York Festival to open with concert version of WA Opera’s Wundig Wer Wilura by Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse

The first reading of Noongar opera Wundig Wer Wilura, written and composed by Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse, happened in the kitchen of an Airbnb in York. On either side of the accommodation sat the two mountains featured in the ancient Ballardong Noongar story the opera is based on — Wongborel (Mt Brown) and Walwalling (Mt Bakewell). Sung in Noongar with English surtitles, the WA Opera production went on to garner rave reviews for its Perth Festival 2024 season at His Majesty’s Theatre, while a special concert version of Wundig Wer Wilura will open York Festival 2024. “Just being able to sing these songs and tell the story for the first time in that way, we always thought that we would want to take it back to York,” Williams says, a Ballardong Noongar woman with links through her grandmother’s line to the Gitja people of the East Kimberley. “I feel really lucky and very humbled that we’re able to do that. Back on country is where it belongs. Stories often get taken, shown and then that’s the end of it, but these stories make up our WA tapestry. These are part of all our histories because we all call this place home now. I think it’s really important that it does go back to where it originated. “I hope that it’s received with the love that it’s been created. I hope that people take away from it, that it is from that place, and it is a really significant story to that area. I hope they feel the love that we’ve invested in this.” The journey to the Wundig Wer Wilura opera began mere weeks after the success of Williams and Ghouse’s Koolbardi Wer Wardong, the world’s first Noongar language opera, which was commissioned by WA Opera and premiered at His Majesty’s Theatre in October 2021. The family opera based on the dreaming story about the Koolbardi (Magpie) and Wardong (Crow) would go on to spread its wings for a national tour of regional WA. “A few weeks after the premiere season of Koolbardi Wer Wardong finished in Perth, we met with Carolyn Chard (WA Opera executive director) and Chris van Tuinen (WA Opera artistic director) where they asked us ‘What would you like to do next? Would you like to write another opera?’ so we went for it,” Williams recounts. “Wundig Wer Wilura was the obvious choice for both of us. It was a story that was passed on to me from an uncle, and it’s beautiful. To take it back onto country is extraordinary and the privilege of that is not lost at all. “It’s a really beautiful love story and it’s got all the elements of a great opera; there’s love and loss and tragedy. We try to keep it as light as we can for as long as we can, and you do become quite attached to the characters.” Williams and Ghouse worked with Dr Marion Kickett and her family on the ancient story about handsome young man Wundig, of the Hills people, and beautiful young woman Wilura, of the Grass people, who defy the bounds of lore and custom when they fall in love. Their punishment sees their souls banished to Wongborel and Walwalling, forever separated on Ballardong land in York. “I think I can safely say Guy and I never really saw ourselves writing major works like we do,” Williams says about their music partnership of 15 years. “Especially being in a space (His Majesty’s Theatre) where Aboriginal people were once forbidden to enter. Guy and I thought we’d just go to one performance (of Wundig Wer Wilura). We ended up going to all the shows, sitting in different parts of the theatre each time. “It’s actually not really about Guy and I at all. It’s really about honouring this beautiful language that belongs to this place and elevating our community through these stories.” Wundig Wer Wilura will be presented on the banks of the Bilya Gogulyar (Avon River) in Avon Park to start York Festival 2024’s program of events, running September 20 to 29. The evening will begin with solo dance work Djilba (Spring): A Moment In Time by dancer and choreographer Floeur Alder before the Wundig Wer Wilura concert performance, which will feature a smaller cast of 11 singers, and a live band in place of WA Symphony Orchestra. “We don’t have WASO this time, but the music is still magnificent, and Guy will be playing (guitar) in the band,” Williams says. “I’ll also be singing this time, even though I was never expecting to be in this one. It just came down to timing and everyone’s calendars, where not everyone could be there.” It means Williams will perform on stage as Wilura’s Nanna Kabaarli Kalyat, alongside her daughter Bella McGill who sings the role of Wundig’s betrothed Mandi. “Hearing her sing always makes me feel so proud,” Williams shares. “It’s going to be a challenge for me, but it’ll be good. I’m up for it.” Wundig Wer Wilura is at Avon Park, York, September 20. Tickets and York Festival 2024 program at yorkfestival.com.au.