Abstract

This article explores the development and creative outcomes of the Yijala Yala Project. This project was created in the Pilbara region as a long-term, inter-generational, multi-platform arts project that set out to highlight cultural heritage as living, continually evolving and in the ‘here and now’ rather than something static. The project name Yijala Yala means ‘now’ in the two main regional languages of Yindjibarndi and Ngarluma. Yijala Yala works with members of the local Aboriginal community to create content that reflects cultural heritage in new ways, and is also created using new methods of teaching and skill-building. Yijala Yala has created content in the following media: films, music, recordings, photographs, books, animation and apps. A major artistic outcome of the project is the beautiful operatic, cross-cultural, multi-media performance work Hipbone Sticking Out, which has played in the Centenary of Canberra Festival and the Melbourne Festival, as well as in Roebourne and Perth.