Campfire stories abound with Mungangga Garlagula visit to Margaret River Heart

A spectacular musical exploration of Aboriginal storytelling will unfold at the Margaret River Heart/Mala Bardip Mia later next month.

Mungangga Garlagula (Sitting Around The Fire) is a collaboration in music, sound and story between famed Indigenous performer Mark Atkins and Australian/Finnish career composer and performer Erkki Veltheim.

Audiences will be invited to join Mark “by the campfire” as Veltheim’s musical accompaniment opens a journey across the border between day and night, dream and reality — between the reverberating past and the emerging future.

Yamatji descendant Atkins said the two-person production was a powerful example of First Nations storytelling.

“Any story, every story you can think about, it’s been built off or it’s coming off the back of telling by fire,” he said.

“And all the stories that I’ve grown up with as a kid, with uncles and aunties just telling stories around the fire, you know, tall ones too, sure . . . but you always had that warmth of that fire, and you could be leaning in, listening, and watching, through the smoke and the sparks, then the flickering flames, the face.

“And they’re always there in your mind, and then you sort of lean back a bit and you look back into the shadows. It was just that place, and that’s what I’m looking at trying to create. People come into a cold place and then the stories start and the fire flickers.”

Veltheim was not just an accomplished musician, but as a performer had worked in cross-disciplinary modes, including as a stage performer, facilitator and audiovisual designer.

He told the Times the didgeridoo component was a unique take audiences would appreciate.

“No one would have heard the didgeridoo being played in the way that it is in this show — I think that’s a guarantee,” he said.

“I think it’s a real revelation, how the stories resonate. He’s a very special storyteller that many people haven’t heard of, or even if they know Mark, very few people would have heard him in this capacity, so I think that’s a very exciting thing.”

The music helped Atkins bring his personal stories to life in a new way for audiences, with rich tones and visual imagery in the performer’s narrative.

Mungangga Garlagula plays in Margaret River on November 27 from 7pm, with tickets costing $43 or $33 for concession and Arts Margaret River members.