The work
This Story’s True
From the sand hills of Port Augusta to the streets of Adelaide — a joyous, honest work of resilience, identity and connection. The documentary became the stage. The stage is touring through late 2026 and into 2027.
The work
From the sand hills of Port Augusta to the streets of Adelaide — a joyous, honest work of resilience, identity and connection. The documentary became the stage. The stage is touring through late 2026 and into 2027.
On stage
Clapsticks and songlines. Then the music of Dr Yunupingu, Paul Kelly and Archie Roach AM, and the history that still lives in families. Then a last movement that asks the room to stand and join.
Weekly Best Dance, Adelaide Fringe 2023, 2024 and 2025. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award, Adelaide Fringe 2025. Presented with Lewis Major, and in special collaboration with Aliwah Cultural Enterprise. Family audiences. About an hour.
The biggest room so far was about fifty thousand, at Adelaide Oval, live with Uncle Archie Roach. We dedicate recent seasons to the rock of the Mob — Uncle Paul Tanner — supporting, guiding and caring from the beginning.
“In our First People’s culture we have story, song and dance. The story of the Stolen Generations is the story we hear with our minds and the song enters our spirit. Dance helps us weave that story and song through our body.”
Uncle Archie Roach AM
“Life-changing… you’ll leave with a fuller heart.”
The Advertiser
The film
The short documentary Dusty Feet Mob — This Story’s True was made by Aboriginal community members in Port Augusta with Change Media, through an initiative of the South Australian Film Corporation, Country Arts SA and the City of Port Augusta.
Best Documentary, 2020 South Australian Screen Awards. Best Short Documentary, 2020 My Hero International Film Festival, Los Angeles.
Portraits · 2020
Dave Laslett made this series with the Mob in the sand hills of Davenport Community and in Adelaide, as the documentary was being formed. The pictures hold both sides of the work: family on Country, and the story of removal that the dance still carries.
Photographs by Dave Laslett. Some images depict stories of the Stolen Generations.
ABC
“You can do as much talking as you like, but through song and dance there’s just a different meaning to it.”
Wanita, Rikki-Lee and Uncle Paul speaking in an ABC piece filmed in rehearsal — language inside We Are Australian, confidence in a school hall, and a group that is not stopping.