Albany 2026: Kaarla Wirren lights up Albany amphitheatre with Noongar history and hope for the future

The outdoor amphitheatre at Albany’s Historic Whaling Station was lit up by the sounds and light of Kaarla Wirren on Saturday, as locals came to watch the one-night-only show as part of Albany 2026.

The show, a mammoth collaboration between youth theatre organisation Southern Edge Arts, Albany and Mt Barker high schools, visiting artists and Noongar elders, was a unique addition to Albany’s bicentenary program of events.

The hour-long performance told the story of the fire spirit and its significance to Noongar people, beginning thousands of years ago and representing centuries of history including the impacts of colonisation.

The ensemble cast included Southern Edge Arts performers, guest fire artists, the Mooditj Nop Indigenous dance group, and students from several local schools, and was capably directed by Rachael Colmer.

Noongar elder Carol Pettersen had the original idea of adding a cultural performance to the Albany 2026 calendar, and approached Southern Edge Arts.

What followed was a lengthy process of collaboration, and before the performance began, Ms Colmer gave a small insight into how the idea was brought from conception to final performance.

“When Aunty Carol had the idea for Kaarla Wirren, she went straight to Southern Edge Arts, the place for championing the creativity of young people in the Great Southern,” she said.

“The students have committed to seeing the process through, and their courage and bravery are to be commended, as many of the students have not experienced anything like this before.

“This is the culmination of eight months of working with and supporting young people in our community through the artistic process to produce a performance that they can be very proud of.”

The performance, narrated by Jarrad Inman and Lindsay Dean, began with the elements of wind, water, earth and fire, all represented on stage by groups of performers.

Albany Indigenous dance group Mooditch Nop stepped in to help represent the Noongar people on stage, as the audience was shown the depth of Noongar people’s connection to the elements and their country.

Colonisation was also represented, in a section of the performance called ‘curfew and chaos’, describing how colonisers clashed with Indigenous people and impacted their connection to country and culture, with the symbolic fire snubbed on stage to drive the image home.

However, the final message was the strength and persistence of Indigenous people and the hope for the future represented by those still carrying the fire of tradition, represented on stage by the full cast gathered around the fire together.