Banj ba walert: water and possum
This is quite a big thing for Wurundjeri People to be reintroducing… the possum skin back into the public space.
— Stacie Nicholson-Piper
Produced by Stacie Nicholson-Piper, this immersive story is presented to honour Wurundjeri Elder Aunty Vicki Nicholson-Brown, exploring the Wurundjeri tradition of possum skin drums and the creation of water dance.
There is healing power in renewing another cultural practice that was interrupted, a practice embodied by our ancestors for thousands of generations. We awaken and evolve the making and playing of possum skin drums, through the hands of our Elder, Aunty Vicki, our cultural knowledge keeper and maker of her framed drum over three decades ago.
The importance of our possum drumming runs deep, it is the heartbeat of Country, it is the first sound we hear in our mother's womb, in our grandmother's womb and it is an instrument that brings people together across the globe.
We beat our drums together once again for the first time since pre-contact, and heal with our community, our ancestors, our land, our waterways, our spirit animals, our kin and our kirip through an honouring of a Wurundjeri matriarch and our life force banj, water.









Credits
Featuring
Vicki Nicholson-Brown, Stacie Nicholson-Piper, and Amerie Kelly-Terrick
Production
Artist and Director: Stacie Nicholson-Piper (Wurundjeri, Dja Dja Wurrung and Ngurai Illum-Wurrung)
Producer: Genevieve Grieves (Worimi)
Cinematographer and Editor: Rah Dakota
Camera Assistant: Rory Sinclair
Colour by: Moodlab
Colourist: CJ Dobson
Original Music and Sound Mix: Jai Pyne
Original Song 'banj ba walert: Ripley Kavara
Co-commissioned by YIRRAMBOI and Fed Square.
Filmed on the Traditional Country of the Gulidjan and Wurundjeri people in Victoria. Always was, always will be.