ABSTRACT
Wagana means to dance in my paternal grandmothers Wiradjuri language, a language she was denied the ability to speak and to sing. Wagana is also the name of my dance collective, which seeks to connect and empower young Aboriginal women and girls to their First Nations heritage through the sharing of cultural dance, songs and stories. Wagana women and girls all have mixed racial heritage. Some have fair skin, some have freckles, some have brown eyes and some have blue, and whilst our outside appearances are different, our Gundyarri, our spirits are very much the same. We deeply respect our ancestors and the traditional custodians of the country we dance on and we connect with them and each other when we dance up country.
