From our ancient past to the frantic now
Who are the women of the Riverina? Sit by the ancient Wollundry Lagoon with Wiradjuri Elder Aunty Cheryl, and listen at the Murray River/Milawa Bila with Wiradjuri artist Ruth Davys. Have a drink with Selina O’Hara at her Wagga Wagga pub in the 1870s, grab a bargain at Best and Less with refugee Roz, dance with Immi’s high school ghosts in Tarcutta Memorial Hall, and remember to bottle your fruit for the national larder during the war.
Gathered from stories written by women across the region, this powerful new work celebrates heartfelt moments, connection, beauty and comedy. Through stories, dance and original music, the show takes the audience in a leap from ancient times, through the war years, to the frantic now, against a moving visual backdrop of the mighty Tumut, Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers.
Photographs: Karen Watson
THE STORIES
OVERTURE SOUNDSCAPE by Elizabeth Jigalin and Noni Carroll
YOUR FLIGHT IS NOT DISEMBARKING by Aunty Cheryl Penrith
WUDHAGARBINYA/LISTEN by Ruth Davys
WOLLUNDRY LAGOON I by Aunty Cheryl Penrith, Claudia Haines, Melanie Reeves, Jody Roberts
THE GHOSTS OF TARCUTTA MEMORIAL HALL by Imogen Rubi
BEST AND LESS by Roz Hasan
I NEVER WORRY ABOUT FALLING by Arvis Casanova
BOTTLING FRUIT and QUEEN BEE by Lliane Clarke, from The Agricultural Gazette of NSW, April 1944.
SELINA by Lliane Clarke, from HerStory, Museum of the Riverina
WALKING THE TIGHTROPE by Marie Clear
DEAREST MA by Haya Arzidin
I AM A RIVER by Gabrielle Tozer
WOLLUNDRY LAGOON II by Aunty Cheryl Penrith, Claudia Haines, Melanie Reeves, Jody Roberts
Credits
Presented by Voices of Women with:
KXT on Broadway, 2024
Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, 2024
Tumut Montreal Community Theatre at the Falling Leaf Festival 2026
Junee Atheneum Theatre, 2026
The Pumphouse, Albury, 2026
Director: Lliane Clarke
Devised by Lliane Clarke with Aunty Cheryl Penrith, Arvis Casanova, Ruth Davys, Claudia Haines, Gabrielle Tozer, Haya Arzidin, Imogen Rubi, Jody Roberts, Marie Clear, Melanie Reeves, Roz Hasan.
Co-Producers: Lliane Clarke, Vicki Burkinshaw, Haya Arzidin, Cheryl Penrith.
Actors: Aunty Cheryl Penrith, Amelia Harding, Haya Arzidin, Jessica Saras, Lana Filies
Movement Artists: Daisy Andrews, Aleida Toprak, Sandra Collins, Katie Simpson, Emilie Seiki, Julia Irwin.
Composer and Sound Design: Elizabeth Jigalin
Video artist: Noni Carroll
Wollundry Choreography: Ella Havelka
Movement Direction: Lana Filies, Lliane Clarke
Lighting Designer and Stage Manager: Rey Baird
Stage Manager KXT: Emily Whiting
Sponsored by: Create NSW Regional Touring Program, Eastern Riverina Arts, Australian Government Regional Arts Fund, Albury City Council, Junee Council, Wagga Wagga City Council, The Carla Zampatti Foundation, The Falling Leaf Festival, Tumut.
Supported by Dr Lee-Anne Hall, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery and Suzanne Miller, KXT Broadway, for rehearsal and performance development support., Curious Rabbit, Shopfront Arts Coop.
Cultural Advisor, Co-Writer, Performer: Aunty Cheryl Penrith OAM is a Wiradjuri Elder, mentor and performer with a passion for fashion. Her focus is community development and capacity building, business and strategic planning, cultural empowerment, community health and wellbeing, involvement in decision making and the revival and reinvigoration of cultural practices such as language, possum skin cloak making workshops and women’s cultural business. Cheryl appeared in the Voices of Women feature film Entanglement, was a writer and performer in Amplify in 2022 and writer, performer in Embellishment at KXT Broadway in 2023 and co-writer for Women of the Riverina. As co-writer she won the 2026 AWGIE (Australian Writers Guild) Award for Community Theatre for ‘Women of the Riverina‘.
