the role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to play in shaping Australia’s democracy.

xClose
Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House
  • About
  • Blog
  • Prime Ministers
  • Websites
  • Venue hire
  • Visiting
  • What's On
  • Collection
  • Learning
  • Democracy
Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House
  • Visiting
    • Planning your visit
    • Families at MoAD
    • Access
    • Group bookings
    • Cafe
    • MoAD Shop
    • UNSW Canberra Howard Library
  • What’s On
    • Exhibitions
    • Events
  • Collection
    • The Building
    • Objects and rooms
    • Oral Histories
  • Learning
    • Teachers
    • Students
    • Parents
  • Democracy
    • Defining democracy
    • Australian democracy: an overview
    • The democratic audit of Australia
    • One thing I like about democracy
    • Links
    • Quotes
    • Notes
    • About
    • Blog
    • Prime Ministers
    • Websites
    • Venue hire
    From the blog

    The Jigalong jiggle

    11 minute read

    Thu 28 Jun 2012 by
    Wendy Wood
    • events
    • exhibitions
    • Marnti warajanga

    Jigalong is a two hour drive from Newman and sits on the edge of the Little Sandy Desert, home of the Martu people. Unlike Yandeyarra and Warralong, Jigalong is lucky enough to be better resourced with a Community Health Centre, a shop, a petrol station, a ranger’s headquarters and a police station.

    One of my highlights for Jigalong was seeing award winning Martu filmmaker, Curtis Taylor, join us over our four day visit, to produce a short film documenting our time within the community. Curtis, who hails from neighbouring community Parngurr, enlisted the help of local Martu film makers Natrisha Wongawol and Bernice Samson to capture footage. It was a special marriage as Curtis’ portrait features in the exhibition where he comments on his passion for film making. In the two years since that portrait was taken by Tobias, Curtis has won the prestigious 2011 Youth Arts Award at the Western Australian Citizen of the Year Award, is studying film making plus travels internationally creating and presenting his films.

    The kids loved having Curtis around and responded so well to being filmed. At times during activities I would see the kids playing up to the camera or looking over Curtis’ shoulder to see him work. He’s a remarkable role model for the Martu kids in the community and we were so privileged to engage him to produce this film.

    Another unusual highlight was seeing the exhibition hold up to rain. After having the exhibition purpose designed and built to withstand weather like rain, it was kind of nice to see it finally get wet. The teachers informed us that it hadn’t rained in eight weeks and this was extremely unexpected. However the weather presented another problem. All of our activities required kids to explore and work within the exhibition space and the rain posed an obstacle. After I did my usual introduction to the Cluey Detective activity I offered the class two options:

    1. they could go out into the rain and work in the exhibition, or
    2. they could solve the clues using the catalogue thereby staying nice and dry.

    Surprisingly 75 per cent of the kids opted to go out into the rain. Their teacher, Angie Tippett, assured me this would be the more popular option despite the freezing cold. She was right.

    But the biggest highlight for me didn’t come easily. I had heard that the kids love discos in Jigalong so six weeks before arriving I thought I would start organising one. Over that time I bounced between names and organisations, within Jigalong, who could possibly assist me. I humbugged the local police, the council, the school and even the nurses to help me organise a disco but, alas, the day before our community event came and I still did not have a PA, smoke machine, lights, mirror ball, music or a DJ that I had heard existed. As I went around to key places in the community putting up the poster promoting the next evening’s event, which was probably going to be a fizzer, I wandered over to the rangers HQ to see if they would like to come. I was told the rangers were going to have a jam session over at the shed and their own BBQ at the same time as our event so they probably wouldn’t be there. So, with a glimmer of hope in my eye and slight desperation in my voice I suggested they put their meat back in the freezer, come along to our BBQ where we would feed them biggest mobs steak, and they could jam at our gig. Although I didn’t get confirmation then and there, I did learn the next day that they had agreed and with the help of the local CDEP (Community Development Employment Program) who supplied all the gear, they made the event a great success.

    So the biggest highlight? Of course it ended up being the community event. It went off! Community members came and rocked along to the rangers as they jammed. Museum staff Alison Oakeshott and Michael Evans cooked up a storm on the BBQ (whilst trying not to step on the many dogs underfoot). And community members came to see the exhibition, have some dinner and listen to the band. The kids took a bit of time to build up the courage to dance. At first they would dart out into the middle, jiggle a bit then shoot off around the back of the donga in utter shyness. They would reappear about five minutes later waiting for the next courageous moment to dart out into the middle for another quick jiggle. They did this, in pairs or one by one over the next hour or so –a continual stream of solo jigglers. Finally the kids decided to stay on the dance floor and groove to the ever popular ‘Pipeline’. The band jammed an hour longer than what we suggested which was awesome as the vibe was energetic and happy. Kids darted, danced and played amongst the exhibition. They also proudly showed their families the portraits they had created during the workshops. All up we calculated about 180 people came, including the police, the nurses and the Council staff that I humbugged in trying to make this happen. Everyone said ‘Oh this is much better than a disco’. It was amazing and I was so happy for everyone. It was a wicked and very successful event.

