Terrain: A conversation in dancefilm between self and the Australian outback landscape

This article examines the connections between embodied and somatic spirituality that are revealed in the making of the dancefilm Terrain: Dancing on Stolen Land, filmed and performed by the author on Maiawali and Karuwali Country, known as the Channel Country, in the Diamantina National Park in outback Australia. Through a phenomenological approach, the author investigates her responses to the vast Australian outback. Using the language of responsive dance captured on film and in text, she discusses place, site-specific performance, invisibility, listening and cultural mindfulness, as experienced through improvisational performances on a contested landscape. On this ancient terrain, she pays her respect and acknowledgement to the traditional owners of this unceded land, past, present and emerging.