Kalaga Atu / ABOUT US

Outloud warmly invites you to a series of intimate performances and conversations, ABOUT US. Running on select Friday & Thursdays evenings throughout April & May, ABOUT US is 10 online readings of incredible stories, plays and books co-curated and created by the many cultural communities in Western Sydney. 

Join us and the artists for a rehearsed reading and facilitated conversation afterwards, to share your own stories, thoughts and ideas around what these texts say about who we are, what we care about, how COVID has affected these communities here and abroad, and how we can support each other from here on.

You can find out about the other performances we have going on & reserve your tickets for those here: https://outloud.org.au/project...

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KALAGA ATU

Kalaga Atu is a journey across Oceania that transcends time, space and place, calling ancestral wisdom into the lives of five siblings. Each sibling questions their relationship to the bodies they inhabit, the spirits who guide them, and the sand, soil and salt that they love.

Kalaga Atu, meaning ‘to call’ in the Tokelauan language, weaves poetic text and music in a warm performance experience. Written and directed by Tokelauan Fijian storyteller Emele Ugavule, the original performance included compositions by Papua New Guinea-born soul singer Ngaiire, lighting design by Amber Silk and choreography by Sāmoan dance artist Xavier Breed, calling upon kinship ties between the people of the Great Ocean. This iteration will be a live reading, accompanied by archival footage of the original performance to honour the lineage of this work and the family of contributors that have woven it together. 

Kalaga Atu was commissioned by the Art Gallery of NSW.

CAST

Director: Emele Ugavule 

Facilitator: Xavier Breed 

Performers: 

Luke Currie-Richardson 

Jessica Paraha 

Malia Letoafa 

Tommy Misa 

Sereima Adimate

Te Kaiga WA Akoga Tokelau

Kalaga Atu is a Studio Kiin project, stay up-to-date with their work by subscribing to their newsletter here! 

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CONTENT NOTES: Contains themes of grief and loss.

A snippet of the 2022 World Premiere of ‘Kalaga Atu’ at the Art Gallery of NSW -

Huge thank you to Arran Rogers for the footage & editing featured in this video.

We’d also like to thank the cast & crew who put together the original performance! 

Written and directed by Emele Ugavule
Choreographer: Xavier Breed
Lighting Designer: Amber Silk
Performers Featured in this Video: Luke Currie-Richardson, Malia Letoafa, Tommy Misa, Jessica Paraha, Emele Ugavule, Nukunonu Te Tuloto O Tokelau Sydney
Producers: Clare Willcox and Emele Ugavule
Costumes: Matavai Pacific Cultural Arts
Creative Attachments: Sarah Carroll and Gabriel Faatau-uu-Satiu
Video Credit: Arran Rogers