Gudirr Gudirr, from production company Marrugeku, will make its South Australian premiere in November at Adelaide's OzAsia Festival.

Marrugeku pursues powerful new forms of cultural knowledge and the survival, preservation and growth of Indigenous story, dance and language through the making of new intercultural performance work.

Marrugeku co-artistic director Dalisa Pigram conceived Gudirr Gudirr (video here), and is the performer and a co-choreographer for the stunning solo work.

Ms Pigram, a Yawuru and Bardi woman born and raised in Rubibi (Broome), has worked with Marrugeku since the first production Mimi and has been co-artistic director since 2008.

She said Gudirr Gudirr began with a conversation with her grandfather, Senator Patrick Dodson.

"(It) prompted me to start with the actions of a small shorebird who calls a warning to tell us when the tide is turning," she said.

"I had spoken to him about my concerns for our community and in particular the youth and the social and cultural challenges we are faced with, contributing to a region with one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

Gudirr Gudirr - Photo by Heidrun Lohr.

"This little bird, guwayi, also introduced to me by elder Doris Edgar as Gudirr Gudirr, was a perfect starting point and idea suggested by my grandfather to begin thinking about how the tide is turning metaphorically for our people."

Ms Pigram always appeared destined to become an artist. Her last name is famous in Rubibi for good reason - The Pigram Brothers, her uncles, have captured the soul of their hometown in music to such a point qoutes from their songs are immortalised in sculptures around town.

She also grew up with legendary Rubibi local Jimmy Chi's works ringing in her ears, most notably the Bran Nue Dae musical.

Ms Pigram teaches Yawuru language too as part of a team engaged by one of the Kimberley town's schools.

"Unfortunately, my parent's generation didn't get the opportunity to learn their own language through the natural passing down from generation to generation as my grandparents," she said.

"Their parents were affected by government policies of assimilation that made speaking language forbidden or frowned upon in the times of the Stolen Generations.

"I started to learn Yawuru language when joining the team with Elder and Yawuru and Karajarri specialist Doris Edgar, who was instrumental in implementing the language of her father into Broome schools' along with her daughter Dianne Appleby."

Ms Pigram said the responsibility to carry on the legacy left by generations before her was crucial for the future preservation of language and culture.

"The importance of language is that we see the world through our language which connects deeply to our culture and Country and the way we understand life," she said.

"I feel that teaching Yawuru language to children and staff at the school I work at in my home town is helping to promote understanding, acceptance and value of our cultural perspectives while also educating all about the beautiful Country they live in while passing on knowledge of my People and culture."

Like the guwayi, Gudirr Gudirr warns of a community facing industrialisation on traditional lands, loss of language, and major gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous wellbeing.

In collaboration with Belgian choreographer Koen Augustijnen and artist Vernon Ah Kee, Ms Pigram creates a dance language that captures this moment in time for her people.

Gudirr Gudirr earned an Australian Dance Award (Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance 2014) and a Green Room Award (Best Female Performer 2014).