Yandha Djanbay (Go Slowly)
by Kirli Saunders
A powerful one-woman performance, Yandha Djanbay interweaves personal monologues with poems from Saunders’ acclaimed published collections, alongside song that responds to Saunders’ lived experience. This performance is an act of remembrance, resistance, and reclamation.
“...she reaches across cultures and generations in a kaleidoscope of messages and images that speak powerfully but gently of the need for action and change.”
ABOUT THE SHOW
Written, performed, and scored by award-winning Gunai artist and writer, Kirli Saunders’, Yandha Djanbay (Go Slowly) uses intimate story telling to centre love, grief, miscarriage, and responses to the referendum, making space for sorrow and rage, while honouring joy as a form of resistance and a legacy of those who came before.
In this compelling one woman show, Saunders holds space for survivors and boldly addresses the ongoing impacts of violence, racism, and sexism faced by Aboriginal people—particularly women. At its core, Yandha Djanbay offers connection—to Country, to Community, and to the resilience of Matriarchy. Taking it’s title from a Dharawal phrase meaning to go slowly, this work is both an acknowledgement of ancestral strength and a hopeful offering for the future.
Yandha Djanbay interweaves personal monologues with poems from Saunders’ acclaimed collections Eclipse (Allen & Unwin, 2025) and Returning (Magabala, 2023) and song which responds to Saunders’ lived experience. These elements are layered with ritual movement and stunning projected visuals of Country. This performance is an act of remembrance, resistance, and reclamation.
This is Saunders’ first full-length theatre production and was created in collaboration with director and dramaturg Leland Kean. The creative team includes emerging producer and Ngunnawal woman, Lillie Paton and 15 First Nations women based on Dharawal & Wodi Wodi lands. With cinematographer Tad Souden, sound designer Dom Hinton, additional sound production, Mark Chester Harding and song from Cooee - Kirli and Mark’s music project.
Yandha Djanbay was developed through Merrigong Theatre Company’s Artist Development Program, MERRIGONGX. This is Merrigong’s inaugural First Nations work developed by the company. Following its premiere to sell-out crowds and standing ovations in 2025 it has been programmed in Merrigong’s 2026 main stage season.
Ready to Tour
If you are interested in touring get in contact!
Arts on Tour
02 8038 1880
touring@artsontour.com.au
Arts on Tour is based in Redfern NSW and we respectfully acknowledge the Gadigal people as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the unceded land on which we work.
As we tour artists and productions across these vast lands, we pay our respect to all First Nations Elders, past, present and future.
We celebrate their continuing connection and contribution to culture, country and community, and thank all First Nations peoples for their wisdom in caring for the land, the sky, the rivers and the sea.