Ngarrindjeri women's Hindmarsh Island story to premiere in Adelaide

A new feature documentary about the Ngarrindjeri women and the Hindmarsh Island Bridge affair will have its global premiere on Saturday at the Adelaide Film Festival.

The film is titled Kumarangk: Sacred Women’s Business. It was written and directed by Tracey Rigney, a Ngarrindjeri/Wotjobaluk woman, according to The Guardian.

Kumarangk, known as Hindmarsh Island, was the Ngarrindjeri women’s place for birth, burial and women’s business. The documentary tells the story of the Hindmarsh Island Bridge affair and the clash between cultural rights and property developers’ ambitions.

That clash began in 1989, when developers Tom and Wendy Chapman proposed a bridge connecting mainland Goolwa to Kumarangk. One woman interviewed about the film said she hates the bridge and that it almost broke her mob.

A theatre performance related to the bridge story was also scheduled to be performed on Country in Goolwa, the ABC reported. ABC’s Late Night Live has featured the new documentary in a program about the affair ahead of its festival screening.