Crying the Land to Life: A Journey into Yolngu Women’s Song Spirals SongRites
5 September 2025
In the Studio
Talks and Ideas
Join co-authors Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs and Djawandil Maymuru in conversation with Rosealee Pearson and Elizabeth Weiss for a powerful discussion on Song Spirals, the award-winning work by the Gay’wu Group of Women that received the 2020 Prime Minister's Award for Non-Fiction. Discover how this influential book has shaped Rosealee’s artistic practice and experience a rare glimpse into the deep connections between land, language, and identity.
| Date | Time |
| Friday 5 September 2025 | 5.30pm |
| Ticket | Price |
| Community | $10 |
No booking fee applies
Prices correct at the time of publication and subject to change without notice. Exact prices will be displayed with seat selection.
The only authorised ticket agency for this event is Sydney Opera House. For more information about Authorised Agencies, see the frequently asked questions below.
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9am, Wednesday 25 June 2025
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12pm, Wednesday 25 June 2025
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9am, Friday 27 June 2025
Wheelchair accessible:
There are a number of wheelchair and companion seating locations in our theatres. To book accessible seating contact Box Office:
Telephone
+61 2 9250 7777
(Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm AEST)
Email bookings@sydneyoperahouse.com
Find out more about accessibility at Sydney Opera House.
Run time
The duration of this event is approximately 60 minutes.
Event duration is a guide only and may be subject to change.
Age
Suitable for all ages.
Children aged 15 years and under must be accompanied at all times.
The Opera House is committed to the safety and wellbeing of children that visit or engage with us. Read our Child Safety Policy.
Clare Wright, award-winning historian and authorTo read Song Spirals is to change the way you see, think and feel this country.
Useful information:
Learn how Yolŋu Women protect culture through Song Spirals and stories
This special event brings together Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, and Djawandil Maymuru (co-authors of Song Spirals: The Power of Women’s Songlines by the Gay’wu Group of Women), Rosalee Pearson and Elizabeth Weiss for an in-depth conversation about Yolŋu women’s cultural leadership.
Through the lens of Song Spirals, an award-winning collaboration, the speakers will explore how songlines are a vital means of passing down ancestral knowledge, stories, and laws. With song as a vessel, Yolŋu women hold and share deep connections to Country, identity, and language. This session will uncover the collaborative process behind the book, the intergenerational wisdom that shaped it, and the strength found in women’s cultural custodianship.
This special event offers a unique and moving perspective on how story, song, and land are intimately woven together.
Presented by Sydney Opera House
Songspirals by the Gay'wu Group of Women (Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr Stubbs, Djawundil Maymuru, Kate Lloyd, Sandie Suchet-Pearson, Sarah Wright and Lara Daley).
3 – 6 September 2025
SongRites
SongRites is a new program showcasing First Nations voices through music, dance, film and conversation. Experience the living tradition of Songlines passed through generations, grounded in Country and culture.
Meet the speakers
Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr Stubbs is a proud Yolŋu woman and leader from North East Arnhem Land. She has written 7 books. Her children’s books are written in Yolŋu Matha for use in primary schools as Walking Talking texts. She plays an important role in the bilingual education movement in Arnhem Land working with Yolŋu Elders to develop both-ways learning. Her latest book Song Spirals was the joint winner for the Prime Ministers Literacy Award 2020. She is also a singer, actor, and artist most recently as narrator for Wanha! Journey to Arnhem as a part of Darwin Festival 2021. She is one of the authors of Songlines, the book that inspired this work.
Djawundil is from the Gumatj clan. Djawundil Maymuru is a co-author of books Songspirals, Welcome to My Country and Weaving Lives Together. Djawundil currently works with Bawaka Cultural Experiences, a highly successful Yolŋu owned and-run Indigenous tourism business. As a key member of the business, she works with visitors to Bawaka to share life at Bawaka with them, helping them understand and respect Yolŋu culture and land. She is a college graduate and has been on the board of Laynhapuy Homeland Association. Djawundil has also been invited to share Yolŋu knowledge at conferences and seminars in New Zealand, Canberra, Sydney and Newcastle. Djawundil is a member of an Indigenous academic collaboration with academics from Macquarie University and the University of Newcastle and is an Honorary Associate of the Department of Environment and Geography at Macquarie University.
