Award-winning choreographer and performer Ghenoa Gela presents her landmark work, in a culmination of many years of creative association with Force Majeure. Now in collaboration with ILBIJERRI Theatre Company’s Amy Sole, the result is a vivid imagining of loss, and a call to action for a better future. Presented by Brisbane Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse and the University Of Queensland, GURR ERA OP (which means ‘the face of the sea’ in Meriam Mir) follows four mainland-born Torres Strait Islander women as they battle against the rising tide threatening their home, culture and identity.

Interweaving hybrid Torres Strait Islander contemporary storytelling, movement and spoken word Gela performs alongside Aba Bero, Berthalia Selina Reuben, and Taryn Beatty in this deeply affecting production. 

What would you do if you could never go home? Is your culture bound by place or by self? What happens to your identity when the physical place that holds your ancestral foundations disappears? These are some of the questions the storytellers grapple with daily as they watch their motherland, family and communities suffer the onslaught of climate change. The Torres Strait Islands are currently on the front lines, but ultimately, your home is next.