Director and Co-Writer: Lliane Clarke is the Artistic Director of Voices of Women which she founded in 2018, and a writer, producer, director, and author mentor. With a passion for diversity in written and spoken stories, she has directed community-based storymaking workshops across regional and metropolitan NSW and internationally and has devised collaborative community-based productions for live performance and film. She directed CLEARWAY (CORONA) in 2020, co-directed ‘Entanglement‘ feature film in 2021, which won the London Story Prize and several international film awards, and directed the award-winning short films Our Mob, Invisibility, The Dress and Sun in My Bones. She directed ‘Amplify‘ in 2022, ‘Entanglement Live‘ in 2023, ‘Embellishment‘ in 2023 at KXT Broadway Sydney, and ‘Women of the Riverina‘ at KXT Broadway and Wagga Wagga Art Gallery in 2024.
She won the Arts and Culture Medal NSW for ‘Entanglement‘ and as co-writer won the 2026 AWGIE Award for Community Theatre for ‘Women of the Riverina‘. She is a judge on the highly prestigious Nib Moran Literary Prize. She is a Member of Institute of Community Directors Australia (ICDA), Compact Alliance Multicultural NSW, Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and National Council of Women of New South Wales.
Composer and Sound Designer: Elizabeth Jigalin’s music has been premiered at festivals around the world including Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Extended Play, Darmstadt, BIFEM, Rouse Hills Psychedelia, Percussive Arts Society International Convention, Women of Noise and Australia’s Silent Film Festival. She is Composer-in-Residence for Voices of Women, including composing the film score for the award-winning Entanglement film, and in the Moorambilla Voices program in 2023 and 2024. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at Sydney Youth Orchestras, Bundanon Trust, Campbelltown Arts Centre and Bondi Pavillion. Previously, her music and ideas have been brought to life by a variety of performers and commissioners including Biennale of Sydney, Inner West Voices, Vanessa Tomlinson, Will Hansen, Jane Aubourg, Ensemble Offspring, Soundstream, Screen Dive, Lost in Books and FBI’s All the Best.
Elizabeth is the founder of creative music collective the music box project who were awarded Excellence for Experimental Music at the 2020 APRA AMCOS/AMC Art Music Awards for shallow listening. Elizabeth was the co-festival director of the music box project’s inaugural festival CUT PASTE PLAY – featuring over 25 artists from across Australia and abroad. She is the recipient of several awards including 2023 APRA/AMCOS Art Music Fund, Ars Musica Australis Scholarship, AAO Mentorship, 1st Prize Centenary of Canberra Composition Competition and 1st Prize Unbound Flute Festival competition. In 2022, Elizabeth was a finalist in the APRA Professional Development awards.
Lighting Designer and Stage Manager: Rey Baird is a Wagga Wagga-based designer and has a strong arts and design background, with a Bachelor Degree in Design for Stage and Screen at Charles Sturt University and Costume Design at AFTRS. They are a freelance designer for Reyconstructs, and have been Production Designer for the short films: “INSENTIENT” Directed by Brooke Joyner and Jordan Johnston “RUN” Directed by Brooke Joyner and Geraldine Cutler “Bookclub” Directed by Nathan Morris and Annie Cartwright “Our Dad” Directed by Nathan Morris and Keeden Hendriks and “A Singular Wave” Directed by Nathan Morris. Rey was the lighting designer for “Women of the Riverina” at KXT on Broadway and Wagga Wagga Art Gallery.
Video Artist: Noni Carroll grew up on a farm near Wagga Wagga and is a Sydney based photographer specialising in theatre, portraiture, landscape artworks and documentary photography and videography. She has photographed Voices of Women productions since 2019. A finalist in the 2018, 2020 & SEMI FINALIST 2021 HEAD ON Landscape photographic prize, semi-finalist in the 2014 and 2015 Moran Photographic Prize, Noni was runner up in the 2015 Art Gallery of NSW Instagram Australian Landscape competition. Since 2012 she has been photographic and video artist for Moorambilla Voices as well as mentoring regional youth across the 17 communities involved with Moorambilla in western NSW. She has photographed major theatrical productions and independent theatre and music concerts in Sydney and regional NSW. She relishes the opportunity to be able to capture Australia’s beautiful, diverse landscapes and people – showcasing them to a broader audience.