Rosealee Pearson is a Manggalili women and interdisciplinary artist from Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land. A graduate of NAISDA Dance College she has worked across many disciplines as a dancer, director, actor, tour manager, event co-ordinator, stage manager, choreographer and cultural consultant, producer, festival coordinator. Rosealee has worked with Insite Arts, Belvoir St. Theatre, Urban Theatre Projects, Shaktidharan Sivanathan, Curious Works, Performance Space, Bells Shakespeare Company, Boomerang Festival, Sydney Festival, East Arnhem Live, Aris & Grimes. In 2021 Rosealee created Wanha! Journey to Arnhem: a live audio visual work featuring an intergenerational collective of musical talent from Arnhem Land. The show premiered at Darwin Festival in 2021 and was presented at the Sydney Opera House in 2022.
Elizabeth Weiss is Publisher and Digital Publishing Director at Allen & Unwin in Sydney. She started in book publishing with a community group in the late 1980s and cut her teeth in desktop publishing with a dot matrix printer at Horan Wall & Walker. She publishes trade non-fiction in Australian history, biography and memoir, First Nations issues, current affairs, and health. Elizabeth also manages the e-book program and digital publishing at Allen & Unwin. She currently serves on the APA’s Sustainability Working Group and has been involved in industry issues for many years.
Acknowledgements
Event Sponsor
The Sydney Opera House thanks Event Sponsor Sydney Harbour Federation Trust and Idealist donors R O Albert Family and Dr Russell & Jane Kift for their generous support of SongRites.
A very special thank you to Yuwaalaraay Wirringgaa artist Lucy Simpson for the creation of our DanceRites artwork.
Plan your visit
Venue information
Our foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.
All Sydney Opera House foyers are pram accessible, with lifts to the main and western foyers. The public lift to all foyers is accessible from the corridor near the escalators on the Lower Concourse and also in the Western Foyer via the corridor on the Ground Level (at the top of the escalators). Pram parking will be available outside the theatres in the Western Foyer.
Getting here
The Sydney Opera House Car Park, operated by Wilson Parking, is open and available to use. Wilson Parking offer discounted parking if you book ahead. Please see the Wilson Parking website for details.
Please check the Transport NSW website for the latest advice and information on travel. You can catch public transport (bus, train, ferry) to Circular Quay and enjoy a six minute walk to the Opera House.
Frequently asked questions
Ticket purchases and collection at our Box Office is discouraged and eTicket or postal delivery methods should be used, wherever possible. However, if you are collecting your tickets from the Box Office, we recommend doing this at least 60 minutes before the event starts. If you have already received your tickets, the venue doors will be open 45 minutes pre-show for Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 30 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Please take your seats as soon as you arrive.
If you are late, we will seat you as soon as we can and, where possible, in your allocated seat. However, to reduce movement in the venue as well as minimise disruption to the performance and other patrons, ticketholders may be seated in an allocated latecomer’s seat. Please be aware that some events have lock-out periods. In these cases, latecomers will be admitted at a suitable break in the performance. On occasions, this may not be until the interval, or at all where there is no interval.
Details of our right to refuse admission can be found in our General Terms and Conditions for Tickets and Events.
In accordance with our venue security procedures, Opera House security will be scanning and checking bags under the Monumental Stairs, prior to entering the building. Bags will be scanned by an x-ray machine, and staff will wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) when handling your belongings, such as gloves. Cloaking facilities will be open 60 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 60 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. However it is strongly encouraged that you travel lightly to minimise contact and queuing. Any bags larger than an A4 piece of paper will need to be checked into the Cloak Room.
The authorised agency for this event is the Sydney Opera House.
Only tickets purchased by authorised agencies should be considered reliable. If you purchase tickets from a non-authorised agency such as Ticketmaster Resale, Viagogo, Ticketbis, eBay, Gumtree, Tickets Australia or any other unauthorised seller, you risk that these tickets are fake, void or have previously been cancelled. Resale restriction applies. For more details, please refer to our General Terms and Conditions for Tickets and Attendance at Events.
Please contact Box Office on +61 2 9250 7777 as soon as possible to advise if you can no longer attend.
Foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.
The venue doors will be open 45 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 30 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances.
Please bring a credit or debit card for any on site purchases to enable contactless payment. You’re welcome to bring your own water bottle but no other food and drinks are permitted inside our venues.
The health, safety and wellbeing of everyone at the Sydney Opera House is our top priority. In line with this commitment, the Opera House became a smoke-free site in January 2022. Read our Smoke-free Environment Policy.
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