Tura all aboard for journey down

Tura New Music embarked on a collaborative project with the Warmun community in the East Kimberley to convert a car wreck into a musical instrument for live performance in 2017.

Six years later, from August 24 to September 16, the arts organisation is taking the car on tour through 12 locations from Kununurra to Perth to deliver a blended performance of sound, song, dance and visual projection.

When it reaches Perth, the car-turned-instrument will be placed on permanent display at Boola Bardip Western Australian Museum.

The project began when Tura commissioned composer and sound artist Jon Rose to turn a wrecked car into a sonic sculpture called Warnarral Ngoorrngoorrool, meaning ‘old car’ in the local language Gija.

Due to the interest from the museum and the community, Tura commissioned 10 artists to add paintings to the object illustrating Indigenous stories.

Tura founder and artistic director Tos Mahoney said many people had been involved in the project, including children, seniors, elders and artists.

“We’ve been working closely with First Nations arts and a part of that process is to create agency within the programs and promote leadership by First Nations communities and people,” Mr Mahoney said.

“[The project] is a continuum with lots of side stories along the way, many of which were documented through video, audio and photographs, so we ended up accruing quite a mass of documentation.

“That led to the museum acquiring that object and all the documentation in 2020 and it was due to be freighted down from Warmun and be put on permanent display in the museum with the documentation.”

In discussion with the museum, Tura decided to develop a performance program called The Journey Down based around the car wreck and tour it all the way down the state.

This sparked a new phase of the project, as a partnership between the museum and Tura and took three years to develop.

Mr Mahoney said the museum has ‘loaned’ the sonic sculpture back for the performing tour, while the arts organisation has curated and produced the content of the performance and will deliver the performance itself.

“The museum has made a considerable contribution in terms of allowing us to continue to use the object after its acquisition, as well as the marketing support and coordinating the venues in Carnarvon and Geraldton,” Mr Mahoney said.

“The fact that the object then goes back to the museum is a fantastic outcome for the project and for the Warmun community.”

Tos Mahoney founded Tura New Music in 1987. Photo: Jess Wyld

The development of The Journey Down performance tour has enabled more valuable stories to be added to the sonic sculpture.

“A lot of historical material of artists and elders telling stories were painted on the car during that time, as well as new elements being added to the sound of the car as an instrument,” Mr Mahoney said.

“That’s combined with the stories being told projected on to a screen made specifically for the tour, which is made out of corrugated iron to fit into the rusted metal theme of the whole project.

“We then have Gija and Miriwoong performers and dancers.

“All of it comes together in a celebration of country and connection to country in this contemporary setting.”

The state government launched its Community Participation and Inclusion Program in May to sit beneath its overarching Regional Arts and Cultural Investment Program.

As part of its purpose to increase social inclusion and access to arts and culture in regional areas in Western Australia, the government distributed more than $900,000 in funding for arts organisations delivering works in the regions.

Tura was among the 12 recipients receiving a total $75,710, which was put towards supporting the production of The Journey Down.

“Tura has raised much of the funds for the tour but we’ve also been supported by state and federal government very generously, as well as by local government and private sponsors and donors,” Mr Mahoney said.

The not-for-profit arts organisation’s revenue at the end of 2022 was $1.42 million, growing from $1.23 million in 2021 and $1.04 million in 2020.

Mr Mahoney said the increasing scale of Tura’s projects were supported by increased funding from the government.

“Over the last 10 years, we’ve been self-curating projects of large scale that are multi-year in their development and multi-year in their production roll out,” he said.

“We’ve been able to access more funding and grow sponsorship and philanthropy due to this.

“The nature of having programs that are multi-year in their development, means there is a greater chance to provide community engagement and benefit in that process.”

While there was an increase in funding to support larger projects, over the past few years Tura has committed to increase its reserves through cost control.

Tura’s surplus was $56,226 in 2021 and $27,830 in 2022.

Mr Mahoney said Tura had an objective to accumulate 20 per cent of its expenses in its reserves.

“It’s currently sitting at 12 per cent and, with our strategic plan, we aim to get to 20 per cent by 2027,” he said.

“We’ve been existing in the arts sector for 35 years now and a lot of it’s been very slim as many, if not all, arts organisations are, so there’s not much room to build up reserves.”