    And at exactly 8pm someone announced that the band had finished and with that everyone promptly left in single file out the front gates of the school. I was told later that this was the band’s first ever public performance. They were deadly! I hope they make many more public appearances.

    The next day we got up early to pack down the exhibition but we needed to wait for our illustrious filmmaker to arrive so he could get footage of us doing so. Minutes ticked by and although we were not in a mad rush, as we only had a two hour drive ahead of us, we knew Curtis had limited time as he was due on a flight at midday to take him back to Perth and eventually on to Brazil for yet another international engagement. It was a weird moment in the tour. We were finally at the end, it was our last venue, we were poised ready to pack up, but we just stood around, gloves on our hands in readiness just waiting. It was perhaps the first breather we had, doing absolutely nothing, in the whole seven weeks. It only lasted 20 minutes then Curtis rocked up, pulled out his high definition camera and yelled ‘Action’. Well he didn’t really say ‘Action’, I’m just embellishing the story a bit, he just gave a very cool and understated nod and off we went.

    11 minute read

    Thu 28 Jun 2012 by
    Wendy Wood
    • events
    • exhibitions
    • Marnti warajanga
    Jigalong jigglers. Photo Tobias Titz

    Jigalong jigglers. Photo Tobias Titz

    • Img 6582 jigalong 4febcc5176fd4
    • Img 6755 jigalong ashurani hal 4febcc6eb44b8
    • Img 6863 jigalong photo tobias 4febcc89a31f5
    • Img 6834 jigalong photo tobias 4febcca4b87c8
    • Img 7136 jigalong mimma taylor 4febccb8acee7
    • Img 7139 jigalong natrisha won 4febcccd63443
    • Img 7170jigalong shannon kelly 4febcce50beee
    • Img 7673jigalong community eve 4febccfdd9613
    • Img 7681jigalong community eve 4febcd17a9769
    • Img 7564jigalong sgtduane blai 4febcd3073f08
    • Img 7591jigalong photo tobias 4febcd4c84a8c
    • Img 7638jigalong community eve 4febcd7c1bda7
    • Img 7647jigalong community eve 4febcd924b85f
    • Img 7658jigalong community eve 4febcda97b4bd
    • Img 7667jigalong community eve 4febcdc86d8a6
    • Img 7698jigalong community eve 4febcddfcfa3b
    • Img 7742jigalong community eve 4febcdf48348f
    • Img 7754jigalong community eve 4febce13f3fb6
    • Img 7757jigalong community eve 4febce2895691

    Wendy has spent the last 17 years in Darwin but returned to her home town of Canberra to join the Museum of Australian Democracy team to tour the exhibition Marnti warajanga – a walk together. Wendy was seconded from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin, where she works with a broad range of organisations, South East Asian and Indigenous communities, artists and national cultural institutions in realising exhibitions and public programs.

    Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House

    18 King George Terrace, Parkes, ACT 2600, Australia

    PO Box 3934
    Manuka ACT 2603

    9am to 5pm daily 
    Closed Christmas Day

    ABN: 30 620 774 963

    Telephone: 02 6270 8222

    Enquiries:
    info@moadoph.gov.au

    Please note: video surveillance is used 24 hours a day around and throughout the building and may be used for research purposes

    Visiting

    • Planning your visit
    • Families at MoAD
    • Access
    • Group bookings
    • Cafe
    • MoAD Shop
    • UNSW Canberra Howard Library

    What's On

    • Events
    • Exhibitions

    Collection

    • The building
    • Objects and rooms
    • Highlights
    • Oral histories

    Learning

    • Teachers
    • Students
    • Parents

    Democracy

    • Exploring democracy
    • Documenting a democracy
    • Australian democracy
    • Defining democracy

    About

    • Disability Action Inclusion Plan
    • Our prime minister patrons
    • OPH Board
    • Annual Reports
    • Budget
    • Corporate documents
    • Employment
    • Freedom of information
    • Public Interest Disclosure
    • Media
    • Newsletter
    • Support us
    • Partnerships
    • Democracy 2025
    • Donate to our collection
    • eCommerce terms and conditions
    • Online house rules

    Blog

    Prime Ministers

    Websites

    Further information

    View our recruitment opportunities.

    View our copyright policy.

    View our privacy statement.

    View our ticketing terms and conditions.

    Questions about the website:
    website@moadoph.gov.au

    The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House is a Corporate Commonwealth Entity within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet