We are women. We are willing. We are one.
The Wilding Stories capture three versions of a magnificent yet harrowing tale of hope…
A lament in the Celtic tradition; a powerhouse call from ancient Indigenous women's business; a melodic ballad for the soul. Each Wilding story contains fragments of many women's stories, across diverse cultures, retold in many women's voices.
The Wilding is a tale of woman… getting the balance right. Calling in her power, pulling the parts of herself into harmony, wrapping up her family stories and stepping in to her potential.
And as a story drawn from the spirit of the times … it is a tale of women on the brink, coming together, calling in their strength to face their fear and grief, and release it to the fire of renewal.
Folktales hold important spiritual truths, safe spaces encoded with wider meanings in symbolic form. The Wilding Stories provide a safe women’s space to be explore beneath the surface and share our parallel stories.
It is a tale of reconnection, of harnessing the aspects of self, with recognising that none of us need be alone, with reaching out to call in what we need, with navigating the rocky wild terrain of change.
And it is a story of surrender, of releasing intergenerational trauma; of liberating our children, of honouring a mother's sacrifices, of sisters acknowledging and respecting their differences and their common ground, of duality in life and death, of reflection on the pain and beauty of our mother's passing.
We are all daughters. Drawn from collective threads and woven through the lens of magic realism, The Wilding Stories allows space for women to reflect on being women, together. And behind the tale of witches and weeds and brewing discontent, lies a powerful metaphor from Mother Earth.
The Wilding Original
Original tale in magic realism genre, with empowers us to stand together and enact "no more" in the context of violence against women.
Capturing the zeitgeist of collective feminine empowerment in the face of masculine domination to dissolve the dominating patriarchy.
The Wilding Noongar English
This evocative retelling by two highly respected Noongar performing artists, Dr Lynette Narkle and Melodie Reynolds-Diarra in response to the original tale of The Wilding, explores indigenous women's power as collective healers weaving ancient women's wisdom; sisters standing strong together in the face of a domineering and threatening male, refusing to accept the inter-generational story of acceptance of domestic violence and rising together instead to enact their call of "no more".
The Wilding Ballad
The Wilding Ballad weaves a powerhouse of voices, blending poetry and soaring harmonics in a unique cross-genre piece of lyrical storytelling.
Capturing the zeitgeist of collective feminine empowerment in the face of masculine domination to dissolve the dominating patriarchy. A women’s battle-cry to action.
Acknowledging the Wadandi people, the original storytellers of this boodja, on whose country I live and work, in respect for their ancestors past, and the present and future custodians of this ancient land. In constant awe of their surviving language, which holds coding to age-old custodial practices and intrinsic respect of kin and country ….about which I am daily learning; here on Wooditjup and throughout the unceded land of First Nations peoples of the whole island-continent of Australia.
Always was, always will be…
Copyright 2020 The Wilding Stories is an independent project, and received the support of CircuitWest and the BREC Artist Residency 2019. Recording support via BRECsessions through LotteryWest.
The BREC Artist Residency is produced by Performing Lines and Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre, assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.
Also made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, which supports the arts in regional and remote Australia. Supported by the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries and LotteryWest.
