Albany 2026: Hundreds of drones illuminate Indigenous storytelling as First Lights Kinjarling lights up city

Dreamtime met drone time over the weekend as creation stories of the Great Southern’s most famous landmarks were told via the night skies in the three-night run of the First Lights Kinjarling show.

Presented by Fremantle Biennale, the show, which ran on the evenings of March 6, 7 and 8, was a telling of Menang-Noongar stories combined with dozens of drones that lit up the night sky above the Anzac Peace Park.

The Dreamtime stories of familiar landmarks were told by Albany’s Indigenous custodians, alongside a brilliant display which illuminated those tales handed down through the generations.

On the first night, Albany elder Averil Dean read a poem of her own composition, reminiscing on her time growing up as being one “of so much beauty and hearts full of love” – but also one “where I had to say ‘yes boss’.”

It was part of a welcome to country ceremony which started the proceedings and gave the event extra meaning, given Ms Dean’s call for the Albany 2026 commemorations to be inclusive and celebrated by all cultures.

The opening night featured the story of the Stirling Ranges, Kaawar — Koi Kyenunu-Ruff, and the hunting of parrots by eagles in the mountains.

Saturday’s stories encapsulated the tale of Borongur, the Porongurups, as a place of totems and rain with images of granite peaks, a spider, and the moon lighting up the Peace Park.

Closing night on Sunday was all about Mamang Koort, the area around Frenchman Bay, and drew on the south coast whale creation story.

The narratives were written and voiced by a collection of Albany elders and custodians comprising Ms Dean, Lindsay Dean, Vernice Gillies, Larry Blight, Iris Woods, and Olivia Roberts.

They were joined by artists and writers Kim Scott and Cass Lynch.

Before the event, Ms Gillies said the shows would give the wider community a better appreciation of Indigenous history and the narratives accompanying it.

“These three stories are incredible, and I think for us to actually share them is going to highlight to a lot of other people just how important it is for us to retell those stories, to pass them on, but for them to learn them as well,” she said.

Albany-born Mr Scott said it was a privilege to be involved.

“It’s very exciting to be able to tell these stories at this moment, and it’s probably only in recent decades that we’ve been given the opportunity to retrieve and rebuild a lot of these stories,” he said.

“Some families have carried them through intact, but there’s been a lot of loss, so it’s a privilege to be able to tell them now.

“I think that’s empowering and healing for us, and to be able to share them with a mainstream audience, that’s where the power is.

“I hope these shows will be an opportunity to think and talk about that cultural renewal process, and also to put a different light on some of our shared history with more of a Noongar perspective.”

The stories were necessarily short because of the drones’ battery life but the size and reactions of the crowds who flocked to the events with picnics and blankets suggest they will remain long in the memory.