Mungangga Garlagula
Mungangga Garlagula is a collaboration in music, sound, and storytelling by renowned musicians and improvisers Mark Atkins and Erkki Veltheim. The work invites audiences to join Mark by the campfire and journey with him across the borderlands of day and night, dream and reality, past and future.
Together with a group of exceptional Australian musicians, Atkins and Veltheim create a shifting landscape of sound—an immersive space of memory, echo, and spirit. Through words, breath, and sound, they conjure the rustle of branches, the play of shadows, and the deep quiet of darkness beyond the fire.
Intimate and powerful, Mungangga Garlagula transforms listening into a full-body experience. It draws audiences into a shared moment of reflection and belonging, exploring the disorientation and renewal that come with homecoming.
Project History
Mark Atkins, a descendant of Western Australia’s Yamaji people and of Irish–Australian heritage, is a virtuoso didgeridoo player and storyteller. Erkki Veltheim, a Finnish–Australian artist, works across live and electronic sound, with a background in violin and viola performance.
The two have collaborated over many years through Tura’s Kimberley touring program, developing Mungangga Garlagula as a project that evolved over time and through community connection.
In October 2022, a semi-staged version titled Nightfalls was presented and filmed as part of Finding Our Voice at the UKARIA Cultural Centre in Adelaide. The performance evoked a campfire gathering, blending Atkins’s poetry with sounds and imagery inspired by the Australian landscape and its characters – travellers, storytellers, and bushmen.
An interview with Mark Atkins about this project is available from the team at Ukaria here.
Creators
Mark Atkins | Co-creator and Director
Mark Atkins is one of Australia’s leading didgeridoo players, known internationally for his collaborative work with major artists including Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant, Sinead O’Connor, Philip Glass, Ornette Coleman, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Of Yamaji and Irish–Australian heritage, Atkins combines mastery of his instrument with the roles of composer, storyteller, visual artist, and performer. He is a founding member of the Black Arm Band.
Erkki Veltheim | Co-creator
Erkki Veltheim is an Australian–Finnish composer, performer, and interdisciplinary artist. His practice bridges improvisation, electronic sound, audiovisual installation, and notated composition. He has worked with major institutions including the Adelaide Festival, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and Musica nova Helsinki, and has arranged orchestral works for Gurrumul’s posthumous album Djarimirri.
Creative Team
Mark Atkins
Co-creator and Director
Erkki Veltheim
Co-creator
Ruth Little
Dramaturge
Niklas Pajanti
Lighting Design
Emily Barrie
Design
Co-creatives and Immersive Soundbed Performers (recorded)
Genevieve Lacey
Recorders
Vanessa Tomlinson
Percussion
Stephen Magnusson
Guitar
Anthony Pateras
Piano and analogue synthesizers
Scott Tinkler
Trumpet
Erkki Veltheim
Violin
The Mungangga Garlagula Tour has been made possible with the support of the Western Australian State Government and the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.
Mungangga Garlagula was commissioned by Tura with the support of the Australian Government through Creative Australia and Ulrike Klein AO.
The development of Mungangga Garlagula was supported by Ukaria Arts Centre and Finding Our Voice Festival.
Images by Kristian Gehradte.
